Commissioner's Directive

Date:
2012-06-13

Number:
705-2

Information Collection

Issued under the authority of the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada

Policy Bulletin 359

Policy Objectives

1. To collect all accurate, up-to-date and relevant information about the offender and the offence.

2. To assist in the assessment of the offender and the overall administration of the sentence.

Authorities

3. Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA), sections 3, 3.1, 4, 23 and 24

Application

4. This Commissioner's Directive applies to staff responsible for information collection.

Responsibilities and Procedures

5. The Regional Deputy Commissioner will ensure that effective information sharing and collection procedures are in place so that CSC is notified in a timely manner of new federal sentences and receives all relevant information from courts, jails, detention centres, Crown Attorney offices, etc.

6. The Institutional Head or District Director will ensure that:

  1. the information collection process about the offender is initiated by staff; and
  2. compliance with
  3. section 23 of the CCRA is monitored to ensure that all relevant information about the offender is collected.

7. The Assistant Warden, Interventions/Area Director and/or the coordinator of information collection will:

  1. liaise with police, courts, remand centres, provincial and territorial correctional centres, the office of the Crown Attorney, and other components of the criminal justice system to collect the relevant information;
  2. ensure that Victim Impact Statements, if available, are collected;
  3. ensure that court orders (e.g. restitution to victims or child support), if available, are obtained;
  4. collect information regarding the criminal history, including previous dismissed, stayed, or withdrawn charges, and/or convictions for significant offences and all judicial processes, (i.e., first and second trials, appeals, etc.) where appropriate to assist CSC in the management of the offender's sentence;
  5. request all police reports for both current and previous criminal activities involving violence which are recorded on the offender's Finger Print Section (FPS) sheet, including those which did not result in conviction;
  6. retrieve all prior federal files from Archives;
  7. ensure that the Parole Officer's requests for information and information received are documented;
  8. ensure that, upon receiving notification about the imposition of a federal sentence, the Case Documentation Checklist is initiated within five days of the date of notification;
  9. ensure that all information requests and receipts of information are recorded in the Case Documentation Checklist; and
  10. pursue missing information until it is either obtained or determined by written confirmation to be unavailable.

8. The Manager, Assessment and Interventions/ Manager, Intensive Intervention Strategy, and/or the Parole Officer Supervisor is responsible for identifying the need for additional information and forwarding the request to staff responsible for information collection.

Information Collection

9. Information to be collected includes:

  1. all relevant information about the offence, including the nature and gravity of the offence and the offender's degree of responsibility;
  2. all relevant information about the offender's personal history, including the offender's physical and mental health, if available, and social, economic, criminal and young-offender history;
  3. any reasons and recommendations relating to the sentencing or committal that are given or made by:
    1. the court that convicts, sentences or commits the person, and
    2. any court that hears an appeal on the conviction, sentence or committal;
  4. any reports relevant to the conviction, sentence or committal that are submitted to a court referenced above; and
  5. any other information relevant to the sentence or committal, including:
    1. existing information from the victim,
    2. the victim impact statement, and
    3. the transcript of any comments made by the sentencing judge regarding parole eligibility.

Enquires

10. Strategic Policy Division
National Headquarters
Email: Gen-NHQPolicy-Politi@csc-scc.gc.ca

Commissioner,

Original signed by

Don Head

Annex A - Cross References