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The Temporary Absence Program:
A Descriptive Analysis

This report is also available in French. Ce rapport est également disponible en français. Veuillez vous adresser à la direction de la recherche, Service Correctionnel du Canada, 340 avenue Laurier ouest, Ottawa (Ontario) K1A 0P9. Should additional copies be required they can be obtained from the Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada, 340 Laurier Ave., West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0P9.

1998 No R-66

Brian A. Grant
Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada

and

William A. Millson
Balex Research and Statistical Consulting Inc.

PREPARED FOR

Correctional Service of Canada

February 1998

This report is part of a series of 24 research/evaluation reports (listed below) that were prepared as background to the Consolidated Report of the Working Group studying the provisions and operations of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and related Consultation Paper.

The Working Group is composed of representatives from the following agencies:

  • Correctional Service Canada
  • National Parole Board
  • Correctional Investigator
  • Justice
  • Department of the Solicitor General

Research/Evaluation Reports:

  • Information about Offenders
  • Security Classification of Inmates
  • Judicial Determination
  • The Temporary Absence Program: A Descriptive Analysis
  • Personal Development Temporary Absences
  • Work Release Program: How it is used and for what purposes
  • Day Parole: effects of the CCRA (1992)
  • Case Management: Preparation for Release and Day Parole Outcome
  • Accelerated Parole Review
  • Statutory Release and Detention Provisions
  • Community Supervision Provisions
  • Provisions Relating to Victims
  • Observers at National Parole Board Hearings
  • The National Parole Board Registry of Decisions
  • CSC Human Resources
  • Administrative Segregation
  • Search, Seizure and Inmate Discipline
  • Offender Grievance System
  • Urinalysis Testing Program
  • Inmate's Input in Decision-making
  • Information to Offenders
  • Aboriginal Offenders
  • Health Services
  • Women Offenders

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The study was initiated by the Correctional Service of Canada had the National Parole Board to examine the trends in the use of the temporary absences. This report was also prepared for the five year review of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA).

Temporary absences (TAs) provide opportunities for offenders to participate in activities outside of institutions, either with or without an escort. Other countries have similar types of programs and there is evidence that temporary absences contribute to offender's reintegration.

Temporary absences serve two main functions: administration and preparation for reintegration. The administration function allows for offenders to be released to meet medical, legal and compassionate needs, but do not have preparation for reintegration as a goal. TAs used to prepare offenders for release, are referred to as reintegration TAs in the report. Reintegration TAs assist offenders in the preparation for release by providing opportunities to participate in activities in the community. These activities are part of the gradual releases process, eventually leading to either parole or statutory release.

While the overall number of offenders granted TAs has increased, this has resulted primarily from an increase in the need for medical TAs as the number of offenders in institutions has increased. Reintegration TAs have declined in use over the six year period from 1990-91 to 1995-96. More specifically, reintegration escorted temporary absences (ETAs) have declined by 22% and the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs has declined by 30%, from 3,000 to 2,000. In addition, reintegration UTAs have declined by almost half (46%) and the number of offenders granted reintegration UTAs has declined by more than half (53%) to about 800 in 1995-96. Other programs, such as work release, do not make up for the observed decline.

Results indicate that the largest decline in TAs occurred after the introduction of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA), which changed the purposes for which TAs could be granted and restricted their use for some offenders. TAs for socialization were no longer permitted after the CCRA was implemented, accounting for some of the observed decline. Personal development TAs, first permitted by the CCRA, have increased in use and are now a major component of the program, accounting for 54% of reintegration ETAs in 1995-96. The CCRA also prohibited UTAs for maximum security offenders, but this had minimal impact since only a very small number of these offenders had previously been granted UTAs.

The most dramatic declines in TAs have been for offenders in medium and maximum security institutions. ETAs from these institutions declined by over 50% during the six years of the study, while UTAs from the medium security institutions declined by 71%, with only 152 offenders in medium security institutions granted UTAs in 1995-96.

The efficiency of the TA program may have been reduced as a result of reductions in the use of community volunteers to provide escorts and the use of group ETAs. In 1990-91, approximately 23,000 reintegration ETAs were supervised by community volunteers but by 1995-96, this had decreased to about 12,000.

Regional differences in the use of temporary absences did not decline over the six years of the study, and changes observed at the national level were generally mirrored in each region. The Pacific region makes the greatest use of TAs. It has 13% of the offender population but accounts for 37% of all reintegration ETA departures and 20% of the UTAs. Although the Prairie region makes the least use of TAs for reintegration purposes, they have significantly increased the number of reintegration ETAs in the last three years. While the Atlantic and Quebec regions have proportionately fewer departures for reintegration ETAs, they provide opportunities to a larger number of different offenders.

Females are equally likely to receive reintegration ETAs and UTAs as are male offenders. Female offenders, however, are more likely to participate in individual reintegration ETAs and less likely to participate in group ETAs.

Participation in reintegration TAs is lower than expected for Aboriginal offenders. While Aboriginal offenders account for 12.5% of the offender population, they receive about 9% of reintegration ETAs and only 5% of reintegration UTAs. Aboriginal offenders, however, are more likely to be convicted of assaults and sexual offences, reducing their likelihood of release on unescorted temporary absences. Aboriginal offenders are more likely to receive compassionate TAs, accounting for about 20% of those granted.

Other findings:

  • Offenders released on both ETAs and UTAs are lower risk offenders.
  • Failure rates are very low, generally less than 1 per 1,000 releases for ETAs and 1 per 100 releases for UTAs.
  • TAs for family contact have declined and parental responsibility TAs are unused. These results are of concern since family contact may be important in the reintegration process.

Performance measurement of the TA program will need to consider the number of offenders released rather than the number of TAs granted. This is particularly important given the problems experienced in counting the number of 15 day personal development TAs and the high frequency of TAs for some offenders and in some regions.

There may be a need to reinforce the value of TAs as part of the reintegration process. This need applies to both ETAs, which are the first step in the release process and UTAs which provide for unsupervised time away from institutions. Both of these types of releases contribute to our knowledge of the offender and the likelihood of being successful when released on full parole or at the statutory release date.

Ongoing research will provide additional information on the TA program in general, and more specifically, the use of personal development TAs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The data used in this study were obtained from a number of general data bases created by Ray Belcourt. In addition, he created the temporary absence data file which served as the basis for these analyses. Chris Beal and Laura Vandette updated the tables and graphs following a re-analysis of the data. Ted Wilson and Chris Trowbridge of the National Parole Board provided comments on an earlier draft of the report. Ellie Caparelli provided editorial assistance for the English version and Cathy Delnef provided editorial review for the French version. Laura Vandette was responsible for the final editing and document layout.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The Corrections and Conditional Release Act (1992) states that one of the purposes of the Correctional Service of Canada is to assist offenders in "their reintegration into the community as law-abiding citizens through the provision of programs in penitentiaries and in the community" (CCRA, 1992, Sec. 3. 3(b)). In addition, under the principles that should guide the Correctional Service it is stated "that the protection of society be the paramount consideration in the corrections process" (CCRA, 1992, Sec 4(a)). The temporary absence program provides an opportunity to achieve the purpose of the Correctional Service while adhering to the principle of protecting society.

The temporary absence program provides opportunities for offenders in federal custody to be released into the community for relatively short periods of time, ranging from a few hours to a few days, or in special circumstances, for longer. These short periods of time out of custody provide the first opportunity for the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board to determine how an offender will behave when the restrictions of the penitentiary environment are removed. In addition, temporary absences are the first steps in a process of gradual release and reintegration which eventually lead to parole or statutory release. To ensure the protection of society, however, temporary absences most frequently occur under the supervision of a correctional officer, other Correctional Service of Canada employees or community volunteers.

In addition to providing opportunities to prepare offenders for reintegration into the community, temporary absences serve important administration purposes. In particular, temporary absences provide a means for the Correctional Service of Canada to take inmates into the community when medical services are required.

The National Parole Board and Correctional Service of Canada share responsibility for the release of offenders on temporary absences. While most escorted temporary absences are approved by the institutional head (usually the prison warden) the Corrections and Conditional Release Act required approval from the National Parole Board for many unescorted temporary absences.

The federal temporary absence program was evaluated in 1992 in a report to the Solicitor General entitled, Report of the panel appointed to review the temporary absence program for penitentiary inmates (Pepino, Pépin & Stewart, 1992), also referred to as the Pepino Inquiry. The temporary absence program was also evaluated in a research report, An analysis of temporary absences and the people who received them (Grant and Belcourt, 1992), as well as in a series of audit reports.

The current study was conducted for three reasons. The first was to respond to the requirement in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (1992) that a review of the provisions of the Act be prepared. The Act had made a number of changes to the rules governing temporary absences and the review was designed to determine if these chages had an effect on the temporary absence program. A second reason for a review at this time was to follow up on information collected in the earlier study (Grant & Belcourt, 1992) to determine what changes had occurred in the program. A third reason for the study was to address questions raised by the Office of the Correctional Investigator about the perceived decline in the number of temporary absences granted.

Purpose of the Report

The purpose of the report is to provide an overview of the temporary absence program by presenting the frequency of releases and the number of offenders granted temporary absences over a six year period. Results for the various types of temporary absences are presented separately along with the success rate. Where possible, data are presented on the offenders who were granted temporary absences. Separate analyses are presented for comparing Aboriginal and Non-aboriginal offenders and male and female offenders.

Review of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (1992)

The Corrections and Conditional Release Act (1992), Section 233 (1) requires that Parliament review the provisions and operation of the Act five years after in comes into effect. As part of this review process, the Correctional Service of Canada established a number of review projects (including this one). An analysis of Parliamentary Committee proceedings and briefings indicated that the review should address four general themes1:

  1. restoring public confidence in the corrections and conditional release system;
  2. promoting a more effective, open, accountable and professional criminal justice system;
  3. meeting the needs of offenders; and,
  4. establishing fair procedures and accountability in decision-making.

The changes to the CCRA, which affected temporary absences, were designed to address the first issue, restoring public confidence in the correctional and conditional release system. This report provides information on how the CCRA changes affected the use of temporary absences and how this impacted on the operation of the correctional system and on the offenders. The report also address the other issues by providing detailed information on the operation of the temporary absence program. This information should help others judge the quality of the program in addition to providing a means for demonstrating that the Correctional Service and the National Parole Board are accountable for its release decisions. The report also points out how the changes to the temporary absence program affected offenders and their need for effective reintegration into the community.

This report is one of a series on temporary absences. While this report provides a picture of temporary absences over the past six years, form fiscal year 1990-91 to 1995-96, a subsequent report will investigate the impact of temporary absences on other forms of conditional release (day parole, full parole, statutory release) and on the successful completion of offenders' sentences. The time period covered by the current study provides two years of data before the CCRA was implemented, and three years of data after the CCRA came into effect. The year in which the CCRA was implemented, 1992-93, may be viewed as a transitional year. Two additional reports focus on personal development temporary absences (Grant and Johnson, 1998) and work releases (Grant and Beal, 1998).

Changes to Temporary Absences

The Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) which became law in November 1992, changed the criteria for granting temporary absences, the purposes, duration and frequency of temporary absences, as well as the authorities responsible for making decisions about temporary absences. These changes were mostly for unescorted temporary absences, and were consistent with the recommendations made by the Pepino Inquiry (1992).

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) was given authority for most decisions regarding escorted temporary absences except for those offenders serving life sentences; for these cases, approval of the National Parole Board is required. CSC does not have authority to grant escorted temporary absences for medical reasons and to attend judicial proceedings or a corner's inquest.

The CCRA requires that the National Parole Board approve unescorted temporary absences for offenders serving sentences for violent and drug offences (Schedules I and II of the Act), life sentences and indeterminate sentences. However, in April 1995, the National Parole Board delegated decision making authority for unescorted temporary absences to the Correctional Service of Canada;

  • for medical reasons, for the offenders serving a life sentence, indeterminate sentences and sentences for violent and drug offences (Schedule I or II).
  • For other reasons, for offenders serving sentences for violent and drug offences (Schedule I and II) except where the offence
    1. resulted in death of serious harm to the victim, or
    2. b) is a sexual offence involving a child

The Act sets the length of time an offender may be absent and requires that temporary absences be part of a structured correctional plan. The length of temporary absences vary depending on the type of temporary absence, its purpose and the offender's security classification. While unescorted temporary absences are authorized for two or three days in most cases, the Act introduced longer unescorted temporary absences which can be for up to 15 days for personal development and community service, and up to 60 days for a specific personal development program.

1 National Parole Board, Context for the CCRA review, 1996, unpublished report
Purposes and Criteria

The CCRA specifies criteria for review of temporary absence applications and provides a list of specific purposes. Prior to the CCRA, there were four purposes for which TAs were granted (medical, compassionate, administrative and socialization). The new Act specifies six purposes for TAs, leaving medical, compassionate and administrative TAs in place and subdividing the former socialization TAs into community service, family contact and personal development for rehabilitative purposes. In addition, the Act specifically includes parental responsibilities as one of the purposes for TAs.

Eligibility

Offenders are eligible for escorted temporary absences immediately upon entry into a federal penitentiary, although absences early in the sentence would normally be for medical reasons. Eligibility for unescorted temporary absences (UTAs) for most offenders is at half the period to the parole eligibility date, or six months, whichever is greater. Offenders serving a life sentence are not eligible for UTAs until three years before their parole eligibility date, while offenders serving indeterminate sentences are eligible only after three years in custody. As a new provision, the Act states that offenders classified as maximum security are not eligible for UTAs. The eligibility criteria are summarized in Table 2-1 of Chapter 2.

Perceived Intent of the Changes

The CCRA established a set of principles to guide decision making by the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board. One of these principles was that any decision to release an offender from incarceration must consider, first and foremost, the protection of the public. The ensure the protection of society, the CCRA required all release programs be part of an overall release plan which aims to prepare the offender for full release.

Prior to the CCRA, the temporary absence program contained the general category of "socialization" as a reason for granting a TA. By eliminating this category and replacing it with more specific purposes (i.e., community service, family contact and personal development for rehabilitative purposes), it was hoped that more objectivity would be gained. The new purposes/categories for which ETAs can be granted were expected to increase the overall number of ETAs, while at the same time, the clarification of criteria were designed to reduce the disparities (number of type) in grant rates across regions.

The Act also better promotes the protection of society by restricting the use of temporary absences for high risk offenders, inmates serving mandatory life sentences, for inmates convicted of violent offences (including sex offences against children) or serious drug offences.

Previous Research

Temporary Absences in Other Jurisdictions

Other jurisdictions also operate temporary absence programs. A summary of these programs in the United States and Canada was presented by Marlette (1990). In the United States, temporary absences are referred to as furloughs and in 1989 were available in 48 states as well as in the District of Columbia and at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. All states which have furlough programs include medical and compassionate grounds as reasons for granting absences. Fourteen states have very limited programs which only allow absences for medical and compassionate reasons and for specific rehabilitation programs offered in the community. More extensive programs allow furloughs for work/study programs, family visitation and rehabilitative programs.

Length of Furlough

The length of furloughs varies considerably by state, as shown in Table 1-1. The furloughs can last for as short a period as four hours to a maximum of eighteen months. Most furloughs last between one and three days. In some states, the length of time varies by the purposes of the furlough. Educational and work releases tend to be for longer periods of time.

Table 1-1: Permitted length of furloughs in the United States
Length of Furlough Number of States
Less than 1 day 10
1 to 3 days 31
4 to 14 days 14
15 days or more 6

Most Canadian provinces and territories also have temporary absence programs. Marlette (1990) reports that the success rates in temporary absence both in Canada and the United States is around 98%.

In Great Britain, temporary absences are referred to as release on temporary license. As of 1995 (Her Majesty's Prison Service, 1995) there were three types of license available: compassionate, facility and resettlement. Compassionate license is granted to inmates to visit dying relatives, attend funerals, for medical reasons and for marriage or other religious ceremonies. This type of license may also be granted to inmates to attend to the needs of someone who they will be responsible for after release. Facility license is granted for community service projects, employment, training, educational and parenting

courses and activities which have an element of reparation. It may also be granted for official purposes such as court proceedings.

The purpose of resettlement license is to enable the prisoners to maintain family ties and links with the community, and to make arrangements for accommodation, work and training on release.

In the British Prison Service `licenses to leave' grant offenders leave of the prison, and they are therefore not normally supervised or under escort. The equivalent CSC leave is an unescorted temporary absence. Escorted absences are also possible in the British prison service. During and escorted leave, prisoners are deemed to be in legal custody and therefore escorting officers have full power to detain and physically restrain the offender if the need arises.

Reviews of the Federal Temporary Absence Program

The Report of the panel appointed to review the temporary absence program for penitentiary inmates (Pepino, Pépin and Stewart, 992) provided the first major review of the temporary absence program by an external group. The panel provided 44 recommendations designed to improve the program and to deal with the concern that high risk offenders were being released into the community. Many of the recommendations of the panel were incorporated into the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (1992), while other recommendations were addressed in operational changes.

Grant and Belcourt (1992) showed that the number of TAs had decreased for a high of 60,000 in 1986-87 to 50,000 in 1989-90, with a slight increase in the following year. Detailed analyses in this report were limited to only one year, 1990-91. The current study allows for most factors to be traced across six years and therefore provides a better view of the changing characteristics of temporary absences.

An internal CSC report (Mohlman, 1992) provides information on failed TAs. The report looked at TA failure over a 19 month period during the years 1990 and 1991. The results showed that there were 97 failures out of 82,851 temporary absence releases, for a failure rate 0.1% (or one failure for every one thousand releases). Of the failures, 13% were while under escort and the remaining 87% were while on unescorted temporary absences. About two thirds of the failures (67%) resulted in no additional charges being laid against the offender. Approximately one quarter of the failures resulted in a new charge. Two percent of the failures were still at large, and 2% had been killed by the police.

Therefore, of the failures, only about one third required additional handling by the justice system. This means that in only 4 every 10,000 releases, there was additional court or legal system activity required as a result of a temporary absence release.

Audit reports do not provide evaluations of program outcome, but they do contain references to potential problem areas. An audit conducted during 1990 (Correctional Service of Canada, 1992) pointed out a number of operational issues related to TAs, including a wide variability in the use of citizen escorts across regions, and the failure of escorting officers and parole officers to complete pose TA reports. At the time of the report, Quebec did not use any citizen escorts while in Ontario region had the highest frequency use. In most cases, the post TA reports were never completed and if they were, their quality was limited. The report notes that the outcome of a first TA influences the granting of subsequent TAs, and without good quality information on the value of the first few TAs, it is difficult to predict whether future TAs will be successful or useful for the offender.

Other Research

There have been almost no studies of temporary absence programs reported in the research literature. Exceptions to this are studies by LeClair and Guarino-Ghezzi (1991) and LeClair (1978) which investigate the effect temporary absences have on recidivism. LeClair and Guarino-Ghezzi compared predicted recidivism rates based on a period prior to the implementation of a temporary absence program with actual recidivism rates following the introduction of the program. The results of the study indicated that the existence of temporary absences had a greater effect on reducing recidivism than did early release work programs. More specifically, they showed that within the group of offenders who were granted temporary absences, about 25% would be expected to recidivate. However, the actual rate was only 16%, suggesting a very positive effect of temporary absences. The authors also monitored the temporary absence program for 11 years and showed that the positive effect of the program was maintained.

Overview

A large number of temporary absences are granted for medical treatment and other administrative functions. Therefore, for the purposes of this report, temporary absences are divided into three groups. The first of these is labelled Non-rehabilitative temporary absences. These TAs serve more operational needs rather than being designed to assist the offender with community reintegration. There are three purposes for which these TAs are granted: medical, administrative and compassionate. While compassionate TAs are granted to assist the offender maintain family contact, it is not expected that these types of TAs will have an important impact on the offender's likelihood to re-offend. The description of medical, administrative and compassionate TAs is presented in Chapter 4.

The second and third groups of TAs are defined by the presence or absence of an escort, and include all TAs granted for family contact, community service of personal development. For the purposes of this report, these TAs are described broadly as reintegration TAs. Chapter 5 describes reintegration escorted TAs and Chapter 6 describes reintegration unescorted TAs. It is believed that the TAs described in these two chapters are the most likely to produce positive effects on recidivism.

Prior to presenting the results of the study on each type of TA, the methodology for the study is presented in Chapter 2. This chapter also presents more details on the types and purposes of TAs. To set the context for the current results, historical trends in TAs over 20 year and over the most recent six years, are presented in Chapter 3.

A discussion of the implications of the results are presented in the final chapter of the report.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

Data Development

Data for the study were obtained from the Offender Management System (OMS) of the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board. The Offender Management System is an automated system which includes records for all offenders under the jurisdiction of the Correctional Service of Canada, and is designated to meet the day to day requirements of managing approximately 25,000 offenders.

The OMS is constantly updated with new records and changes to previous information, making analysis very difficult as the number of cases and case descriptions change. This problem is quite normal for an administrative data system. To eliminate the problem, specialized static data sets are created to ensure a stable data base from which to conduct research. Frequently, additional conditions are applied to the data to make it more manageable. For example, there are a small number of provincial offenders serving sentences in federal penitentiaries and these cases are excluded. One of the consequences of using a specialized data base is that the numbers presented in the report may not match official figures presented elsewhere, although the differences should not be great and should have not no effect on the conclusions reached.

Data bases created from the OMS have problems which are found in most administrative systems. For example, sometimes there are duplicate records of events, personal identifiers occasionally change making it difficult to track offenders through time, and individual data fields are not always up to date. These problems are relatively minor at the operational level because it is possible to cross check information with paper files and other information systems. For research purposes, they cause additional effort, but can generally be corrected by obtaining information from different components of the OMS. Alternatively, cases may be excluded because they lack critical information, but the number of cases eliminated is a very small percentage of the total number of cases in the study.

A specialized data set of all temporary absences (TAs) was created from the national OMS data base in April 1996. A total number of 306,950 TAs, granted to 25,392 offenders2 between 1990-91 and 1995-96 were included in the data base. Work releases were included in the temporary absence data base but were removed for separate analyses presented in Grant and Beal (1998). It is important to highlight that even though the data was retrieved from the national OMS data bases, it is only as complete as it was on the day the data base was created. Any subsequent changes, corrections or updates of TAs will not be contained in the data base.

The study also makes use of release, admissions, and offence data bases created for the study. These data bases make it possible to conduct follow up analysis and to collect information on previous criminal activity.

Analyses

The data used in the study are based on the full population of cases, not a sample. Therefore, statistical techniques which estimate population parameters are not used in these analyses. Observed differences between groups are actual differences and do not need inferential statistics to determine if they are statistically reliable. The only criteria to apply when comparing groups in the study is whether the observed differences are meaningful from a correctional point of view.

2 A total of 784 offenders were granted TAs while serving two or more separate sentences during the six year period. Offenders counts are based on offenders within one sentence. After an offender reaches the end of a sentence, a new admission will result in a new sentence. However, if new offences are committed while serving a sentence, the new time to be served is added, but it is counted as the same sentence.

Terminology

Types of Temporary Absences

There are a number of terms related to temporary absences which require explanation. In addition, short forms are frequently used throughout the report and these are presented along with the explanations. There are basically two types of temporary absences (TAs): escorted and unescorted. Table 2-1 shows the point in the sentence when each type of TA is available, the amount of time the offender may stay away from the institution and the reasons for which TAs may be granted.

Escorted temporary absences (ETAs) require that a correctional officer, other correctional staff or citizen volunteer accompany the offender while away from the institution. The risk that the offender poses to the community is used to determine the level of security escort required. In addition to the security escort, other physical restraints (handcuffs, leg restraints, etc.) might be used to ensure safety. Where the additional security measures are used, the ETA would be for medical or compassionate purposes only. ETAs are generally of very short duration, three or four hours, sometimes extending to a full day.

Unescorted temporary absences (UTAs) do not require a security escort. The offender is released into the community and is responsible for his or her own behavior. UTAs may be short, only a few hours, but may also extend to three days (plus travel time when there is long distance to the location the offender will be visiting). Generally, offenders must report to a parole office or police detachment in the area where they will be staying.

Longer UTAs are also possible. An offender may receive a 15 day temporary absence for personal development or community service. Personal development includes treatment programs and educational/job training activities. In addition, 60 day UTAs for personal development (treatment, education or training) may also be granted.

There are both group and individual TAs. Group TAs provide for an efficient use of resources since one supervising officer can be responsible for more than one offender. Group TAs are often used for attending treatment programs outside and institution such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. Individual TAs are used where community safety requires a higher level of security, and where the TA is designed to meet the needs of a single offender and would be of little value to others.

The purposes for which TAs may be granted are outlined in the CCRA (1992) and are shown in Table 2-1. Each purpose and brief explanations of their use are presented below:

  • Medical TAs: for medical treatment that is not available in the prison
  • Compassionate TAs: granted for an offender to visit a relative who is dying or to attend a funeral. Compassionate TAs may also be granted for parental responsibilities.
  • Administrative TAs: granted when an offender must attend court, or other quasi-judicial hearing, or to deal with issues associated with a future release.
  • Community service TAs: granted for participation in volunteer community projects.
  • Family contact TAs: granted to assist offenders to maintain and re-establish family ties.
  • Personal development TAs: granted to provide offenders with access to specialized programs that may not be available in institutions.

When studying TAs it is important to make a distinction between the number of TAs and the number of offenders granted TAs. The number of TAs, as reported here, is the number of departures form institutions for a TA. Some 15 day TAs will have 15 separate departures and will therefore be counted 15 times in these data. The number of offenders granted TAs is a way of counteracting this effect by only counting each individual once. On average, there are seven TA releases for each offender granted a TA.

Table 2-1: Timing, length and reasons for temporary absences
Type When Permitted Length Notes/Reasons
Escorted upon entry normally less than one day early in sentence usually for medical or compassionate reasons
  • medical
  • administrative
  • compassionate (includes parental responsibilities)
  • community service
  • family contact
  • personal development for rehabilitative purposes
Unescorted
  • not available to maximum security inmates
  • one half of time to parole eligibility (normally at one-sixth of sentence)
  • for life sentences, three years before parole eligibility
  • for indeterminate sentences, after three years of incarceration
  • not available for maximum security inmates
  • 48 hours each month for medium security inmates: maximum
  • 72 hours each month for minimum security inmates
  • medical
  • administrative
  • compassionate (includes parental responsibilities)
  • community service
  • family contact
  • personal development for rehabilitative purposes
    15 days
  • not more than 3 times per year for medium security inmates
  • not more than 4 times per year for minimum security inmates
 for personal development or community service only, and must be followed by seven days incarceration before next such absences
    60 days personal development only; may be renewed

Data Issues

During the development and analysis of the temporary absence data base, a number of issues related to the way information is recorded in the Offender Management System (OMS) were identified. In addition, analyses revealed examples which suggest that the TA program may be used inappropriately. Further detailed analyses are required, however, to determine if these are real problems, or whether they are symptomatic of the problems of recording temporary absence data. These issues are listed below, and discussion of each follows:

  • TAs and TA departures
  • TA releases and TA programs
  • Inter-regional differences
  • Lack of information on extended TAs
TAs and TA Departures

From the data, and following discussions with some institutions, it appears that each TA departure from an institution is counted as a new TA, that is, a TA permit is issued. While an offender must have a TA permit to leave an institution, one permit should be all that is needed to ensure control over the offender. One effect of the current practice is that it seriously inflates the number of TAs. For example, an offender granted a 15 day TA, leaving the institution for 15 consecutive Mondays, currently receives 15 permits, al indicating a 15 day TA.

TA Releases and TA Programs

There is no method for determining whether an individual TA is part of a TA program, that is, a group of TAs with a specific purpose. For example, a TA review board might approve three home visits for an offender over a three month period. When we look at these, they are each treated separately because we cannot identify the fact that they are linked through one approval with the goal of helping the offender reintegrate with his family.

Inter-regional Differences

Results presented later in the report show that the Pacific region has the largest number of temporary absences and that two institutions account for the majority of these releases. While it is commendable that there is a very active program in one region, the size of the observed difference suggests that either different criteria are being used or that the method of counting TAs varies across regions.

Lack of Information and Extended TAs

The CCRA (1992) permits 15 and 60 day TAs, but we have no automated system to record what these TAs are being used for. The current system does not provide a method to record how many of each of these were actually granted. That is, we know how many departures there were under each type, but not actual number of each type. Particularly problematic is the purposes for which these relatively lengthy TAs are being used for. In addition, it is not possible to determine if the 15 and 60 day periods are consecutive or spread over multiple weeks.

Consequences of Data Issues

Number of TAs per Offender

One of the consequences of these data problems arises when we try to count the number of TAs per offender. Table 2-2 shows the number of TAs granted to offenders during the course of incarceration. On average, one TA per offender was granted, with a range of one to 629 TAs. The extremely large range suggests there may be a problem, and closer examination of the numbers seems to confirm this. While approximately one quarter of the offenders who had TAs had only one, 13% were granted more than 20 TAs and 2% (441 offenders) had more than 100 TAs during one sentence.

Table 2-2: Number of TAs granted being sentence completion
Number of TAs Offenders
Number Percent
1 6079 24
2 3616 14
3 2509 10
4 1912 8
5 1425 6
6 - 10 3926 15
11 - 20 2856 11
21 - 50 2018 8
51 - 100 727 3
101 or more 369 1
Total 25 437 100
Number of TA Days

TA days indicate the number of different days on which a TA was granted. If an offender had three TAs on one day this would only count as one TA day. There are limitations on the number of unescorted temporary absences and offender may have, but the same restrictions do not apply to escorted temporary absences.

The number of days offenders were on a TA over the period of their incarceration is presented in Table 2-3. Offenders were on a TA for an average of 17 days of their sentence, with a range of 1 to 935 days. One fifth of the sample (20%) were on a TA for only one day of their sentence while 19% were on a TA for more than 200 days. Three percent of the offenders had TAs on more than 100 days during their sentence.

Table 2-3: Number of Days on a TA during sentence completion
Number of Days on a TA Offenders
Number Percent
1 5350 20
2 3142 12
3 2236 9
4 1720 7
5 1278 5
6 - 10 3782 15
11 - 20 3263 13
21 - 50 2899 11
51 - 100 1169 5
101 or more 661 3
Total 25 500 100
Multiple - Same Day TAs

An offender may receive more than one TA on the same day. If the purpose for the TA is different, or if the offender is participating in a 15 day personal development TA while receiving other TAs, then the data will indicate more than one TA on a single day. Prior to this analysis, duplicate records, two TAs with the same offender and permit number, were removed from the data base.

A total of 17,767 TAs, or about 6% of all TAs were multiple same day TAs. Almost all (98%) were one day TAs while the remaining 2% had departure and return dates spanning two or more days. Table 2-4 shows the number multiple same day TAs and the frequency of occurrence over the six year period. There were 8,654 occurrences of multiple same day TAs. The majority of TAs with the same departure and return dates occurred only twice, while the remaining 5% were for TAs granted three times or more on the same day.

Table 2-4: Number of Multiple TAs during sentence completion
Number of Multiple Same Day TAs Frequency of Occurrence
Number Percent
2 8248 95.3
3 374 4.3
4 24 0.3
5 or more 8 0.1
Total 8654 100
Consecutive TA days

Temporary absences provide opportunities for offenders to be in the community as part of the reintegration process. They are designed for short term releases whereas to other forms of release, such as day parole, provide extended releases to community residential centers (halfway houses). In order to determine if offenders were receiving extended releases through the temporary absence program, an analysis was conducted to determine the number of consecutive days an offender was absent from prison. To simplify the calculation, and to take account of weekends, it was decided that consecutive days would be defined as within three days of the previous release.

The number of consecutive TA days were then added until either the last TA granted, or a span of more than three days between TAs, was encountered.

Table 2-5 shows the number of consecutive TA days through to sentence completion. Of the 306,950 TAs in the current data base, 57% (176,073 TAs) were granted within three days of a previous TA. The average number of consecutive TA days was five, with a range of 2 to 1,463. Most (94%) were from two to 10 days, while 3% were more than 20 days. However, more than 100 offenders received consecutive TAs lasting more than 100 days. Note that an offender may appear more than once in this table. If the same offender had a consecutive TA of five days and of ten days he would appear twice in the table. The percentage are based on the total number of TAs granted within three days of the previous one.

Table 2-5: Number of consecutive TA days during sentence completion
Number of Consecutive TA Days Offenders
Number Percent
2 23 358 40
3 11 141 19
4 12 471 22
5 3173 5
6 - 10 4589 8
11 - 20 1784 3
21 - 50 852 1
51 - 100 289 1
101 or more 121 > 1
Total 57 778 100

Summary

To be able to determine the effect of legislative changes on programs, and to estimate their impacts in advance, we need to have accurate and reliable data. In addition, to being able to monitor compliance with the law and regulations, we need accurate and useful data so we can determine when regulations are being misinterpreted. The current TA data system has a number of shortcomings which create problems both for evaluating and predicting change and for monitoring TA activity.

The data presented suggest that some offenders have left institutions for more than 100 consecutive days (which should be classified as a day parole rather than a temporary absence). It also shows that some offenders have had more than 100 TAs during their sentence and have been out on more than 100 different days. Finally, the data indicate that some offenders receive three or more different TAs on the same day. It is unclear if these findings are the result of bad data in the offender management system or are truly reflective of the current use of TAs. If the findings reflect current use, they suggest that Tas are being used inappropriately in some cases and that in others (multiple TAs on the same day), they may be causing unnecessary administrative burdens. This issue is currently being addressed.

CHAPTER 3: HISTORICAL TRENDS

Twenty Year Trend

Analyzing trends over an extended period of time provides insight into how a program has been evolving. Therefore, in this section, information on the number TAs granted over a 20 year period, form 1976-1996, are presented.

Figure 3-1 shows the number of TAs from 1975-76 to 1995-96. The results display a general rise in TAs, peaking at about 60,000 in 1986-87 and, with the exception of 1990-91, a general decline to approximately 45,000 in 1993-94. In the end 1994-95 fiscal year, the number TAs increased by almost 5,000 over the previous year, but the following year, the numbers decreased to 1993-94 levels.

Figure 3-1: Number of TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Figure 3-1: Number of TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year

Figure 3-1 also shows the number of on-register offenders by fiscal year. Until 1987-88, as the offender population increased, so did the number of TAs. In fiscal year 1987-88, the number of on-register offenders continued to increase but the number of TAs began to decrease. With the exception of fiscal years 1990-91 and 1994-95, this pattern continued.

As described earlier, there are two main types of TAs that can be granted to offenders: escorted TAs (ETAs) and unescorted TAs (UTAs). During an ETA, the offender, or group of offenders, are escorted by CSC staff or community volunteers. In contrast, UTAs allow an offender to be released into the community for a short period of time without the supervision that is provided for ETAs. The proportion of ETAs and UTAs for each fiscal year is presented in Figure 3-2. The data show a general decline in the granting of UTAs relative to ETAs since 1984-85. A more detailed examination indicates that from 1988-89 to 1991-92, UTAs accounted for approximately 14% of all TAs. This percentage declined to 12% after the introduction of the CCRA in 1992-93. The rate has remained steady in the past three years.

Figure 3-2: Relative percentage of ETAs and UTAs by fiscal year
Figure 3-2: Relative percentage of ETAs and UTAs by fiscal year

TAs are classified as failures if they are suspended by the National Parole Board (NPB) or if the offender becomes unlawfully at large, detained by police, intoxicated or breaches one or more conditions of the TA release. As shown in Figure 3-3, failure rates for TAs have been well below 1%, with the highest rate being slightly more than one-half of one percent of all TAs. Fiscal year 1993-94 had the highest percentage of failure at 0.6%. The two most recent years had failure rates about double the proceeding five years (1988-89 to 1992-93).

Figure 3-3: Percentage of TA failures by fiscal year
Figure 3-3: Percentage of TA failures by fiscal year

As would be expected, failure rates vary according to the type of TA granted to offenders. To minimize risk to society, higher risk offenders are usually granted ETAs rather than UTAs, so an escort will be present while hey are in the community. As shown in Figure 3-4, when compared to UTAs, the presence of an escort greatly reduces the likelihood of a failure. Failure rates for ETAs have been very low, and with the exception of the three most recent fiscal years, have been consistently below 0.1%. In 1993-94, ETA failures rose to the highest level to date at 0.6%, but then declined to approximately 0.2% for the following two fiscal years. In contrast, the failure rates for UTAs have been fairly constant, around 1.0% for the past 15 years. However, 1994-95 had a significantly higher

rate of failure at 1.4%, but he rate decreased to 1.1% in 1995-96. For both ETAs and UTAs, the post-CCRA period has higher failure rates than that observed before the CCRA was implemented.

Figure 3-4: Percentage of TA failures by TA type and fiscal year
Figure 3-4: Percentage of TA failures by TA type and fiscal year

Regional comparison of TA use are presented in Figure 3-5. To account for variations in the size of the offenders population across regions the average number of TAs per offender (based on the on-register population for March 31 each year) is presented. The Pacific region was the most active, granting an average of 13 TAs per offender over the six year period. The Ontario region showed a decrease over the six years, but averaging seven TAs per offender between 1990-91 and 1995-96. The Quebec region averaged four TAs per offender and was the most consistent across the six fiscal years. Both the Prairie and Atlantic regions averaged five TAs per offender. The graph also shows a downward trend in TA use in all regions except Prairie region which increased their use of TAs.

Figure 3-5: Average number of TAs granted per offender by region and fiscal year
Figure 3-5: Average number of TAs granted per offender by region and fiscal year

Six Year Trend: 1990-91 to 1995-96

All TAs

A more detailed analysis of the number of TAs, and offenders granted TAs was conducted for the six fiscal years from 1990-91 to 1995-96. The six year period presents an opportunity to view the effects of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) on TAs. As described earlier, the CCRA was implemented in November 1992 and some changes directly affected the TA process. The two fiscal years of 1990-91 and 1991-92 can be compared to the three fiscal years after the CCRA came into effect (1993-94 to 1995-96). These results only provide an overview of the trends and more detailed results for escorted and unescorted TAs are presented in the chapters which follow.

Table 3-1 shows the number of TAs, the number of offenders granted TAs and the on-register population for each fiscal year from 1990-91 to 199-96. The six year average was about 48,000 TAs granted to 7,400 offenders, representing an average of almost six TAs per offender. Consistent with the data presented in Figure 3-1, the number of TAs declined over the first four fiscal years, from 52,865 in 1990-91 to 44,546 in 1993-94, while the number of offenders receiving TAs increased from 6,977 to 7,354 over the same four year period. In 1994-95, the number TAs increased to 49, 063 and were granted to 7,685 offenders. The following year, the number of TAs declined to 1993-94 levels.

Almost half of the increases in TAs in 1994-95 can be accounted for by an increase of 2,000 in the number of medical TAs. Likewise, the general increase in the number of offenders granted TAs over the six year period can be accounted for by an increase in the number of offenders granted medical TAs. That is, while there was an increase of about 700 offenders granted TAs, there was an increase of 1,151 offenders granted medical TAs. Therefore, the observed increase in offenders granted TAs is not the result of an increase in the use of TAs for rehabilitation purposes, but is the result of a need for more medical TAs as the offenders population increased. Table 3-1 also presents to on-register offender population which shows a steady increase over the six year period.

Table 3-1: Number of TAs, offenders granted TAs and on-register offender by fiscal year
Fiscal Year TAs TA Offenders On-register Offenders
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 52 865 - 6977 - 11 961 -
1991-92 48 877 -7.5 7162 +2.7 12 719 +6.3
1992-93 45 889 -6.1 7442 +3.9 12 877 +1.2
1993-94 44 546 +2.9 7354 -1.2 13 863 +7.7
1994-95 49 063 +10.1 7685 +4.5 14 539 +4.9
1995-96 45 101 -8.1 7515 -2.2 14 459 -0.6
Total 286 341   44 135   80 418  
Six Year Avg. 47 724   7356   13 403  

Figure 3-6 compares the trends in the on-register offender population to the trends of the information presented in Table 3-1. The trend in the number of TAs was inconsistent with the trend in the number of on-register offenders for each fiscal year. While a generl decline in the number of TAs occurred over the first four years, the offender population showed a steady increase. The trend in the number of offenders receiving TAs was relatively consistent with the on-register population between 1990-91 and 1993-94. However, between 1994-95 and 1995-96, the number of offenders granted TAs declined from 7,685 to 7,515, or about 2% while the on-register population decreased from 14,539 to 14,459, representing a shift of only 0.6%.

Figure 3-6: Number of TAs, offenders granted TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Figure 3-6: Number of TAs, offenders granted TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Regional Comparisons

The number of TAs, the number of offenders granted TAs and the number of on-register offenders for each region and fiscal year is presented in Table 3-2. The Ontario region had the highest average number of TAs (14,160) per year over the six year period, while the Atlantic region had the lowest (4,011). The Quebec region had about 4,000 fewer TAs per year than Ontario region, but it reported the highest average number of offenders granted TAs (2,201), slightly higher than the Ontario region (2,039). However, regional differences need to be considered in light of offender population in each region.

The distribution of TAs in each region was generally different from the distribution of offenders in each region. The Pacific region granted about 29% of all TAs between 1990-91 and 1995-96, even though they housed only 14% of the on-register population.

However, in the Prairie region, where 22% of the on-register offender were incarcerated, only 13% of TAs were granted. The distribution of offenders granted TAs and the distribution of on-register offenders were generally similar across regions. The Prairie region had the greatest difference, accounting for only 17% of offenders granted TAs, but 22% of the on-register population.

Another way of looking at the results is to show the percentage of on-register offenders granted TAs for each region and fiscal year, as shown in Figure 3-7. For example, in 1990-91, the Pacific region had an on-register population of 1,633 offenders on March 31 and granted TAs to 1,109 offenders, representing 68% of on-register offenders who received TAs declined in the Pacific, Ontario and Atlantic regions over the six fiscal years. The Pacific region decreased from 68% of on-register offenders granted TAs in 1990-91 to only 51% in 1995-96. The largest decrease occurred in the Atlantic reigon, where the percentage of on-register offenders receiving TAs declined from 79% in 1992-93 to 58% in 1994-95. The Prairie region was the most consistent across the years, while the Quebec region actually showed a general increase, from a low of 55% in 1991-92 to a high of 64% in 1994-95.

Table 3-2: Number of TAs, offenders granted TAs and on-register offenders by region and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
TAs Offs1 On-reg2 TAs Offs On-reg TAs Offs On-reg TAs Offs On-reg TAs Offs On-reg
1990-91 16 898 1109 1633 5289 1125 2641 17 309 2021 3455 9675 2033 3229 3694 719 1003
1991-92 14 918 1054 1678 5119 1170 2672 15 853 2170 3700 9090 1951 3549 3897 837 1120
1992-93 13 081 1078 1650 4771 1218 2775 13 856 2134 3724 9950 2107 3554 4231 933 1174
1993-94 13 304 1073 1823 6232 1213 3087 12 678 2007 3865 8535 2245 3747 3797 849 1341
1994-95 14 303 1060 1984 7080 1295 3325 12 286 2027 3875 10 709 2492 3891 4684 851 1464
1995-96 10 293 1017 1993 7915 1441 3360 12 977 1874 3852 10 156 2375 3804 3760 852 1450
Total 82 797 6391 10 761 36 406 7462 17 860 84 959 12 333 22 471 58 115 13 203 21 774 24 063 5041 7552
Six Year Avg. 13 800 1065 1794 6068 1244 2978 14 160 2039 3745 9853 2201 3629 4011 840 1259
(%)3 (29%) (14%) (14%) (13%) (17%) (22%) (30%) (28%) (28%) (21%) (30%) (27%) (8%) (11%) (9%)
1 Number of offenders granted TAs.

2 Number of on-register offenders.

3 The percentage is the percentage across all regions. For example the 29% of TAs in the first column means 29% of all the TAs were in the Pacific region and the 14% means 14% of all offenders granted TAs were in the Pacific region.
Figure 3-7: Percentage of on-register offenders granted TAs by region and fiscal year
Figure 3-7: Percentage of on-register offenders granted TAs by region and fiscal year
Purposes

The number of TAs by purpose and fiscal year is presented in Table 3-3. The purposes for TAs are grouped into four categories: medical, administrative, compassionate, and reintegration. The reintegration grouping consists of TAs for the purpose of socialization, parental responsibility, community service, family contact and personal development (15 and 60 day). The largest number of TAs were for reintegration, representing 68% of all TAs. Only 2% of all TAs were granted for compassionate purposes. The number of medical TAs showed the largest increase across the six fiscal years while the number of reintegration TAs declined. Between 1990-91 and 1995-96, the number of reintegration TAs decreased from 39,003 to 28,639, a reduction of approximately 27%. A more detailed analysis of each TA purpose is presented in the following chapters.

Table 3-3: Number of TAs by TA purpose and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Medical Administrative Compassionate Reintegration
Number % change Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 11 171 - 1648 - 497 - 39 003 -
1991-92 11 329 -3.3 2408 +46.1 534 +7.4 34 606 -11.3
1992-93 12 492 +10.3 1407 -41.6 1109 +107.7 30 881 -10.8
1993-94 12 762 +2.2 1720 +22.2 773 -30.3 29 291 -26.0
1994-95 14 769 +15.7 1173 -31.8 820 +6.1 32 301 -27.5
1995-96 14 358 -2.8 1357 +15.7 747 -8.9 28 639 -14.8
Total 77 427   9713   4480   194 721  
Average 12 905   1619   747   32 454  
(%) (27%)   (3%)   (2%)   (68%)  

Changes from the pre-CCRA period (1990-91 to 1991-92) to the post-CCRA period (1993-94 to 1995-96) are illustrated in Figure 3-8. The percentage of reintegration TAs dropped form 72% to 66% of all TAs after the CCRA. The personal development TA, introduced by the CCRA, accounted for 20% of all TAs. The other difference between the TAs granted before the CCRA and those granted after the CCRA is the number of medical TAs, rising from 23% to 29% of all TAs. Since the CCRA did not target medical TAs, the increase was the result of the increasing population and administrative changes in the delivery of medical services at the institutional level. This has resulted in inflating the TA numbers and caution must be used in interpreting the observed increases.

Figure 3-8: Average percentage of TAs by purpose for pre- and post-CCRA fiscal years

Pre-CCRA: 1990-91 to 1991-92

Figure 3-8: Average percentage of TAs by purpose for pre- and post-CCRA fiscal years

Post-CCRA: 1993-94 to 1995-96

Figure 3-8: Average percentage of TAs by purpose for pre- and post-CCRA fiscal years

Summary

The fluctuations in the six year trends of TAs were, for the most part, inconsistent with the relatively steady increase in the on-register offender population. Changes in the latter would have been expected to produce similar effects on the number of TAs, resulting in a general increase in TAs and in the number of offenders granted TAs. However, the data show that TAs actually declined over the last six years. An opposite pattern emerged for the number of offenders granted TAs, showing a general increase for most fiscal years. In general, the trend in the number of TA offenders was found to be more consistent with the on-register population, rather than the number of TAs granted but this effect is attributed to the rise in the use of medical TAs, not TAs for rehabilitation purposes.

A wider degree of variation was found in the number of TAs and the number of offenders granted TAs in relation to the on-register population for each region. The Pacific region was very active, accounting for a disproportionate number of TAs compared to their percentage of incarcerated offenders. The number of offenders who received TAs, however, was more similar to the distribution of the on-register population across each of the five regions.

Personal development TAs, first introduced with the CCRA, appear to have become a popular choice for TA releases. They now account for approximately 20% of all TAs. Comparisons pre- and post-CCRA suggest that the use of UTAs has declined. The post-CCRA period is characterized by a decline in the use of UTAs, an increase in TA failure rates, a decrease in TA use in most regions except Quebec and an increase in the use of medical TAs. While changes in the number of medical TAs is not the result of the CCRA, the Act appears to have influenced the use of other types of TAs. Further analyses of these changes are presented in the following chapters.

CHAPTER 4: NON-REHABILITATIVE TEMPORARY ABSENCES

Medical, Administrative and Compassionate TAs

There are three main types of non-rehabilitative temporary absences: medical, administrative and compassionate. As noted in the Introduction, these TAs are granted for needs other than for the rehabilitation and reintegration of the offender. Immediate circumstances normally dictate when and how often non-rehabilitative TAs are granted. For example, an offender is granted a medical TA to address a need for medical attention. Similarly, compassionate TAs are granted because of an illness or death in the offender's family. While it may help the offender to maintain family ties and assist in the grieving process, the main goal of a compassionate TA is to fulfill the offender's immediate, external need. Lastly, administrative TAs allow offenders to attend court hearings or prepare for upcoming releases.

Results for each type of TA are presented separately in the following sections. Additional analyses comparing male and females, and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders are presented for compassionate TAs.

Medical TAs

Medical TAs are granted to address emergency treatment needs as well as routine medical needs that cannot be met within the institution. Medical needs addressed by TAs include everything from medical tests and dental care to major surgery and emergency treatment after traumatic injuries. This section presents the data on medical TAs that were granted between 1990-91 and 1995-96.

Table 4-1 shows the number of TAs granted for medical purposes, the number of offenders who received a medical TA and the number of on-register offenders for each fiscal year. The average number of medical TAs for each fiscal year was 12,905, representing an average of 26% of all TAs granted each year. The number of medical Tas has shown a general increase, rising from a low of 11,329 in 1991-92 to a high of 14,769 in 1994-95. The trend is similar for the number of offenders granted medical TAs, increasing from 4,477 in 1990-91 to 5,691 in 1994-95. The greatest increase from one year to the next occurred between 1993-94 and 1994-95, when the number of medical TAs increased by approximately 16% and the number of offenders granted medical TAs increased by almost 9%. As expected, fluctuations in the number of offenders granted medical TA were consistent with changes in the on-register population.

Table 4-1: Number of medical TAs, offenders granted medical TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Medical TAs Offenders On-register Offenders
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 11 717 - 4477 - 11 961 -
1991-92 11 329 -3.3 4513 +0.8 12 719 +6.3
1992-93 12 492 +10.3 5003 +10.9 12 877 +1.2
1993-94 12 762 +2.2 5220 +4.3 13 863 +7.7
1994-95 14 769 +15.7 5691 +9.0 14 539 +4.9
1995-96 14 358 -2.8 5628 -1.1 14 459 -0.6
Total 77 427   30 532   80 418  
Six Year Avg. 12 905   5089   13 403  

The number of medical TAs for each region and fiscal year is presented in Table 4-2. The Ontario region reported the highest average number of medical TAs at 3,655, while Quebec had a slightly smaller number (3,644). With the exception of the Pacific region, most regions showed a general increase in the number of medical TAs across the six year period, consistent with the national trend. In comparison to the distribution of on-register offenders (as presented in Table 3-2), the 19% of medical TAs for the Pacific region was higher than expected given that it incarcerates only 14% of the offender population. In contrast, the 16% of medical TAs for the Prairie region may be considered low, since it housed 22% of all incarcerated offender between 1990-91 and 1995-96.

These differences probably reflect differences in the medical policies and institutional resources in the regions.

Table 4-2: Number of medical TAs by region and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
1990-91 2538 1879 3301 3117 882
1991-92 2315 1768 3252 3142 852
1992-93 2508 2128 3252 3342 1262
1993-94 2387 2036 3576 3606 1157
1994-95 2483 2302 4275 4606 1102
1995-96 2200 2662 4273 4052 1171
Total 14 431 12 775 21 929 21 865 6426
Six Year Avg. 2405 2129 3655 3644 1071
(%) (19%) (16%) (28%) (28%) (8%)

The number of medical ETAs and UTAs for each fiscal year is presented in Table 4-3. Almost all medical TAs were escorted with only about 1% unescorted. The number of medical ETAs has shown a general increase from 10,988 in 1991-92 to 14,708 in 1994-95. The number of medical UTAs has decreased consistently, from a high of 341 in 1991-92 to a low of 61 I 1994-95.

Table 4-3: Number of medical ETAs and UTAs and failure rate by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Medical ETAs Medical UTAs All Medical TAs
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 11 499 - 218 - 7 0.06
1991-92 10 988 -4.4 341 +56.4 4 0.04
1992-93 12 302 +12.0 190 -44.3 6 0.05
1993-94 12 692 +3.2 70 -63.2 37 0.29
1994-95 14 708 +15.9 61 -12.9 57 0.39
1995-96 14 274 -3.0 84 +37.7 42 0.29
Total 76 463   964   153  
Six Year Avg. 12 744   161   26 0.19

The number of medical ETA and UTA failures is also presented in Table 4-3. The most recent three fiscal years presented a substantial increase in the failure rate for all medical TAs, compared to the number of failures between 1990-91 and 1992-93. There is no obvious explanation for the increase in failure rates given that UTAs, which have a slightly higher failure rate, have declined in use, as have the use of community volunteers. In general, the rates of failure for all medical TAs were quite low, with the highest percentage over the six fiscal years representing about one third of one percent (0.39%).

Administrative TAs

Administrative TAs are granted to serve administrative needs for the offender or CSC. Examples of administrative TAs include visits to outside social service agencies to prepare for release or on-site contacts with half way houses or community correctional centers to arrange for upcoming transfers. This section presents the data on administrative TAs that were granted between 1990-91 and 1995-96.

Table 4-4 shows the number of administrative TAs, offenders granted administrative TAs and the on-register offenders for each fiscal year. Over the six year period, at total of 9,713 administrative TAs, representing about 3% of all TAs, were granted to 3,931 offenders. The number of administrative TAs has fluctuated to a great extent, from a high of 2,408 in 1991-92 to a low of 1,173 in 1994-95, averaging about 1,619 over the six year period. The number of offenders receiving administrative TAs however, has shown a general decline from 735 in 1990-91 to 461 in 1995-96. The 25% decrease between 1993-94 and 1994-95 was especially inconsistent with the offender population which rose by almost 5% in 1994-95 and remained relatively unchanged for the following fiscal year.

Table 4-4: Number of administrative TAs, offenders granted administrative TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Administrative TAs Administrative TA Offenders On-register Offenders
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 1648 - 735 - 11 961 -
1991-92 2408 +46.1 717 -2.4 12 719 +6.3
1992-93 1407 -41.6 725 +1.1 12 877 +1.2
1993-94 1720 +22.2 740 +2.1 13 863 +7.7
1994-95 1173 -31.8 553 -25.3 14 539 +4.9
1995-96 1357 +15.7 461 -16.6 14 459 -0.6
Total 9713   3931   80 418  
Six Year Avg. 1619   655   13 403  

The number of administrative TAs for each region and fiscal year is presented in Table 4-5. The Ontario region reported the highest average number of administrative TAs at 553, while the Atlantic region had the lowest at 155. A general pattern of increases and decreases form one year to the next appeared for most of the regions without any consistent trend. The Ontario and Quebec regions showed sizable increases in Administrative TAs between 1990-91 and 1991-92, with the Ontario region decreasing significantly the following fiscal year. The most noticeable increase occurred in the Atlantic region between 1992-93 and 1993-94, where the number of administrative TAs rose from 86 to 510. No obvious explanation for the large increase could be found, and the numbers returned to normal levels the following years.

The distribution of administrative TAs across each region was also compared to the proportion of on-register offenders (as presented in Table 3-2). The Prairie and Ontario regions accounted for a higher proportion of administrative TAs than expected, at 29% and 34% respectively, given that their percentages of on-register offenders were only 22% and 28%, respectively. The Quebec region was the opposite, granting only 15% of administrative TAs while it housed 27% of the on-register population.

Table 4-5: Number of administrative TAs by region and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
1990-91 154 468 743 217 66
1991-92 142 549 1233 449 35
1992-93 217 420 311 373 86
1993-94 370 402 251 187 510
1994-95 248 315 390 92 128
1995-96 118 633 391 108 107
Total 1249 2787 3319 1426 932
Six Year Avg. 208 465 553 238 155
(%) (13%) (29%) (34%) (15%) (10%)

Table 4-5 shows the number of administrative ETAs and UTAs by fiscal year. The majority of administrative TAs were escorted, with only 11% unescorted. The number of administrative ETAs peaked in 1991-92 at 2,288, and fell to a low of 916 in 1994-95, averaging 1,445 over the six year period. The average number of administrative UTAs per year was 174, showing a general increase from a low of 51 in 1992-93 to a high of 339 in 1995-96.

Table 4-6: Number of administrative ETAs and UTAs by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Administrative ETAs Administrative UTAs All Administrative TAs
Number % change Number % change Failure % Failure
1990-91 1540 - 108 - 1 0.06
1991-92 2288 +48.6 120 +11.1 3 0.12
1992-93 1356 -40.7 51 -57.5 3 0.21
1993-94 1550 +14.3 170 +233.3 15 0.87
1994-95 916 -40.9 257 +51.2 3 0.26
1995-96 1018 +11.1 339 +31.9 7 0.52
Total 8668   1045   32  
Six Year Avg. 1445   174   5 0.34
(%) 89.24   10.76      

The number of administrative ETA and UTA failures for each fiscal year is also presented in Table 4-6. The failure rates for both administrative ETAs and UTAs were very low, averaging 0.25% and 0.85% respectively, during the six year period. The total number of failures for all administrative TAs was only 32, representing an average failure rate of 0.34%. The fiscal year 1993-94 reported the highest number of failures for both ETAs and UTAs, although the average failure rate was still below one percent at 0.87%.

Compassionate TAs

For the purposes of this review, compassionate TAs are viewed as non-rehabilitative since they are granted to allow offenders to visit seriously ill family members or to attend funerals. Although the effect of compassionate TAs may indeed serve a rehabilitative role, it is not their primary intent. This section presents the data on compassionate TAs that were granted between 1990-91 and 1995-96.

The number of compassionate TAs, offenders granted compassionate TAs and on-register offenders is presented in Table 4-7. Both the number of compassionate TAs and the number of offenders who were granted them increased during the first three fiscal years. The largest increase occurred between 1991-92 and 1992-93, when the number of compassionate TAs increased from 534 to 1,109, representing an increase of almost 108%. During the same time frame, the number of offenders granted compassionate TAs rose from 467 to 640, an increase of 27%. From 1992-93 to 1993-94, the number of compassionate TAs decreased by about 30%, while the number of offenders granted compassionate TAs declined by only 2%. From 1993-94 to 1995-96 the number of compassionate TAs and TA offenders remained relatively constant.

Table 4-7: Number of compassionate TAs, offender granted compassionate TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Administrative ETAs Administrative UTAs All Administrative TAs
Number % change Number % change Failure % Failure
1990-91 1540 - 108 - 1 0.06
1991-92 2288 +48.6 120 +11.1 3 0.12
1992-93 1356 -40.7 51 -57.5 3 0.21
1993-94 1550 +14.3 170 +233.3 15 0.87
1994-95 916 -40.9 257 +51.2 3 0.26
1995-96 1018 +11.1 339 +31.9 7 0.52
Total 8668   1045   32  
Six Year Avg. 1445   174   5 0.34
(%) 89.24   10.76      

The number of compassionate TAs are presneted in comparison to the on-register offender population in Figure 4-1. Compared to the previous fiscal year, the 1992-93 increase in the percentage of compassionate TAs and offenders receiving them was noticeably higher then the 1% rise in the number of on-register offenders. Most of this one year increase occurred in the Quebec region, however, where compassionate TAs increased by 424, form 119 to 543. The following year, the numbers returned to an average level of 232 compassionate TAs in Quebec; a number consistent with the trends in other regions. Excluding 1992-93 form the analysis, the results show a steady increase in the number of compassionate TAs and offenders receiving these TAs, except for last year (1995-96) when there was a decline. This is the expected pattern since compassionate TAs should vary in relation to the inmate population.

Figure 4-1: Number of compassionate TAs, offenders granted compassionate TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Figure 4-1: Number of compassionate TAs, offenders granted compassionate TAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year

Table 4-8 shows the number of compassionate TAs for each region and fiscal year. Most of the regions followed the national trend of general increases in the first three years followed by a relatively stable number for the remaining three years. The Quebec region reported the largest increase between 1991-92 and 1992-93, rising from 119 to 543 compassionate TAs. The Pacific region had the most consistent number across the six fiscal years, ranging from 82 in 1994-95 to 70 in 1995-96. In comparison to the on-register population for each region (as presented in Table 3-2), the Ontario region had a lower than expected number of compassionate TAs accounting for 23% of all compassionate TAs, while being responsible for 28% of federal offenders. In contrast, the Quebec region granted 32% of the compassionate TAs, but housed only 27% of the on-register population.

Table 4-8: Number of compassionate TAs by region and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
1990-91 80 107 126 129 55
1991-92 76 138 154 119 47
1992-93 74 186 239 543 67
1993-94 82 200 176 232 83
1994-95 82 206 174 241 117
1995-96 70 207 159 182 129
Total 464 1044 1028 1446 498
Six Year Avg. 77 174 171 241 83
(%) (10%) (23%) (23%) (32%) (11%)

Almost all compassionate TAs were escorted (92%) while 8% were unescorted. Table 4-9 shows the number of compassionate ETAs and UTAs for each fiscal year. An increase in both ETAs and UTAs occurred between 1990-91 and 1992-93, although during the remaining three fiscal years, the number of ETAs was fairly constant while the number of UTAs decreased each year. For example, between 1993-94 and 1994-95, the number of ETAs increased by almost 8% while the number of UTAs decreased by over 24%.

Table 4-9: Number of compassionate ETAs and UTAs by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Compassionate ETAs Compassionate UTAs All Compassionate TAs
Number % change Number % change Failure % Failure
1990-91 413 - 84 - 1 0.20
1991-92 460 +11.4 74 -11.9 3 0.56
1992-93 1006 +118.7 103 +39.2 1 0.09
1993-94 724 -28.0 49 -52.4 5 0.65
1994-95 783 +8.1 37 -24.5 4 0.49
1995-96 725 -7.4 22 -40.5 3 0.40
Total 4111   369   17  
Six Year Avg. 685   61.5   2.8 0.38

Similar to the failure rates for medical and administrative TAs, failures for compassionate TAs, failures for compassionate TAs were quite low, averaging only 0.38% over the six year period, as shown in Table 4-9. While 16 compassionate ETAs (out of 4,111 releases) were recorded as failures during the six fiscal years, only one compassionate UTA failed (out of 369 releases). The highest number of failures for all compassionate TAs occurred in 1993-94; a failure rate of only two thirds of one percent.

A compassionate TA can be considered the most unique of all the non-rehabilitative TA types, due to the personal impact it can have on an offender. For example, denying a request for an administrative TA is unlikely to affect an offender to the same degree as denying a request for a compassionate TA. Because of the importance of compassionate TAs, a comparative analysis of the gender and race of offenders who received them was conducted.

Gender

Table 4-10 presents the number of compassionate TAs for males and females relative to their portion of the on-register offender population. Over the six year period, 97% of all compassionate TAs were granted to male offenders and 3% were granted to female offenders. Compared to the on-register population, the proportion of males and females who were granted compassionate TAs was about the same as their representation in the offender population. During the six years, females accounted for about 2% of the offender population.

Table 4-10: Number of offenders granted compassionate TAs and on-register offenders by gender and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Offenders Granted Compassionate TAs On-register Offenders
Male Female Male Female
1990-91 405 (97%) 11 (3%) 11 688 (98%) 273 (2%)
1991-92 426 (98%) 7 (2%) 12 452 (98%) 267 (2%)
1992-93 578 (98%) 10 (2%) 12 605 (98%) 272 (2%)
1993-94 517 (97%) 14 (3%) 13 592 (98%) 272 (2%)
1994-95 575 (98%) 12 (2%) 12 244 (98%) 295 (2%)
1995-96 494 (97%) 16 (3%) 14 161 (98%) 298 (2%)
Total 2995 (98%) 12 (3%) 13 124 (98%) 279 (2%)
Six Year Avg. 499 12 13 124 279
(%) (97%) (3%) (98%) (2%)
Race

The number of compassionate TAs for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders compared to the on-register offender population is presented in Table 4-11. About four fifths of compassionate TAs (82%) were granted to non-Aboriginal offenders and 18% were granted to Aboriginal offenders. The proportion of Aboriginal offenders receiving compassionate TAs has been relatively constant, averaging between 18% and 21% for each year, except in 1992-93 when the percentage dropped to 13%. In comparison, Aboriginal offenders accounted for 12% to 13% of the on-register (inmate) population. These results suggest that Aboriginal offenders are more likely to receive compassionate TAs than non-Aboriginal offenders.

Table 4-11: Number of offender granted compassionate TAs and on-register offenders by race and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Offenders Granted Compassionate TAs On-register Offenders
Non-Aboriginal Aboriginal Non-Aboriginal Aboriginal
1990-91 340 (82%) 76 (18%) 10 564 (88%) 1397 (12%)
1991-92 350 (81%) 83 (19%) 11 285 (89%) 1434 (11%)
1992-93 509 (87%) 79 (13%) 11 278 (88%) 1599 (12%)
1993-94 431 (81%) 100 (19%) 12 020 (87%) 1843 (13%)
1994-95 469 (80%) 118 (20%) 12 714 (87%) 1825 (13%)
1995-96 402 (79%) 107 (21%) 12 539 (87%) 1920 (13%)
Total 2501 (82%) 563 (18%) 70 400 (88%) 10 018 (12%)
Six Year Avg. 417 94 11 733 1670
(%) (82%) (18%) (88%) (12%)

Summary

Medical TAs increased most consistently, increasing as the on-register population increased, and showing a general increase over the six fiscal years. The upward trend was the result of an increase in medical ETAs; medical UTAs declined significantly between 1990-91 and 1995-96 and their use has practically disappeared. Interestingly, there was an increase in medical TA failures in the last three years covered by the study. However, this needs to be viewed in the context of the extremely low failure rate of less than one half of one percent for these TAs.

The number of administrative TAs over the six year period fluctuated widely, both nationally and regionally, showing no clear trend from one year to the next. In contrast to the general rise in the on-register offender population, however, the number of offenders granted administrative TAs declined between 1990-91 and 1996-96. There was a general increase in the number of UTAs, over the last four fiscal years. Failures for administrative TAs were also quite low.

The trend in the number of compassionate TAs showed a general increase over the six years of the study with the exception of 1992-93 when Quebec had a dramatic increase. This increase dropped to more normal levels the following year. When examined according to TA type, compassionate ETAs were more frequent after 199192, while compassionate UTAs declined significantly to only 24 in 1995-96. The failure rates for both types of compassionate TAs were very low, with only one compassionate UTA failure and 16 compassionate ETA failures over the six year period. A more detailed analysis of offenders granted compassionate TAs by gender and race showed no gender differences. It did show, however, an increased likelihood of Aboriginal offenders being granted a compassionate TA.

CHAPTER 5: ESCORTED REINTEGRATION TEMPORARY ABSENCES

The term reintegration TA is not part of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, nor is it a term normally used within the Correctional Service of Canada. For the purposes of this report, however, a term was needed which would describe the TAs which are granted for personal development, parental responsibilities, family contact and community service. The purpose of these TAs is to assist the offender in the reintegration process, and thus, the general label, reintegration TA is used throughout this report. Reintegratin TAs are different from the ones which serve more immediate personal and administrative needs such as the medical, administrative and compassionate TAs described in the preceding chapter.

The chapter is divided into five sections. The first section presents the overall numbers of all reintegration ETAs. Reintegration ETAs may be supervised in a group or individually, and therefore, the second section of the chapter presents information on group ETAs, while the third sections presents information on individual ETAs. The fourth section provides a description of the offenders who receive reintegration ETAs. Results are summarized and discussed in the final section of the chapter. Appendix A presents the number of group and individual reintegration ETAs for each institution. These results are presented for information purposes and are not discussed in the body of the report.

Overall Number of Reintegration ETAs

A total of 165,289 reintegration ETAs were granted to 15,680 offender over the six year study period. The number of reintegration ETAs represents about 60% of all the TAs granted. As described in the introduction, the CCRA (1992) eliminated socialization as a reason for an ETA, but added parental responsibility and 15 day personal development ETAs to provide extended periods for participation in treatment programs. Community service and family contact TAs were available both before and after the CCRA.

Table 5-1 shows the number of reintegration ETAs, the number of offenders who received them and the number of on-register offenders for each fiscal year. The number of reintegration ETAs showed a general decline over the first four fiscal years. This was followed by an increase in 1994-95, and then a decline in 1995-96.

The number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs declined from 3,044 in 1990-91 to a low of 2,052 in 1996-96; a 32% reduction in the number of offenders. The reduction is even more significant when one considers that the offender population increased by 21% over the same period. Even in 1994-95, when the number of reintegration ETAs increased, the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs decreased by almost 13% from the previous fiscal year.

Table 5-1: Number of reintegration ETAs, offenders granted reintegration ETAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Reintegration ETAs Reintegration ETA Offenders On-register Offenders
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 31 908 - 3044 - 11 961 -
1991-92 28 308 -11.3 3052 +0.3 12 719 +6.3
1992-93 25 860 -8.6 2939 -3.7 12 877 +1.2
1993-94 25 637 -0.9 2457 -16.4 13 863 +7.7
1994-95 28 772 +12.2 2136 -13.1 14 539 +4.9
1995-96 24 804 -13.8 2052 -3.9 14 459 -0.6
Total 165 289   15 680   80 418  
Six Year Avg. 27 548   2613   13 403  

The number of reintegration ETAs and offenders receiving them are compared to the on-register offender population in Figure 5-1. Given that everything else remained the same, one would expect that, as the offender population increased, the number of reintegration ETAs and the number of offenders receiving them would also increase. The results in the figure indicate that this is not the case. Comparing the lines in the figure, it is clear that the number of reintegration ETAs does not change consistently with the number of on-register offenders. The first four years in the figure show a decline in ETAs while the offender population was increasing. The increase in 1994-95 is not associated with a proportionately large increase in the offender population. In addition, as the offender population increased, the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs actually decreased. That is, while the offender population increased by 21%, the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs declined by 32%.

Figure 5-1: Number of reintegration ETAs, offenders granted reintegration ETAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Figure 5-1: Number of reintegration ETAs, offenders granted reintegration ETAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year

It is not evident from these data what created the sudden increase in the number of reintegration ETAs in 1994-95, while, at the same time, the number of offenders who were granted them decreased. The increase is consistent with the general decline in proceeding years.

Purpose

The number of absences and offenders for each of the five reintegration ETA purposes are presented in Table 5-2. As described earlier, the CCRA created two new TA purposes, parental responsibility and personal development, while eliminating socialization as a TA purpose. The reader should note that while there are significant numbers of socialization TAs shown after the CCRA, these are coding error which occurred when the data were entered into the Offender Management System. These TAs were probably for other legitimate purposes, and are included here to ensure that all reintegration ETAs are counted.

The number of community service and family contact ETAs has generally declined. The number of offenders receiving community service and family contact ETAs steadily decreased over the six year period, even during 1994-95 when there was an increase in the number of community service ETAs.

Some of the decline in the use of family contact and community service TAs has been offset by the rapid increase in the use of personal development TAs. These TAs, introduced in the CCRA, accounted for 56% of reintegration ETAs in 1995-96, or 35% over the three years they were available. It should be noted that the number of personal development ETAs is the number of departures, not the number of 15 day block granted.

The decline in the number of community service ETAs may be due to the introduction of the work release program which provides opportunities for offenders to work in the community. However, a separate report on work release (Grant and Beal, 1998) indicates that there were only about 300 offenders granted work releases each year, and many of these were likely substitutes for day parole rather than community service ETAs.

Parental responsibility ETAs were also initiated by the CCRA, but their use has declined from 240 in the first full year they were available (1993-94) to only 18 in 1995-96. Likewise, the number of offenders receiving these TAs dropped form 200 to 16. Either there is very little demand for these TAs or they are not being granted.

Table 5-2: Number of reintegration ETAs by purpose and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Socialization1 Community Service Family Contact Parental Responsiblity2
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number
1990-91 11 171 1779 17 324 1586 3410 1089 3
1991-92 9975 1879 14 499 1550 3826 1191 6
1992-93 8880 1759 13 613 1290 3237 1242 119
1993-94 5939 1123 11 271 807 2063 847 240
1994-95 7 4 11 814 714 2078 792 51
1995-96 30 2 9431 690 2077 800 18
Total 36 002 6546 77 862 6637 16 691 5961 437
Average 10 5733 18293 12 977 1106 2782 994 1034
(%)5 (28%) (35%) (34%) (21%) (7%) (19%) (> 1%)
1 Eliminated as a TA purpose by the CCRA (1992).

2 Added as a TA purpose by the CCRA (1992).

3 Based on two years prior to CCRA: 1990-91 and 1991-92.

4 Based on three years post-CCRA (1992): 1993-94 to 1995-96.

5 Percentages are based on average numbers in the previous line.
Regional Comparisons

The number of reintegration ETAs, offenders granted ETAs and the number of on-register offenders for each region and fiscal year is presented in Table 5-3. The number of reintegration ETAs declined in the Pacific and Ontario regions from 1990-91 to 1995-96. There was a slight increase in the Pacific region from 1993-94 to 1994-95, but declined by over 3,000 ETAs in 1995-96. In the Prairie region, the number of reintegration ETAs actually doubled from 1992-93 to 1993-94, increasing to 3,460 ETAs. The number of reintegration ETAs fluctuated in the Atlantic and Quebec regions.

The number of offenders receiving reintegration ETAs decreased in all regions. This was particularly evident in the Ontario region, where the number of offenders decreased markedly by almost 56% form 1,033 in 1990-91 to 452 in 1995-96. The downward trend is surprising given the general rise in the offender population in all regions during the same period.

The six year average number of reintegration ETAs, offenders granted them and on-register offenders are also presented in Table 5-3. The distributions within each region varied widely. For example, the Pacific region accounted for 37% of all reintegration ETAs granted to 16% of offenders while being responsible for 13% of the on-register population. In contrast, the Prairies granted only 9% of all the reintegration ETAs even though it housed 22% of the incarcerated population. The Quebec region accounted for only 15% of reintegration ETAs granted to 27% of offenders while being responsible for 27% of on-register offenders. The Atlantic region, with only 9% of the inmate population, accounted for 16% of offenders granted reintegration ETAs.

Table 5-3: Number of reintegration (Reint.) ETAs, offenders granted reintegration ETAs and on-register offender by region and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
Reint. ETAs Offs1 On-reg2 Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg
1990-91 12 561 467 1633 1444 342 2641 11 346 1033 3455 4175 753 3229 2382 451 100
1991-92 10 855 442 1678 1613 339 2672 9478 1067 3700 3661 711 3549 2701 495 1120
1992-93 9273 450 1650 1458 319 2775 8294 913 3724 4331 775 3554 2504 484 1174
1993-94 9676 452 1823 3095 281 3087 7453 694 3865 3412 672 3747 1911 361 1341
1994-95 10 973 334 1984 3406 251 3325 6720 504 3875 4550 654 3891 3123 395 1464
1995-96 7350 330 1993 3460 243 3360 7472 452 3852 4350 645 3804 2087 383 1450
Total 60 688 2475 10 761 14 476 1775 17 860 50 853 4663 22 471 24 564 4210 21 774 14 708 2569 7552
Average 10 115 413 1794 2413 296 2978 8476 777 3745 4094 702 3629 2451 428 1259
(%) (37%) (16%) (13%) (9%) (11%) (22%) (31%) (30%) (28%) (15%) (27%) (27%) (9%) (16%) (9%)
1 Number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs.

2 Number of on-register offenders.

Figure 5-2 shows the percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration ETAs for each region and fiscal year. Calculating the percentage of use this way eliminates the differences in the size of the offender population across regions. All regions showed a decrease over the six year period, although the Pacific, Ontario and Atlantic regions showed the largest declines. For example, the Ontario region declined from 30% to only 12% between the first and the last of the fiscal years studied. The Pacific region followed a similar pattern, decreasing from a high of 29% in 1990-91 to a low of 17% in 1995-96. The Atlantic region decreased almost the same amount as Ontario, from a high of 45% in 1990-91 to only 26% in 1995-96. The Atlantic region decreased almost the same amount as Ontario, from a high of 45% in 1990-91 to only 26% in 1995-96. It is also interesting to note that the largest declines in reintegration ETAs occurred in the year following the introduction of the CCRA, 1993-94.

Figure 5-2: Percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration ETAs by region and fiscal year
Figure 5-2: Percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration ETAs by region and fiscal year
Escorts

Prior to the CCRA, offenders granted ETAs were normally escorted by either CSC officers or community volunteers. The CCRA permitted two new types of escorts: CSC non-security staff and contract staff. Over the six year period, about 54% of all reintegration ETAs were escorted by community volunteers and 22% were escorted by CSC officers. Given that the CCRA was only implemented in November 1992, CSC non-security and contract staff accounted for only 20% and 3% respectively, of escorts.

Table 5-4 shows the number of reintegration ETAs and offenders for each type of escort and fiscal year. The number of reintegration ETAs escorted by a CSC officer has remained relatively constant, although the number of offenders released on ETAs has shown a steady increase. The number of reintegration ETAs escorted by a community volunteer decreased from 22,890 in 1990-91 to 12,099 in 1995-96, and the number of offenders escorted by volunteers declined from 2,796 to 1,980 in 1995-96. Reintegration ETAs escorted by CSC non-security and contract staff peaked in 1994-95 at 9,350, and 1,158 offenders, before decreasing the following year. The results suggest an increased reliance on CSC security staff to provide escorts and a decrease in the use of less costly volunteers.

Table 5-4: Number of reintegration ETAs by escort type and fiscal year
Fiscal Year CSC Officer CSC Non-Security Community Volunteer Contract Staff
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 9018 647 - - 22 890 2796 - -
1991-92 7002 580 3 3 21 303 2820 - -
1992-93 7371 644 5 5 18 484 2692 - -
1993-94 7317 1120 4131 536 13 279 1738 455 35
1994-95 5687 1304 9350 814 12 357 1057 1158 123
1995-96 6193 1339 5386 687 12 099 980 916 129
Total 42 984 5634 18 875 2045 100 412 12 083 2529 860
Average 7164 939 62891 6791 16 735 2014 8431 287
(%) (23%) (24%) (20%) (17%) (54%) (51%) (3%) (7%)
Note: Escort type was unknown for 598 reintegration ETAs.

1 Based on three years post-CCRA.
Institution Security Level

The number of reintegration ETAs and offenders for each of the three institutional security levels is presented for each fiscal year in Table 5-5. Eighty-seven percent of the reintegration ETAs were granted to offenders in minimum security institutions, while medium and maximum security institutions granted 10% and 3% respectively of these ETA types. The number of reintegration ETAs was highest in 1990-91 for all security levels.

The number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs has declined steadily over the six fiscal years studied, for all three security levels. The smallest decrease was in minimum security institutions where the number of offenders granted ETAs declined from 1,822 in 1990-91 to 1,527 in 1995-96, representing a decline of about 16%. Medium security institutions showed the largest decrease in the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs, falling from 1,123 in 1990-91 to only 416 in 1995-96, representing a sizable decline of almost 63%. Offenders granted reintegration ETAs from maximum security institutions also showed a decline, from 191 in 1990-91 to 98 in 1995-96, representing a decrease a 49%. Most reintegration ETAs from maximum security prisons were from the Prison for Women, which houses female offenders at all security levels.

Table 5-6 shows the number of reintegration ETA failures for each fiscal year. Consistent with previous results presented on failure rates for ETAs, the average over the six year period was very low at 0.31%. A significant, and somewhat surprising, increase in the number of failures was reported for 1993-94, when failure rates rose to 170, from only 20 failures the previous year.

Table 5-5: Number of reintegration ETAs by institutional security level and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Minimum Medium Maximum
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 26 280 1822 4593 1123 1006 191
1991-92 23 471 1902 3824 1069 994 160
1992-93 20 480 1842 4520 1024 860 157
1993-94 21 256 1641 3706 751 666 122
1994-95 25 791 1663 2343 449 635 77
1995-96 22 021 1527 2215 416 292 98
Total 139 299 10 397 16 608 3709 4453 805
Six Year Avg. 23 217 1733 2755 539 742 134
(%) (87%) (72%) (10%) (22%) (3%) (6%)
Note: Security level was unknown for 43 reintegration ETAs.
Table 5-6: Number of reintegration ETA failures by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Reintegration ETAs
Success Failure % Failure
1990-91 31 897 11 0.03
1991-92 28 286 22 0.08
1992-93 25 840 20 0.08
1993-94 25 467 170 0.66
1994-95 28 730 42 0.15
1995-96 24 760 44 0.18
Total 164 980 309  
Six Year Avg. 27 497 85 0.31
(%) (99.7%) (0.3%)  

Group ETAs

About four-fifths of the reintegration ETAs that were granted (79%) were for participation in an group ETA, that is, more than one offender being escorted by a single supervisor. The remaining 21% of reintegration ETAs were granted to individual offenders. About two-fifths of offenders who received reintegration group ETAs (38%) also received the same type as individual ETAs. Therefore, for 62% of offenders, the only reintegration ETA received was within a group.

When an ETA is to a treatment program, community project or other activity which involves multiple offenders, group ETAs are a very efficient use of escort resources. Group ETAs provide more opportunities for offenders to participate in activities outside the prison than would otherwise be available if each TA required a separate escort.

Note that counts presented are for individual departures from institutions, not group departures. That is, if a group of 10 offenders leaves an institution, each offender is part of that group, and each is counted as one ETA (for a total of 10 ETAs).

Overall Number of Group ETAs

The average number of group ETAs over the six fiscal years was approximately 22,000 per year, accounting for about 79% of all the reintegration ETAs. Table 5-7 shows that the number of reintegration group ETAs declined form 26,095 in 1990-91 to 18,801 in 1995-96, with a slight increase in 1994-95. The same trend is evident for the number of offenders granted reintegration group ETAs, declining each fiscal year from 2,093 in 1991-92 to 1,259 in 1995-96. The decline in the number of offenders granted reintegration group ETAs is more dramatic given the steady increase in the offender population, as shown in Table 5-7.

Purpose

The number of ETAs and offenders for each of the five TA purposes combined under the reintegration category are presented in Table 5-8. Socialization and family contact group ETAs were officially granted until 1992-93, but the data indicate that they continued to be coded in the following year. The largest number of group reintegration group ETAs was for personal development, which accounted for 29%, or 8,874. In terms of numbers of reintegration group ETAs, 15 day personal development ETAs accounted for about the same number as socialization ETAs, which are no longer available.

In addition to the decline in the number of reintegration group ETAs for community service, there was a decline in the number of offenders who participated in these activities. In 1990-91, 1,328 offenders participated in community service group ETAs, declining to 596 in 1995-96.

During the last two years that socialization group ETAs were available, there were about 1,350 releases per year while personal development group TAs provided release opportunities for about 947 offenders per year (since their introduction). Overall, there was a decline in the number of offenders who were released on reintegration group ETAs.

Table 5-7: Number of reintegration ETAs, offenders granted reintegration group ETAs and on - register offenders by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Reintegration Group ETAs Reintegration Group ETA Offenders On-register Offenders
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 26 095   2093   11 961  
1991-92 22 553 -13.6 2180 +4.2 12 719 +6.3
1992-93 20 014 -11.3 1972 -9.5 12 877 +1.2
1993-94 19 654 -1.8 1500 -23.9 13 863 +7.7
1994-95 22 680 +15.4 1425 -5.0 14 539 +4.9
1995-96 18 801 -17.1 1259 -11.6 14 459 -0.6
Total 129 797 -13.6 10 429   80 418  
Six Year Avg. 21 633   1738   13 403  
Table 5-8: Number of reintegration group ETAs by purpose and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Socialization1 Community Service Family Contact Parental Responsiblity2 Personal Development2
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 9329 1311 15 413 1328 1353 228 - - - -
1991-92 7700 1413 13 242 1375 1609 383 - - 2 2
1992-93 6428 1282 12 674 1134 904 328 - - 8 8
1993-94 4511 832 10 548 698 19 13 3 3 4573 641
1994-95 -   11 005 619 - - - - 11 675 1162
1995-96 -   8427 596 - - - - 10 374 1039
Total 27 968 4838 71 309 5750 3885 952 3 3 26 632 2852
Average 85153 13623 11 885 958 14813 3063     88744 9474
(%)5 (28%) (38%) (39%) (27%) (5%) (9%)     (29%) (27%)
1 Eliminated a TA purpose by the CCRA.

2 Added as a TA purpose by the CCRA.

3 Based on years 1990-91 and 1991-92: prior to CCRA (1992).

4 Based on three years, 1993-94 to 1995-96; post-CCRA (1992).

5 Percentages are based on average numbers in the previous line.

Table 5-9 shows the number of reintegration group ETAs, offenders who were granted them and the number of on-register offenders for each region and fiscal year. The Pacific region reported the highest number, averaging 8,664 per year, but had the second lowest number of offenders granted these types of TAs. The Ontario region had the second highest average number of reintegration group ETAs per year, 6,437 granted to 547 offenders, the largest number of offenders among the five regions. The number of reintegration group ETAs declined in the Pacific and Ontario regions, but increased dramatically in the Prairie region, tripling form 1992-93 to 1993-94 (785 to 2,404). The numbers varied with no real trend in the Quebec and Atlantic regions. In all regions, except Quebec, the number of offenders granted reintegration group ETAs declined during the six years of study. The largest decline was in Ontario, where in 1995-96, the number of offenders receiving reintegration group ETAs was one third that of 1990-91 (from 783 to 260).

The distribution of reintegration group ETAs, offenders who received them and on-register offenders varied widely within each of the regions. The Pacific region accounted for sizable 40% of all reintegration group ETAs, but incarcerated only 13% of the on-register population. The Atlantic region had a similar percentage of reintegration group ETAs granted compared to their percentage of on-register offenders (10% granted and 9% of on-register offenders) but accounted for a higher than expected percentage of offenders granted reintegration group ETAs (20%).

Figure 5-3 shows the percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration group ETAs for each region and fiscal year. These results allow for comparisons across regions taking account of the size of the population. With the exception of Quebec, all regions decreased consistently in the proportion of on-register offenders granted reintegration group ETAs between 1990-91 and 1995-96. Between the first and last of the six fiscal years, the Pacific region declined from 23% to 12%, Ontario decreased from 23% to only 7% and in the Atlantic regin, the rate fell from 38% to 18%. The Quebec region showed no clear trend, with a high of 12% in 1990-91 and 1991-93 and a low of 9% in 1993-94. The largest decline in three of five regions ocurred after the implementation of the CCRA in 1992-93.

Escorts

The four different types of escorts for reintegration group ETAs are presented for each fiscal year in Table 5-10. Consistent with the results presented in the previous section, the largest percentage of reintegration group ETAs were escorted by community volunteers (51%), followed by CSC officers (23%), CSC non-security staff (23%) and contract staff (3%). The number of offenders escorted by CSC officers showed a general increase, while the number of offenders escorted by community volunteers decreased consistently over the six fiscal years.

Table 5-9: Number of reintegration group ETAs, offenders granted reintegration group ETAs and on-register offenders by region and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
Reint. ETAs Offs1 On-reg2 Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg
1990-91 11 219 380 1633 745 174 2641 9158 783 3455 2942 375 3229 2031 383 1003
1991-92 9448 372 1678 911 191 2672 7184 834 3700 2638 361 3549 2372 423 1120
1992-93 7847 313 1650 785 159 2775 6142 659 3724 3096 438 3554 2144 404 1174
1993-94 7940 301 1823 2404 166 3087 5628 417 3865 2057 330 3747 1625 289 1341
1994-95 9483 235 1984 2645 147 3325 4858 330 3875 3022 420 3891 2672 293 1464
1995-96 6046 237 1993 2615 126 3360 5652 260 3852 2822 373 3804 1666 263 1450
Total 51 983 1838 10 761 10 105 963 17 860 38 622 3283 22 471 16 577 2297 21 774 12 510 2055 7552
Six Year Avg. 8664 306 1794 1684 161 2977 6437 547 3745 2763 383 3629 2085 343 1259
(%) (40%) (18%) (13%) (8%) (9%) (25%) (30%) (31%) (28%) (13%) (22%) (27%) (10%) (20%) (9%)
1 Number of offenders granted reintegration Group ETAs.

2 Number of on-register offenders.
Figure 5-3: Average percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration group ETAs by region and fiscal year
Figure 5-3: Average percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration group ETAs by region and fiscal year
Table 5-10: Number of reintegration group ETAs by escort type and and fiscal year
Fiscal Year CSC Officer CSC Non-Security Community Volunteer Contract Staff
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 8356 411 - - 17 739 1941 - -
1991-92 6511 389 3 3 16 039 2049 - -
1992-93 6787 403 5 5 13 222 1849 - -
1993-94 6252 504 3703 392 9320 1192 3661 141
1994-95 3272 569 8576 617 9818 939 894 293
1995-96 5676 542 4785 489 9517 863 681 233
Total 36 855 28 188 17 072 1506 75 655 8833 1941 667
Average 5809 470 56881 4991 12 609 1472 6471 2221
(%)2 (27%) (18%) (23%) (19%) (51%) (55%) (3%) (8%)
Note: Escort type was unknown for 364 reintegration ETAs.

1 Based on 1993-94 to 1995-96, when these escorts were authorized.

2 Percentages are based on average numbers in the previous line.
Institutional Security Level

The number of reintegration group ETAs for each institutional security level and fiscal year is presented in Table 5-11. Once again, most (90%) were granted from minimum security institutions, while 10% were granted from medium security institutions. The number of reintegration group ETAs from maximum security institutions effectively dropped to zero after the CCRA was introduced, even though the legislation did not exclude these inmates from ETAs. The number of offenders who received reintegration group ETAs declined across all three security levels in 1995-96, to a low of 1,160 for minimum, 60 for medium and zero for maximum security institutions.

Table 5-11: Number of reintegration group ETAs by institutional security level and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Minimum Medium Maximum
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 23 045 1582 2723 471 298 62
1991-92 20 130 1656 2280 498 124 42
1992-93 17 094 1536 2853 419 67 40
1993-94 17 472 1265 2172 245 2 2
1994-95 21 460 1336 1217 96 2 2
1995-96 17 420 1160 1200 60 - -
Total 116 621 8535 12 445 1789 4933 148
Six Year Avg. 19 437 1422 2074 298 82 25
(%) (90%) (81%) (10%) (17%) (> 1%) (1%)
Note: Security level was unknown for 9 reintegration Group ETAs.
Failures
Table 5-12: Number of reintegration group ETA failures by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Reintegration Group ETAs
Success Failure % Failure
1990-91 26 090 5 0.02
1991-92 22 539 14 0.06
1992-93 19 999 15 0.08
1993-94 19 494 160 0.82
1994-95 22 660 20 0.09
1995-96 18 780 21 0.11
Total 129 562 235  
Six Year Avg. 21 594 39 0.18

The highest reported failure rate, 0.82%, occurred in 1993-94, a year with a relatively low number of group ETAs. In addition, over the six years, the number of offenders released decreased, but there was not a similar decline in the failure rate. These results suggest that the failure rate is not associated with the number of releases, nor with the number of offenders released on reintegration TAs.

Individual ETAs

Individual reintegration ETAs make greater demands on the available escorts since each offender requires an escort. Individual reintegration ETAs are granted when the purpose of the TA is unique to the individual, or when the offender's risk level is judged to be too high for a group ETA.

Overall Number of Individual ETAs

The average number of individual ETAs over the six year period was 5,915, representing 21% of all reintegration ETAs. Table 5-13 shows the number of individual reintegration ETAs and offenders for each fiscal year. The number of these ETAs have increased slightly form about 5,800 in 1990-91 to 6,000 in 1995-96. However, the number of offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs has steadily declined, from a high of 1,951 in 1990-91 to a low of 1,392 in 1995-96. The decline in the number of offenders receiving individual ETAs must be compared to the increasing offender population in the same period, as shown in the second last column of the table.

Table 5-13: Number of individual reintegration ETAs, offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Individual Reintegration ETAs Individual Reintegration ETA Offenders On-register Offenders
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 5813 - 1951 - 11 961 -
1991-92 5755 -1.0 1799 -7.8 12719 +6.3
1992-93 5846 +1.6 1870 +3.9 12 877 +1.2
1993-94 5983 +2.3 1645 -12.0 13 863 +7.7
1994-95 6092 +1.8 1414 -14.0 14 539 +4.9
1995-96 6003 -1.5 1392 -1.6 14 459 -0.6
Total 35 492   10 071   80 418  
Six Year Avg. 5915   1679   13 403  
Purpose

Table 5-14 shows the number of ETAs and offenders for the five types of reintegration ETAs. One third (32%) of individual reintegration ETAs were granted for personal development, while 27% were for family contact, 26% for socialization, 14% for community service and 1% for parental responsibility.

A close examination of Table 5-14 shows a general decline in individual reintegration ETAs for each purpose across the six fiscal years. For example, ETAs granted for the purpose of community service showed a significant decrease from 1,911 in 1990-91 to 914 in 1995-96. In addition, the number of offenders granted individual ETAs for community service steadily declined, from a high of 672 in 1990-91 to only 168 in 1995-96. The 15 day personal development individual reintegration ETAs appear to have replaced socialization ETAs in terms or numbers, with approximately 3,000 in each of the last two fiscal years. The number of offenders is lower for personal development ETAs, however, than for socialization ETAs. While the number of family contact ETAs remained relatively stable at around 2,000, the number of offenders granted family contact ETAs declined by 15%, from 945 to 800. Parental responsibility ETAs were first permitted by the CCRA in 1992-93, but appear to have been used minimally in the last two fiscal years studied compared to their initial use in 1992-93 and 1993-94.

As was found with group reintegration TAs, socialization as a purpose for TAs appeared in 1993-94, after the CCRA was implemented and officially eliminated socialization as a TA category. Socialization was not an acceptable purpose for TAs at this time and as such they represent errors in coding the information in the Offender Management System.

Regional Comparisons

Regional differences in the number of individual reintegration ETAs, offenders who received them an on-register offenders for each fiscal year are presented in Table 5-15. The number of individual reintegration ETAs increased in the Prairie, Quebec and Atlantic regions and fluctuated in the Pacific region, ending the six year period at about the same level as it started. The Ontario region had a decline in these ETAs of 17%, form 2,188 to 1,820. In terms of the number of offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs, the Pacific, Prarie and Ontario regions declined, while the Quebec and Atlantic regions remained stable. The decline in the Ontario region was most dramatic, dropping from 650 offenders to 293 during the six years studied.

Table 5-14: Number of individual reintegration ETAs by purpose and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Socialization1 Community Service Family Contact Parental Responsiblity2 Personal Development2
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 1842 780 1911 672 2057 945 3 3 - -
1991-92 2275 747 1257 511 2217 948 6 6 - -
1992-93 2452 799 939 394 2333 1030 119 86 3 3
1993-94 1428 497 723 229 2044 840 237 188 1551 360
1994-95 7 4 809 196 2078 792 51 21 3147 651
1995-96 30 2 914 168 2077 800 18 15 2964 660
Total 8034 2829 6553 2170 12 806 5355 4344 319 7665 1674
Average 20593 7643 1092 362 2134 893 774 564 25544 5574
(%)5 (26%) (29%) (14%) (14%) (27%) (34%) (1%) (2%) (32%) (21%)
1 Eliminated a TA purpose by the CCRA.

2 Added as a TA purpose by the CCRA.

3 Based on years 1990-91 and 1991-92; prior to CCRA (1992).

4 Based on three years, 1993-94 to 1995-96; post-CCRA (1992).

5 Percentages are based on average numbers in the previous line.

The distribution of individual reintegration ETAs, offenders who received them and on-register offenders also varied widely across regions over the six year period. Consistent with previous results, the Pacific region granted a higher percentage of individual reintegration ETAs (25%) than expected, considering they housed only 14% of the on-register population. Also consistent with earlier results, the Prairie region accounted for a lower proportion (12%) when compared to their proportion of incarcerated offenders (22%). The Quebec region was also found to be lower than expected, granting 23% of all individual reintegration ETAs, while housing 27% of the on-register offender population.

The percentage of on-register offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs for each region and fiscal year is presented in Figure 5-4. Similar to the trends shown earlier for reintegration group ETAs, most regions had a general decrease in the proportion of offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs between 1990-91 and 1995-96. The Ontario region had the largest and the most consistent decrease from a high of 19% to only 8% between 1990-91 and 1995-96. The largest declines were either in the year following the implementation of the CCRA, 1993-94, or in the subsequent year.

Figure 5-4: Percentage of on-register offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs by region and fiscal year
Figure 5-4: Percentage of on-register offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs by region and fiscal year
Table 5-15: Number of individual reintegration ETAs and offenders by regions and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
Reint. ETAs Offs1 On-reg2 Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg Reint. ETAs Offs On-reg
1990-91 1342 302 1633 699 241 2641 2188 650 3455 1233 580 3229 351 179 1003
1991-92 1407 265 1678 702 218 2672 2294 586 3700 1023 539 3549 329 192 1120
1992-93 1426 299 1650 673 247 2775 2152 527 3724 1235 610 3554 360 188 1174
1993-94 1736 334 1823 691 191 3087 1915 442 3865 1355 550 3747 286 129 1341
1994-95 1490 244 1984 761 168 3325 1862 297 3875 1528 519 3891 451 187 1464
1995-96 1304 216 1993 845 173 3360 1820 293 3852 1613 519 3804 421 192 1450
Total 8705 1660 10 761 4371 1238 17 860 12 231 2795 22 471 7987 3317 21 774 2198 1067 7552
Six Year Avg. 1451 277 1794 729 206 2977 2039 466 3745 1331 553 3629 366 178 1259
(%) (25%) (16%) (14%) (12%) (12%) (22%) (34%) (28%) (28%) (23%) (33%) (27%) (6%) (11%) (9%)
1 Number of offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs.

2 Number of on-register offenders.
Escorts

Table 5-16 shows the number of individual reintegration ETAs and offenders for each escort type and fiscal year. Consistent with earlier results, the majority of TAs were escorted by community volunteers (66%), while the remaining escort types were distributed between CSC officers (22%), CSC non-security staff (10%) and contract staff (3%). In the last two years, however, the number of ETAs escorted by volunteers was almost equivalent to the number escorted by correctional officers. While the number of ETAs escorted by CSC correctional officers increased from 662 to 2,517 over the six years, the number escorted by community volunteers declined from 5,151 to 2,582, and almost equivalent decrease.

The number of offenders escorted by CSC officers increased from a low of 387 in 1991-92 to 1,048 in 1995-96. Offenders escorted by community volunteers, however, declined significantly from 1,730 to 300 between 1990-91 and 1995-96, a decrease of 1,430 offenders or about 82%. This indicates that the use of volunteers has declined dramatically.

Table 5-16: Number of individual reintegration ETAs by escort type and fiscal year
Fiscal Year CSC Officer CSC Non-Security Community Volunteer Contract Staff
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 662 387 - - 5151 1730 - -
1991-92 491 302 - - 5264 1579 - -
1992-93 584 335 - - 5262 1675 - -
1993-94 1461 784 428 207 3959 997 89 50
1994-95 2414 1021 774 299 2539 321 264 123
1995-96 2517 1048 601 256 2582 300 235 90
Total 8129 3877 1803 762 24 757 6602 588 263
Average 1355 646 6011 2541 4126 1100 1961 881
(%)2 (22%) (31%) (10%) (12%) (66%) (53%) (3%) (4%)
Note: Escort type was unknown for 234 individual reintegration ETAs.

1 Based on the years 1993-94 to 1995-96 when these type of escorts were permitted.

2 Percentages are based on average numbers in the previous line.
Institutional Security Level

About two thirds of the individual reintegration ETAs (64%) were granted to offenders in minimum security institutions, while 25% were granted to those in medium and 11% to those in maximum security institutions. Table 5-17 shows the distribution of the number of individual reintegration ETAs and offenders for each institutional reintegration ETAs increased for minimum security institutions, while medium and maximum security institutions showed a marked decline. Consistent with the decreasing trend for the latter two institutional security levels, the number of offenders granted individual reintegration ETAs also declined. The decrease was especially noticeable for medium security institutions, however, remained relatively similar across fiscal years, even though the number of individual reintegration ETAs showed a significant increase.

Table 5-17: Number of individual reintegration ETAs by institutional security level and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Minimum Medium Maximum
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 3235 967 1870 846 708 178
1991-92 3341 969 1544 720 870 153
1992-93 3386 978 1667 790 792 145
1993-94 3784 934 1534 627 664 122
1994-95 4331 979 1126 386 633 77
1995-96 4601 922 1015 379 292 98
Total 22 678 5749 8756 3748 3959 773
Six Year Avg. 3780 958 1459 625 660 129
(%)2 (64%) (56%) (25%) (36%) (11%) (8%)
Note: Security level was unknown for 34 individual reintegration ETAs.
Failures

There were only 74 failures out of 35,500 releases for individual reintegration ETAs during the six year period, representing and average failure rate of 0.21%. Failure rates for individual reintegration ETAs for each fiscal year are presented in Table 5-18. The number of failures has increased from only six in 1990-91 to 23 in 1995-96. The failure rate, however, is still quite low at 0.38%.

Table 5-18: Number of individual reintegration ETA failures by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Reintegration Group ETAs
Success Failure % Failure
1990-91 5807 6 0.10
1991-92 5747 8 0.14
1992-93 5841 5 0.09
1993-94 5973 10 0.17
1994-95 6070 22 0.36
1995-96 5980 23 0.38
Total 35 418 74  
Six Year Avg. 5903 12 0.21

Offenders

The data presented in the previous sections profiled the number of reintegration ETAs and the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs. The purpose of this section is to provide a description of the offenders who were granted reintegration ETAs. Factors presented in this section include gender, race, criminal history and current offence.

A total of 10,753 offenders received one or more group and/or individual reintegration ETA between 1990-91 and 1995-96. The average number of reintegration ETAs for each offender was about 17, with a range between 1 and 26. The average length of each ETA was only one day, ranging from one to three days.

For analysis purposes, the sample was divided into offenders who received only group ETAs (3,306 or 31%) and offenders who were granted either individual only or both individual and group ETAs (7,477 or 69%). This distinction was made between group and individual TAs because they represent different types of TAs with different levels of

risk to the community. Individual ETAs occur with one offender and one escort, while group ETAs can be a number of offenders with only one escort. Offenders who receive only group ETAs should be lower risk than offenders who receive individual ETAs.

Gender

Overall, 97% of the offenders granted reintegration ETAs were males and males accounted for 98% of the offender population. Almost all of the offenders granted only group ETAs were male, while females accounted for 5% of the offenders granted both individual and group reintegration ETAs. Detailed results for males and females are presented in Table 5-19.

Table 5-19: Number of offenders by reintegration ETA type and gender
Gender Group Only Indiv. and Group Six Year On-register Average
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
Males 3290 99.5 7106 95.4 13 124 97.9
Female 16 0.5 341 4.6 279 2.1
Total 3306 100 7447 100 13 403 100
Race

While Aboriginal offenders accounted for 12% of the offender population, they accounted for only 9% of offenders granted reintegration ETAs (see Table 5-10). Differences in the use of group and individual reintegration TAs were not present across Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal groups.

Table 5-20: Number of offenders by reintegration ETA type and race
Criminal History Group Only Indiv. and Group Six Year On-register Average
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
Non-Aboriginal 3005 90.9 6762 90.8 11 733 87.5
Aboriginal 301 9.1 685 9.2 1670 12.5
Total 3306 100 7447 100 13 403 100
Criminal History

Criminal history factors considered in these analyses include previous federal admissions, revocations on previous federal conditional releases and type of offences committed.

Approximately two-thirds of the offenders granted reintegration individual ETAs were serving their first federal prison term, and almost three-quarters of offenders granted only group ETAs were serving their first federal sentence. First time federal offenders account for about 50% of the offender population3, as shown in Table 5-21.

Table 5-21: Previous admissions and revocations for offender granted reintegration ETAs and the on-register population
Criminal History Group Only Indiv. and Group Four Year On-register Average
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
No previous federal admissions 2428 73.4 4852 65.2 6962 50.2
Previous federal admissions 879 26.6 2595 34.8 6911 49.8
Total 3307 100 7447 100 13 873 100
No previous revocations of conditional release 2977 90.0 6291 84.5 * *
Previous revocations of conditional release 330 10.0 1156 15.5 * *
Total 3307 100 7447 100 * *
* Comparable data for the on-register population was not available.

Most offenders (90%), granted only group reintegration ETAs had no previous record of revocations from a conditional release. This is not surprising since most of these offenders (73%) were serving their first federal term and the reintegration ETAs were probably the first opportunity to leave the prison since admission. No comparison data for the offender population are available for revocations from previous releases.

Prior offences committed by inmates granted reintegration ETAs were classified into four groups: murder, violent, drug, and non-violent. The classification of offences is based on CCRA (1992) offence schedules (appendices to the Act), which include most violent offences in Schedule I and all drug offences in Schedule II. Offences not included in the schedules are usually non-violent, such as break and enter and fraud. In a few cases, violent sub-offences were excluded from Schedule I, and so are not included as violent offences in these results, but these account for only a very small number of cases. Changes to the CCRA have corrected this problem.

Overall, slightly more than half (53%) of the offenders granted reintegration ETAs were serving sentences for non-violent offences. An additional one third (32%) were serving sentences for violent offences and 8% had been convicted of a drug offence. The remaining 7% of cases had been convicted of first or second degree murder. Table 5-22 presents the number and percentage of offenders granted group, and individual and group reintegration ETAs by type of offence, along with the number of offenders in the inmate population.

Table 5-22: Number of offenders by reintegration ETA type and offence type
Offence Type* Group Only Indiv. and Group 1993-94 On-register
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
Murder 30 0.9 485 6.5 1913 13.8
Violent 985 30.0 2391 32.0 8554 61.7
Drug 345 10.5 625 8.0 1031 7.4
Non-violent 1925 58.6 3916 52.5 2375 17.1
Total 3285 100 7417 100 13 873 100
* Offence type was not available for 23 offenders.

Drug offenders were more likely to be released on reintegration ETAs, accounting for 8% of releases, but accounting for only 7% of the inmate population. While offenders convicted of violent offences account for 62% of the inmate population, they only account for about 32% of the reintegration ETAs. Likewise, offenders convicted of murder account for 14% of the inmate population, but account for only about 6% of the reintegration ETAs. These results indicate that offenders convicted of the least serious offences are most likely to be granted reintegration ETAs, while those convicted of more serious offences have less opportunity for these types of releases.

Results in Table 5-22 also indicate that offenders convicted of less serious offences are more likely to be granted only group ETAs, while those convicted of violent offences are more likely to have received individual ETAs, where the level of supervision is greater.

3 The data was obtained form the annual "Basic Facts About Corrections in Canada". The last edition covered 1993-94 and therefore comparable data for 1994-95 and 1995-96 was not available.

Summary and Discussion

Escorted temporary absences for reintegration purposes account for approximately 60% of all temporary absences. In addition, while there were approximately 32,000 reintegration TAs per year over the six years of the study, 28,000 of these were escorted. Clearly, escorted temporary absences are an important component of the reintegration process. Results suggest, however, that their use may be declining.

In general, the number of reintegration ETAs declined by approximately 7,000 between 1990-91 and 1995-96. In addition, the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs declined by 33% during the six year period of the study. These two results indicate that fewer offenders are getting fewer reintegration ETAs. The reduction in the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs is proportionately larger, since the offender population increased throughout the period of the study.

The decline in the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs was consistent across a variety of factors including the different purposes for which TAs were granted, regions, institutional security levels, types of escort and group and individual ETAs. The consistency of the decline across regions indicates that the cause of the decline was not region specific, but rather a systemic change.

CCRA Effects

The eligibility requirements for reintegration ETAs were not affected by the CCRA, although the purposes for which they could be granted were changed. Specifically, socialization ETAs were no longer permitted after the CCRA became law, but 15 day personal development ETAs were permitted. The proportion of offenders granted reintegration ETAs illustrates the effect of the CCRA most clearly with the largest declines occurring in the year following the introduction of the CCRA (or one year later).

The elimination by the CCRA of socialization as a purpose for TAs might account for some of the decline in ETA numbers, but some of the impact was balanced by the introduction of 15 day personal development ETAs. Prior to the CCRA, there were approximately 10,600 ETAs for socialization compared to approximately 11,400 ETAs for personal development after the CCRA. The balance seen in the number of departures, however, was not maintained for the number of offenders. While 1,800 offenders participated in socialization ETAs, only 1,300 participated in personal development ETAs.

While family contact ETAs have declined, some of the decline was initially offset by ETAs for parental responsibility, although this positive effect disappeared after the first full year in the CCRA was in effect. This decline is unfortunate given the importance of offenders maintaining family ties while incarcerated.

Community service ETAs declined dramatically after the CCRA was implemented, although some of the decline was offset by work releases which provided a form of temporary absence to between 300 and 400 offenders after the CCRA.4 However, work releases only make up about half of the decline in community service ETAs.

There was a decline in the number of reintegration ETAs and in the number of offenders who had an opportunity to be released on an ETA over the period of the study. Larger declines were evident in the years after the CCRA, but some reductions in the use of ETAs occurred before the Act became law. Overall, it would appear that the changes to the purposes for which reintegration ETAs could be granted might have been partially responsible for the observed decline in use. While new purposes were added, these did not compensate for the reductions which occurred when other types of ETAs were eliminated.

4 See Report on Work release program: How it is used and for what purposes, Brian A. Grant and Chris A. Beal, Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada.
Regional Comparisons

The Pacific region grants the highest number of reintegration ETAs, due in part to the large number of group reintegration ETAs used in this region. That is, the Pacific region granted approximately 37% of all reintegration ETAs and 40% of all group reintegration ETAs. However, the high number of reintegration ETAs needs to be considered in relation to the number of different offenders granted ETAs. While the Pacific region accounted for 37% of reintegration ETAs, it accounted for only 16% of the offenders who received this type of TA. The main reason for this is the fact that in the Pacific region, there was an average of 24 ETAs for each offender released. The region with the next highest rate was Ontario, with 11 reintegration ETAs per offender released.

The Atlantic region had the highest proportion of offenders granted reintegration ETAs, largely the result of the group ETA program. As a proportion of the total offender population, the Atlantic region released about 50% more offender than other regions and the average number of releases was seven per offender released.

Individual reintegration ETAs were also used most frequently in the Pacific region, although the difference between it and the other regions was not as large as for group reintegration ETAs.

The Prairie region had the lowest rate for both group and individual reintegration ETAs.

Trends over the six years of the study and across regions indicate that most regions had a decline in the number of group ETAs, but that some regions had an increase in the number of individual reintegration ETAs. The number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs, however, declined. There were fewer offenders being released more frequently.

The regional results also indicate that monitoring the TA program requires different measures for different purposes.

While volume of TA releases suggests that the Pacific region is by far the most active, it could be argued that counting the number of offenders released is a more relevant measure of the quality of the program. In this case, the Atlantic region would be viewed as more active and productive.

Escorts

The data indicate that the use of Correctional Officers to escort offenders on ETAs has increased, while the use of volunteer escorts has decreased. For example, approximately 1,700 offenders were escorted by volunteers individual reintegration ETAs in 1991-92 (prior to the CCRA), declining to 300 in 1995-96. There has also been an increase in the use of non-security CSC staff for ETAs, and limited use of contract staff (Since this was permitted under the CCRA).

Institutional Security Level

The number of reintegration ETAs from minimum security institutions was variable over the six years of the study, but the number of offenders receiving these TAs decreased. In addition, and more dramatic, is the decline in the number of reintegration TAs from medium security institutions. Prior to the CCRA, approximately 1,100 offenders were released each year on reintegration ETAs. Following the CCRA, reintegration ETAs declined to about 400. The decline was most dramatic for offenders receiving group reintegration ETAs, (from 471 offenders to 60), but there was also a more than 50% decline for individual ETAs as well. More dramatic declines were observed for ETAs from maximum security prisons, where group ETAs were effectively discontinued after the CCRA was introduced and the number of individual ETAs was reduced by 50%, to less than 100 offenders.

Failures

The failure rates for reintegration ETAs remain very low. Less than 2 of every 1,000 reintegration ETAs result in failure. There are differences in the failure rates before and after the CCRA, but the results are the opposite of what would be expected. The post-CCRA period resulted in fewer offenders being granted ETAs, suggesting a general tightening of the release criteria. However, during the same period the failure rate for individual reintegration ETAs more than doubled, from 1.2 per 1,000 releases to 3.4 per 1,000 releases. The change could be the result of an inmate population comprising of more high risk offenders. Alternatively, it suggests that reducing the number of ETAs by tightening the criteria does not, in itself, result in an increase in public safety. Increased use of existing risk and needs tools might allow for an increase in reintegration ETAs without a decrease in public safety.

Offenders

Differences across gender, race and criminal history were not consistent with expectations. Female offenders were more likely to be granted individual reintegration ETAs than group ETAs.

Aboriginal offender were less likely to be granted reintegration ETAs than non-Aboriginal offenders.

Lower risk offenders, as defined by criminal history, were more likely to receive reintegration ETAs than other offenders, and the low risk offenders were more likely to have received group ETAs.

CHAPTER 6: UNESCORTED REINTEGRATION TAS

Reintegration UTAs may be considered the first real test in the process of successfully reintegrating offenders into the community. Unlike reintegration ETAs, where the presence of an escort allows for close supervision, the success of reintegration UTAs is solely the responsibility of the offenders'. This section presents the data on reintegration UTAs granted between 1990-91 and 1995-96. In addition Appendix A presents the number of UTAs for each institution. The results are presented for information purposes only and are not discussed in the body of the report.

Similar to the grouping for reintegration ETAs, five TA purposes were combined to form the category of reintegration UTAs: socialization, community service, family contact, parental responsibility and personal development TAs. Personal development UTAs are further subdivided into 15 and 60 day UTAs. A total of 29,432 reintegration UTAs were granted to 7,371 offender over the six fiscal years studied. Almost all (99.9%) were granted to individual offenders, while 42 (0.1%) group reintegration UTAs were granted. Reintegration UTAs accounted for about 93% of all the UTAs and about 10% of all the TAs granted between 1990-91 and 1995-96.

The number of reintegration UTAs, offenders granted these UTAs and the on-register offender population for the six year period is presented in Table 6-1. The number of reintegration UTAs and the offenders who received them have shown a substantial decrease over the six year period. In fact, between 1990-91 and 1994-95, the number of UTAs decreased by 46%, from 7,095 to 3,835, and the number of offenders granted reintegration UTAs declined by mire than 52%, from 1,718 to 809 offenders. The largest declines occurred in the year the CCRA was introduced and the year immediately after. In both instances, the number of reintegration UTAs dropped by over 20%. The year after the CCRA was introduced, the number of offenders granted reintegration UTAs dropped by almost 40%. A slight increase occurred in 1995-96 when reintegration UTAs increased by almost 9% and the number of offenders granted UTAs rose by just over 4%.

Table 6-1: Number of reintegration UTAs, offenders granted reintegration UTAs and on-register offender by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Reintegration UTAs Reintegration UTA Offenders On-register Offenders
Number % change Number % change Number % change
1990-91 7095 - 1718 - 11 961 -
1991-92 6298 -11.2 1651 -3.9 12 719 +6.3
1992-93 5021 -20.3 1489 -9.8 12 877 +1.2
1993-94 3654 -27.2 929 -37.6 13 863 +7.7
1994-95 3529 -3.4 775 -16.6 14 539 +4.9
1995-96 3835 +8.7 809 +4.4 14 459 -0.6
Total 29 432   7371   80 418  
Six Year Avg. 4905   1229   13 403  

Figure 6-1 shows the decline in reintegration UTAs and UTA offenders compared to the number of on-register offenders during the six year period. Each year the results are more divergent, with the number of reintegration UTAs decreasing and the number of on-register offenders increasing. Especially noticeable were the fluctuations between 1992-93 and 1993-94, following introduction of the CCRA, when the number of UTAs dropped by 27% and the number of offenders receiving them declined by 38%, even though the on-register population increased by close to 8%.

Figure 6-1: Number of reintegration UTAs, offenders granted reintegration UTAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Figure 6-1: Number of reintegration UTAs, offenders granted reintegration UTAs and on-register offenders by fiscal year
Granting Authority

The Correctional Service of Canada approves the majority of UTAs, but for offenders convicted of serious crimes, the National Parole Board must authorize the release. In the years 1993-94 and 1994-95 there were about 3,600 UTA departures per year. The National Parole Board approved approximately 15% of these. In the following year, the number of UTAs approved by the National Parole Board declined following an agreement between the Board and the Correctional Service authorizing the Service to approve UTAs for a wider variety of offenders.

Table 6-2 presents information on UTA decisions made by the National Parole Board for the fiscal years 1993-94 to 1995-96. UTAs not authorized are those for which the Board felt release was inappropriate, while canceled UTAs were originally approved but subsequent event resulted in their cancellation. The table also presents the grant rate; the number of UTAs approved as a percentage of all UTA applications to the Board. In 1993-94 and 1994-95 there were approximately 500 UTAs authorized by the Board, but this declined to less than 30 following changes in the granting authorities delegated to the Correctional Services Canada. The grant rate is generally around 40% indicating that more than half of all requests for a UTA are rejected.

Table 6-2: Number of National Parole Board decisions and grant rates for reintegration UTAs
Year1 Decisions UTA Authorized UTA Not Authorized UTA Canceled Grant Rate %
1993-94 1720 447 575 435 42
1994-95 1403 527 588 288 38
1995-96 767 287 314 166 37
Total 3890 1261 1447 591 39
1 Prior to the CCRA decisions were not recorded electronically by type of TA. Overall, there were 802 UTAs authorized in 1991-92 and 858 in 1992-93. These numbers include medical, compassionate and administrative UTAs.

Source: NPB-OMS, 1996-08-02
Purpose

Table 6-3 shows the number of UTAs and offenders for each of the five purposes that were grouped into the category of reintegration UTAs. Socialization TAs were eliminated in 1992 by the CCRA, although codes representing these TAs continued to be used in the following year. Community service TAs, while not eliminated by the CCRA, were effectively discontinued after its introduction with only seven offenders receiving these UTAs in each of the last two years. UTAs for the purpose of family contact also declined over the first four fiscal years, although they leveled off at around 2,600 for the remaining two years. In fact, between 1990-91 and 1995-96, the number of family contact UTAs decreased by about 44%, while the number of offenders receiving them declined by 50%.

Created by the CCRA in November 1992, 15 day and 60 day personal development UTAs increased between 1993-94 and 1995-96. However, the increase in the use of personal development UTAs did not compensate for the number of UTAs lost with the elimination of the socialization UTAs. While some community service Utas may have been replaced by the use of work releases which permit offenders to work in the community, the decline in community service UTAs is likely the result of other factors, since the decline started prior to the introduction of work releases.

Regional Comparisons

The regional distribution of UTAs is shown in Table 6-4. All five regions show a decrease in the number of reintegration UTAs, with the largest reductions occurring between 1990-91 and 1995-96 in the Pacific and Ontario regions which were declining by over 60%. Both Quebec and the Prairies regions decreased by about 30%, while the Atlantic region had an overall decrease of 15%, but the numbers were variable throughout the six years.

The number of offenders granted reintegration UTAs in most regions generally declined over the six year period. However, there was a slight increase in 1995-96 in all regions except Ontario. The Ontario and Pacific regions had the largest decline in the number of offenders granted reintegration UTAs, each decreasing by over 60%. Put another way, for every inmate granted a UTA in 1995-96 almost three were granted UTAs in 1990-91.

Table 6-3: Number of reintegration UTAs by purpose and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Socializations Community Service Family Contact Parental Responsibility 15 Day Personal Development 60 Day Personal Development
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 1755 584 695 129 4645 1327 - - - -    
1991-92 1721 514 319 89 4258 1306 - - - -    
1992-93 1328 456 131 43 3559 1182 3 3 - -    
1993-94 657 216 70 46 2593 724 7 7 162 72 165 33
1994-95 17 6 17 7 2575 631 5 2 449 135 466 70
1995-96 2 2 25 7 2616 644 2 2 430 124 760 121
Total 5480 1778 1257 321 20 246 5834 17 14 1041 3311 1391 224
Average 17381 5491 210 54 3374 972 32 32 3472 1102 4642 752
(%)3 (28%) (31%) (3%) (3%) (55%) (55%) (> 1%) (> 1%) (6%) (4%) (5%) (3%)
1 Based on years 1990-91 to 1991-92; prior to CCRA (1992).

2 Based on three years 1993-94 to 1995-96; post-CCRA (1992).

3 Percentages are based on average numbers in the previous line.

Similar to the regional data presented for reintegration ETAs, wide variation was found in the distribution of reintegration UTAs, the offenders who were granted them and the on-register population within each of the five regions. Once again, the Pacific region accounted for 20% of all reintegration UTAs while incarcerating only 13% of all on-register offenders. The percentage of reintegration UTAs (27%) and on-register offenders (28%) were similar in the Ontario region, although a higher percentage of offenders were granted reintegration UTAs (38%). Lastly, the Atlantic region had a lower proportion of the reintegration UTAs than expected, at 5% while it contains 9% of the on-register population. However, the Atlantic region accounts for 10% of all offenders granted reintegration UTAs.

Figure 6-2 presents the proportion of on-register offenders granted reintegration UTAs by region. Results presented in the figure show that during the early part of the 1990s, approximately 15% of on-register offenders received a reintegration UTA, although this percentage was declining. After the CCRA was introduced, this figure dropped to less than 7% with the most dramatic decline occurring in the year following its introduction.

Throughout this period, the Prairie region granted the lowest percentage of reintegration UTAs. The percentage of UTAs in the Ontario region continued to decrease after the CCRA was introduced, but other regions maintained a relatively stable usage rate, or as in the case of the Atlantic region, there was an increase in the proportion of offenders granted reintegration UTAs.

Table 6-4: Number of reintegration UTAs and offenders by region and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Pacific Prairies Ontario Quebec Atlantic
Reint. UTAs Offs1 On-reg2 Reint. UTAs Offs On-reg Reint. UTAs Offs On-reg Reint. UTAs Offs On-reg Reint. UTAs Offs On-reg
1990-91 1565 279 1633 1391 164 2641 1793 595 3455 2037 535 3229 309 147 1003
1991-92 1530 241 1678 1051 145 2672 1736 669 3700 1719 454 3549 262 142 1120
1992-93 1009 191 1650 579 88 2775 1760 651 3724 1361 398 3544 312 162 1174
1993-94 789 118 1823 499 72 3087 1132 401 3865 1098 262 3747 136 76 1341
1994-95 517 90 1984 851 69 3325 727 267 3875 1220 255 3891 214 94 1464
1995-96 555 101 1993 953 81 3360 682 212 3852 1379 292 3804 266 123 1450
Total 5965 1020 10 761 5324 619 17 860 7830 2795 22 471 8814 2196 21 774 1499 7444 7552
Six Year Avg. 994 170 1794 887 103 2978 1305 466 3745 1469 366 3629 250 124 1259
(%) (20%) (14%) (13%) (18%) (8%) (22%) (27%) (38%) (28%) (30%) (30%) (27%) (5%) (10%) (9%)
1 Number of offenders granted reintegration UTAs.

2 Number of on-register offenders.
Figure 6-2: Percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration UTAs by region and fiscal year
Figure 6-2: Percentage of on-register offenders granted reintegration UTAs by region and fiscal year
Institutional Security Level

The number of reintegration UTAs and offenders for each institutional security level is presented in Table 6-5. Consistent with the trends already reported, the numbers have declined substantially across the three security levels. The largest declines were in the medium and maximum security institutions where the number of reintegration UTAs have decreased by 71% and 74% respectively, while the number of offenders receiving UTAs declined by 78% and 68%, respectively. In absolute terms, 701 offenders in medium security institutions received reintegration UTAs in 1990-91, while in 1995-96, the number had dropped to 152. The use of UTAs from maximum security prisons also declined, but this was expected given that maximum security offenders were no longer eligible for UTAs. The 19 offenders shown in Table 6-5 as receiving UTAs from a maximum security institution are mostly female offenders from the Prison for Women. This prison is classified as a maximum security prison, but houses inmates at all security levels. The drop was less dramatic for minimum security institutions where UTAs

declined from 4,687 in 1990-91 to 3,085 in 1995-96, representing 1,602 UTAs or about 34%. The decrease in the number of offenders was greater, falling from a high of 1,017 in 1990-91 to 632 in 1995-96, a decrease of 385 offenders or 38%.

Table 6-5: Number of reintegration UTAs by institutional security level and fiscal year
Fiscal Year Minimum Medium Maximum
Number Offenders Number Offenders Number Offenders
1990-91 4687 1017 2232 701 156 59
1991-92 3950 923 2158 722 170 58
1992-93 3191 927 1690 577 138 32
1993-94 2624 609 945 320 83 27
1994-95 2898 587 486 188 92 27
1995-96 3085 632 642 152 40 19
Total 20 435 4695 8153 2660 679 222
Six Year Avg. 3406 783 1359 443 113 37
(%) (70%) (62%) (28%) (35%) (2%) (3%)
Note: Security level was unknown for 85 reintegration UTAs.
Failures

The number of failures for reintegration UTAs was quite low, only 315 out of 29,117, representing a failure rate of just over 1%, over the six year period. Table 6-6 shows the number and percentage of failures for each fiscal year. The highest percentage of failures occurred in 1994-95 at 1.49% while the previous fiscal year reported the second highest failure rate at 1.20%. In 1995-96, the percentage of failures was lower than the previous two years at 1.01%. Failure rates did not decline with the reductions in UTAs granted.

Table 6-6: Number of reintegration UTA failures by fiscal year
Fiscal Year Reintegration UTAs
Success Failure % Failure
1990-91 7040 55 0.78
1991-92 6227 71 1.13
1992-93 4972 49 0.98
1993-94 3610 44 1.20
1994-95 3475 54 1.49
1995-96 3793 42 1.01
Total 3793 42 1.01
Six Year Avg. 4853 53 1.07

Offenders

The demographic, criminal history and offence characteristics of offenders granted reintegration UTAs was also examined. Over the six fiscal years, a total of 5,885 offenders were granted one or more reintegration UTAs. The average number for each offender was about five, with a range between 1 and 34. The average length of each UTA was two days, ranging from one to three days.

Male and females offenders received and equitable number of reintegration UTAs. Table 6-7 shows the percentage of reintegration UTAs for males and females compared to the average on-register offender population for the six year period. The percentages were almost identical, indicating that the proportion of male and female offenders who received reintegration UTAs was appropriate given the distribution of the on-register population.

Table 6-7: Number of reintegration UTA offenders by gender
Gender UTA Sample Six Year On-register Average
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
Males 5758 97.8 13 124 97.9
Females 127 2.2 279 2.1
Total 5885 100 13 403 100

Table 6-8 shows the percentage of Aboriginal offenders who were granted reintegration UTAs compared to non-Aboriginal offenders and the average on-register population. Only about 5% of offenders who received reintegration UTAs were Aboriginal, while 95% were non-Aboriginal. The proportion of Aboriginal offenders who received reintegration UTAs was well below the 12% average of the on-register offender population they represented over the six year period. In fact, using the latter as the expected rates, the number of Aboriginal offenders who did receive reintegration UTAs was 58% below what have been expected given their distribution in the on-register population.

Table 6-8: Number of reintegration UTA offenders by race
Race UTA Sample Six Year On-register Average
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
Non-Aboriginal 5570 94.6 11 733 87.5
Aboriginal 315 5.4 1670 12.5
Total 5885 100 13 403 100

The criminal history of offenders granted reintegration UTAs is presented in Table 6-9. About two-thirds had no previous federal admissions, while the remaining one-third had at least one or more. In addition, only 14% of offenders granted a UTA had previously had a conditional release revoked. Compared to the average on-register population between 1990-91 and 1993-945, a higher percentage of offenders granted reintegration UTAs had no previous admissions to a federal institution. The results suggest that lower risk offenders, who normally have none, or a low number of previous admissions or revocations, were more likely to be granted reintegration UTAs.

Table 6-9: Number of reintegration UTA offenders by criminal history
Criminal History UTA Sample Four Year On-register Average
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
No Previous Admissions 3948 67.1 6962 50.2
Previous Admissions 1928 32.9 6911 49.8
Total 5886 100 13 873 100
No Previous Revocations 5083 86.4 * *
Previous Admissions 803 13.6 * *
Total 5886 100 * *
* Comparable data for the on-register population was not available.

Over half (59%) of the sample of offenders granted reintegration UTAs were incarcerated for non-violent offences, about 27% had previous violent offences, 9% were convicted of drug offences and the remaining 4% were serving a sentence for a murder conviction. Table 6-10 shows the distribution of offence types in comparison to the average on-register population for the first four fiscal years.6 In general, offenders granted reintegration UTAs had a lower percentage of murder and violent offences and a notably higher proportion of drug or non-violent crimes. Once again, these data suggest that lower risk offenders, who are usually incarcerated for non-violent crimes, were more apt to receive a reintegration UTA.

Table 6-10: Number of reintegration UTA offenders by offence type
Offence Type UTA Sample Four Year On-register Average
Offenders Percent Offenders Percent
Murder 265 4.5 1913 13.8
Violent 1595 27.3 8554 61.7
Drug 532 9.1 1031 7.4
Non-violent 3460 59.1 2375 17.1
Total 5852 100 13 873 100
5 The data was obtained form the annual "Basic Facts About Corrections in Canada". The last edition covered 1993-94 and therefore comparable data for 1994-95 and 1995-96 was not available.

6 The data was obtained from the annual "Basic Facts About Corrections in Canada". The last edition covered 1993-94 and therefore comparable data for 1994-95 and 1995-96 was not available.

Summary

Overall, the results indicate a reduction in the use of reintegration UTAs from 1990-91 to 1995-96. The greatest reduction occurred following the introduction of the CCRA, but there was already a decreasing trend before it was implemented. The decline in use is evident both in terms of the number of releases and the number of offenders who were released. In fact, in the early 1990s, about 15% of offenders in institutions received a reintegration UTA, but this declined to 7% in the last few years. While the CCRA eliminated UTAs as an option for maximum security offenders this would not have had a major impact on the number of UTAs since very few offenders from maximum security institutions received UTAs before the Act was introduced.

The CCRA eliminated socialization as a purpose for which UTAs could be granted and increased the emphasis on TAs as part of a structured correctional plan. Socialization TAs were, in part, replaced by personal development TAs which could last for 15 or 60 days. Personal development UTAs appear to have been popular after their introduction and they accounted for an average of 14% of reintegration UTAs and 10% of the offenders who received them. After the CCRA was introduced, the use of community service UTAs practically disappeared, although some of the decline was likely due to the use of work release as an alternative. Parental responsibility UTAs, also introduced in the CCRA, were seldom used.

Accompanying the decline in community service UTAs was the decline in family contact UTAs. Maintaining contact with families is important for offenders, but these data suggest that efforts to maintain, and to develop links with families through family contact UTAs may have been reduced in the past few years.

The decline in the use of reintegration UTAs is evident in both minimum and medium security institutions, with the largest decrease at medium security institutions. At medium security institutions, the number of offenders who received reintegration UTAs dropped from 701 in 1990-91 to 152 in 1995-96.

Even though the number of UTAs declined, the failure rate did not. Failure rates for reintegration UTAs were approximately 1% a year, with no correlation between the number of releases and the failure rate.

The observed decline in reintegration UTAs was evident in all regions, with the greatest declines in the Ontario and Pacific regions. In these regions, the number of reintegration UTAs and the number of offenders who received reintegration UTAs dropped by about two-thirds, while in the other regions the decline was closer to 50%.

Analysis of results for offenders who received reintegration UTAs indicates that Aboriginal offenders were less likely to be granted a UTA than would be expected given their representation in the offender population. The results also indicated that offenders granted reintegration UTAs were more likely to have had fewer previous convictions and were more likely to have been convicted of less serious offences. Overall, these offenders would pose less risk to the community than other offenders.

The picture that emerges from analysis of reintegration UTAs is that the number of releases has declined as has the number of offenders given the opportunity to be released. The reasons for the decline are not evident in the data, but some of the effect can be traced to the implementation of the CCRA in 1992. The decline could also be the result of less emphasis by the Correctional Service of Canada on the value of UTAs, or on changing public attitudes. Prior to the CCRA, a review of the temporary absence program (Pepino, et al., 1992) stressed the need to ensure that higher risk offenders were not granted UTAs. In addition, the public appear to be less willing to accept the risk associated with having offenders in the community.

CHAPTER 7: DISCUSSION

The temporary absence program provides opportunities for offenders to participate in activities outside the highly structured prison environment. It allows offenders to do community work, to participate in treatment programs and to visit with family members. In addition, the program provides a means by which offenders can receive medical treatment that is not available in the institutions, deal with court and other legal issues and attend to urgent family matters.

Careful screening of offenders for temporary absences ensures that public safety is not compromised by offenders who are in the community while serving their sentences. Almost all temporary absence releases (more than 99%) return to the institution without incident, making it a safe program for the community.

While the number of offenders receiving temporary absences increased by 8% over the six years of the study, the number of offenders receiving reintegration ETAs and UTAs declined. The number of temporary absences also declined by 15%. The increase in the number of offenders granted TAs was the result of a 26% increase in the use of escorted absences for medical treatment. In addition, the number of medical TAs increased by 23%. Unfortunately, it cannot be argued that temporary absences for medical reasons contribute to the reintegration of offenders.

A more relevant indicator of the changes in the sue of temporary absences is the number of reintegration TAs. Reintegration TAs are granted for the purposes of family contact, community service, parental responsibility and personal development, and may be either escorted (ETA) or unescorted (UTA). Reintegration ETAs declined by 22% and the number of offenders who were granted them declined by 33% (From approximately 3,000 to 2,000). The decline in reintegration UTAs was even greater, dropping almost in half (46%), and the number of offenders granted UTAs decreased by more than half (53%) to about 800 in 1995-96. These declines occurred during a period when the offender population increased by 21%.

The observed declines were generally across regions, institutional security levels and TA purposes, with the exception of personal development TAs introduced by the CCRA.

The work release program was introduced by the CCRA and was expected to have an impact on the number of reintegration TAs. Data to be presented in a subsequent report (Grant and Beal, 1998), however, indicate that only between 300 and 400 offenders benefit from work releases each year. Therefore, the work release program cannot account for the observed decline in temporary absences. Accelerated parole review (APR) was also introduced by the CCRA and this may have reduced the number of low risk offenders in institutions. Again, subsequent research provides additional information on the impact of accelerated parole review on the number of temporary absences (Grant, 1998).

The remainder of the discussion addresses more specific issues associated with temporary absences. In particular, the impact of the CCRA is considered, changes to the numbers of specific types of TAs, the efficiency of the TA program, regional differences, offenders granted TAs, measuring TA use, actions required to address the decline in TAs and research questions which still need to be addressed. The majority of the discussion which follows is directed at reintegration TAs, the ones which are most likely to impact on offender reintegration into the community.

Impact of CCRA

By examining the percentage of offenders granted ETAs and UTAs, it is possible to estimate the CCRA's impact on the number of reintegration TAs. All regions showed a decline in the percentage of offenders granted ETAs and UTAs following the implementation of the CCRA. While there had been declines in the preceding two years, in some regions, the decline was most dramatic after 1992-93, the year the CCRA was enacted. It is unclear whether the decline was the result of the specific changes implemented by the CCRA or the general tone of the Act, which heightened the need to ensure the protection of society.

The CCRA changed the purposes for which reintegration ETAs and UTAs could be granted. These changes were supposed to increase the number of TAs and decrease regional disparities in the use of TAs. However, neither of these effects are evident in the results. In fact, regional disparities are probably greater now and the number of reintegration TAs has declined. The CCRA introduced two major changes to the purposes for which TAs could be granted. First, it eliminated socialization as a purpose for granting TAs and it introduced personal development TAs.

Prior to the CCRA, socialization TAs accounted for 35% of all ETAs and 25% of all UTAs. Socialization TAs were very broadly defined and could include almost anything form shopping to recreational activities. They were frequently used to provide offenders with community activities that they had been unable to experience during their period in custody and yet would have to face once released. The elimination of this type of TA was probably one of the main reasons for the observed decline.

Personal development TAs were introduced by the CCRA. The purpose of these TAs is to provide offenders with new opportunities for seeking treatment and training programs outside of institutions. Personal development ETAs, which can last up to 15 days, accounted for 55% of all reintegration ETAs in 1995-96, and provided TA opportunities for about 1,500 offenders in each of 1994-95 and 1995-96. Personal development UTAs can be for 15 or 60 days. Fifteen and 60 day personal development UTAs accounted for 8% and 20% respectively, of all UTA releases in 1995-96. Fifteen day personal development TAs are frequently spread over a number of weeks and provide opportunities to attend weekly sessions of a treatment or training program. Sixty day personal development UTAs provide extended periods away from the institution. These types of TAs have provided new opportunities for offenders and offset some of the loss in numbers associated with the elimination of socialization TAs. Additional information on personal development TAs is provided in a subsequent report (Grant and Johnson, 1998).

Temporary absences to deal with parental responsibilities are also permitted under the CCRA. Their use, however, has been very limited, with only 15 offenders granted this type of ETA, and only two offenders granted UTAs for parental responsibility during 1995-96.

The CCRA eliminated the use of UTAs for high risk offenders classified as maximum security. The analyses in this study looked at security from the perspective of the institution the offender was housed in since offender classification were not available prior to the CCRA. Results indicate that this change had very little impact on the number of UTAs. In 1990-91 only 59 offenders in maximum security institutions were granted UTAs and in 1995-96 this had declined to 19. Most offenders granted UTAs form maximum security institutions are actually females, at the Prison for Women, which is a multilevel institution, but is classified administratively as a maximum security institution.

Identifying Reasons for the Decline

In addition to the elimination of socialization as a purpose for ETAs and UTAs, the factor which appears to be most responsible for the decline in numbers is the dramatic drop in reintegration ETAs from medium and maximum security institutions and the drop in UTAs from medium security institutions. Over the six years of the study, ETAs form medium security institutions declined by 52% and by 71% from maximum security institutions. Declines in the number of offenders were similar, such that in 1995-96 only about 400 offenders from medium security institutions received a reintegration ETA. UTAs from medium security institutions dropped by over 71%m while the number of offenders dropped by 78%, with only 152 offenders in medium security institutions granted UTAs in 1995-96.

If failure rates for reintegration ETAs and UTAs had been climbing, a reduction in their use might have been reasonable in order to ensure the protection of society. However, failure rates for ETAs and UTAs were constant in the two years prior to the introduction of the CCRA and actually increased after the Act was implemented. The pre-CCRA failure rate for reintegration ETAs was less than one failure per 1,000 releases and this increased to 3.2 failures per 1,000 releases after the CCRA came into effect. The failure rate for UTAs remained relatively constant at about 10 per 1,000 releases throughout the six years studied. These results suggest that the increased emphasis on public safety in the CCRA did not in fact result in an increase in public safety. In addition, the decline in the number of TAs did not result in lowering the failure rate, meaning that the selection criteria being used to grant TAs prior to the CCRA had already ensured minimal community risk.

Purposes

Some changes in the number of TAs can be explained by looking at the purposes for which they were granted. This section discusses these changes.

The only increase in TAs was in their use for medical purposes. Both the number of medical TAs and the number of offenders receiving medical TAs increased. These changes were consistent with the increases in the offender population and therefore are not likely to indicate a change in policy towards more external medical care. Given the relationship between changes in the inmate population and changes in medical TAs, it may be possible, in future research, to use medical TAs as a baseline against which changes in other TAs can be measured.

It is surprising that frequency of family contact and parental responsibility ETAs and UTAs ahs been declining. These types of TAs help offenders maintain community and family contact, which has been linked to reduced recidivism (Hairston, 1998; Schafer, 1994). These TAs also provide opportunities for offenders to re-establish contacts outside the prison; contacts which should assist in the transition from prison to community living.

Compassionate TAs provide another opportunity to assist offenders in maintaining contact with the family and for dealing with periods of family crisis. These TAs allow offenders to visit a family member who is seriously ill or to attend a funeral. During the six years of the study, the number of compassionate TAs increased by 50%, and the number of offenders granted compassionate TAs increased by a similar amount. The number of compassionate UTAs, however, declined quite sharply. Aboriginal offenders were granted about 20% of the compassionate TAs in most years, while accounting for about 12% of the inmate population.

Personal development TAs have increased dramatically since they were permitted by the CCRA. These extended 15 and 60 day TAs provide treatment and training opportunities for offenders. A large proportion of the 15 day TAs are spread over a number of weeks, rather than being taken as one block of time. Additional information on personal development TAs are presented in a subsequent report (Grant & Johnson, 1998).

Efficiency

The use of community volunteers and group ETAs increase the efficiency of the temporary absence program. Using community volunteers to supervise low risk offenders reduces the cost of temporary absences, or alternatively, provides more opportunities for release. In addition, the value of volunteer escorts was outlined in an earlier audit report (Correctional Service of Canada, 1992). This study shows, however, a reduction in the use of community volunteers. In 1990-91, approximately 23,000 reintegration ETAs were supervised by volunteers, but by 1995-96 this had decreased to about 12,000. The decline in the number of offenders supervised by a volunteer was even more dramatic. In 1990-91, approximately 3,000 offenders received ETAs with a community volunteer, but this declined to about 1,000 in 1995-96.

Group ETAs also contribute to the efficiency of the TA program by allowing a single escort to supervise multiple offenders. However, the number of group ETAs has also declined by about 30%, as has the number of offenders who have had the opportunity to be released on a group ETA.

Regional Differences

Regional differences in the use of temporary absences did not decline over the six years of the study, and changes observed at the national level were generally mirrored in each region. That is, the observed declines were in all regions, although they were greater in some than in others. The Pacific region makes the greatest use of TAs, accounting for 37% of all reintegration ETA departures and 20% of the UTAs, while having only 13% of the offender population. The Prairie region makes the lease use of TAs for reintegration purposes, although in the last three years they have increased the number of reintegration ETAs significantly. While the Atlantic and Quebec regions have proportionately fewer departures for reintegration ETAs, they provide opportunities to larger number of different offenders.

Measuring Performance of TAs

Although not a goal of the study, the analyses make it possible to comment on how to measure performance of the TA program. The large disparity in the number of TAs across regions suggests that different procedures and guidelines are being used. Therefore, comparing regions or institutions should not be done on the basis of the number of TA departures. In addition, TAs which serve mostly administrative functions should not be included in measures of program activity. It follows, then, that medical, administrative and compassionate TAs should not be included in measures of TA program activity, although there might be value in monitoring compassionate TAs to ensure equality of access across regions.

Given that group ETAs account for almost 80% of all reintegration ETA departures, a method is needed to ensure that group TAs do not inflate the measure of program activity.

Based on these observations, it would appear that counting the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs and the number of offenders granted reintegration UTAs might be the best method for determining TA performance across regions and institutions. Given that one of the goals of TAs is to provide offenders with experience outside the institution so they will be better prepared for their release, the more offenders who receive a TA release, the more impact the program will have. While granting a large number of TAs to the same offenders may assist those offenders, it does not provide opportunities to the largest number of offenders.

For an appropriate measure of performance, the number of offenders granted reintegration ETAs and UTAs should be converted to a percentage of the offender population in each region or institution. The resulting indicator would then be corrected for the differences in the size of the offender population in each region. If a further refinement of the indicator was needed, it would be possible to also adjust for risk and need levels across regions using information from the offender intake assessment process.

Data Issues

The results presented in Chapter 2 suggest that there is a need to review the way TA information is recorded in the Offender Management System. Specifically, there is no consistent way to track 15 day personal development TAs or sequences of TAs which may be part of a TA program. Fifteen day TAs are recorded on the basis of departures form an institution and therefore the numbers for these TAs reflect the number of departures not the actual number of 15 day TAs. The data also indicate that some offenders receive a large number of consecutive TAs, but it is not possible, using current data, to determine if these TAs meet with the requirements of the Act or the regulations. It is recommended that these issues be reviewed to ensure that both accurate and complete information is available.

Offenders Granted TAs

Offenders granted reintegration ETAs and UTAs are more likely to be first time federal offenders and are less likely to have been convicted of murder or violent offences. While 60% of offenders released on reintegration TAs had not committed a violent or drug offence, only 17% of the inmate population had a similar offence pattern. This result suggests that TAs are being used with lower risk offenders.

Females are equally likely to receive reintegration ETAs and UTAs as are male offenders. However, female offenders are more likely to participate in individual reintegration ETAs and less likely to participate in group ETAs.

Participation in reintegration ETAs is slightly lower than expected for Aboriginal offenders and participation in reintegration UTAs is significantly lower. While Aborigial offenders account for 12% to 13% of the offender population, they account for only about 9% of reintegration ETAs and only 5% of reintegration UTAs. Aboriginal offenders, however, are more likely to have been convicted of assaults and sexual offences, reducing their likelihood of release on unescorted temporary absences. Aboriginal offenders are more likely to receive compassionate TAs, accounting for about 20% of those granted.

Limitation

One factor which has not been addressed in this report is the risk profile of the offender population this could be one explanation for the decrease in temporary absences. However, it seems unlikely that the magnitude of the observed decline would be explained by changes in the inmate population.

Required Action

Motiuk and Belcourt (1996) present data which indicate that participation on temporary absences is associated with release on full parole and the successful completion of sentences. These results, combined with the observed decline in the number of reintegration ETAs and UTAs, suggest that additional efforts may be needed to increase the use of temporary absences. UTAs, in particular, are an important indicator of future release outcome and therefore should be employed on a wider scale.

Temporary absences need to be viewed as one element in the process of gradual reintegration. ETAs provide a first opportunity to observe the offender in a community setting and to assess the offender's ability to function safely. Successful participation, first with individual ETAs and then with group ETAs, provides the offenders with increased community exposure without increasing the risk to society, as indicated by the extremely low failure rates. UTAs then, provide the first opportunity for the offender to return to the community without direct supervision, but for a very limited period of time. The gradual release process should allow offenders to put into action the skills learned in treatment programs. If problems arise during these relatively short periods of release they can be addressed during follow up treatment.

While the evidence is not complete, it appears that the CCRA had a negative impact on the temporary absence program by making case management personnel more concerned about ensuring public safety, resulting in less emphasis on the reintegration potential of TAs. However, if offenders are more likely to commit new offences after release because they have not benefited from TA programs, then there will have been no public safety gain. A change in approach, which looks at longer term risk, that is, risk beyond the completion of the current release, may be needed if we are to decrease the overall risk to the public.

One of the purposes of this study was to provide a description of the trends in the use of temporary absences. While this study provides a picture of what has been happening with TAs it does not provide insight into how TAs contribute to future release decisions or how they affect post-release outcome. Motiuk and Belcourt (1996) have addressed these issues for one group of offenders, but were unable to extend their evaluation beyond one year. The next phase of this project will explore the role of TAs in release outcome over the six years studied. In addition, research is being conducted on personal development TAs to determine what they are being used for and how they contribute to release outcome (Grant & Johnson, 1998).

REFERENCES

Correctional Service of Canada (1992). Temporary Absence Program: Internal Audit Report (378-1-026)

Grant, B. A. (1998). Accelerated Parole Review: Were the Objectives Met, Ottawa: Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada.

Grant, B. A., and Belcourt, R.L. (1992). An analysis of temporary absences and the people who receive them. (R-25), Ottawa: Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada.

Grant, B. A., and Beal, C. A. (1998). Work Release Program: How it is used and for what purposes., Ottawa: Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada.

Grant, B, A., and Johnson, S. L. (1998). Personal development temporary absences., Ottawa: Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada.

Hairston, C. F. (1988). Family ties during imprisonment: Do they influence future criminal activity. Federal Probation, (March) 48 - 52.

HM Prison Service. (1995). Release on Temporary Licence (IG36/1995). London: HM Prison Service.

LeClair, D. (1978). Home furlough program effects on rates of recidivism. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 5:249-258.

LeClair, D., and Guarino-Ghezzi, S. (1991). Does incapacitation guarantee public safety? Lessons from the Massachusetts furlough and prerelease programs. Justice Quarterly, 8(1), 9-36.

Marlette, M. (1990). Furloughs tightened: Success rates high. Corrections Compendium, 14(1), 1-21.

Mohlmann, F. (1992). Analysis of failured temporary absences: 1 April 1990 to 20 October 1991. Internal Correctional Service of Canada report.

Motiuk, L.L. and Belcourt, R.L. (1996). Temporary absence program participation and the release of federal offenders. (R-51), Ottawa: Research Branch, Correctional Service of Canada,.

Pepino, N.J., Pépin, L., and Stewart, R.J. (1992). Report of the Panel Appointed to Review the Temporary Absence Program for Penitentiary Inmates. Ottawa: Solicitor General of Canada.

Schafer, N.E. (1994). Exploring the link between visits and parole success: A survey of prison visitors. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 17-32, 38(1)

APPENDIX A

Table A-1: Reintegration ETAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Minimum Security Institutions (Offenders Granted Group or Individual ETAs)
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Westmorland 1770 2228 2026 1673 2874 1729 2050
 
Quebec FTC - Quebec - MED 67 3 . . . . 12
FTC - Quebec - MIN . 73 228 612 1071 1365 558
Montee St. Francois 1089 1105 854 793 1525 1201 1095
Ste.-Anne-des-plaines 1896 1787 1998 1281 1581 1296 1640
 
Ontario Prison for Women . . . . 4 22 4
Beaver Creek 3956 2575 1474 1324 1454 1443 2038
Frontenac 3070 2069 2245 2964 3052 3699 2850
Pittsburg 1949 2221 1543 1563 1201 1386 1644
 
Prairies Riverbend 476 363 188 120 39 102 215
Rockwood 442 729 830 1424 1919 1770 1186
 
Pacific Elbow Lake 5461 4484 4422 4345 4028 3540 4380
Ferndale 5809 5590 4290 4686 6499 3352 5038
Table A-2: Reintegration ETAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Minimum Security Institutions (Offenders Granted Individual ETAs Only)
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Westmorland 7 . 13 26 50 54 25
 
Quebec FTC - Quebec - MED 140 6 . . . . 24
FTC - Quebec - MIN . 76 118 209 180 149 122
Montee St. Francois 58 50 62 51 33 107 60
Ste.-Anne-des-plaines 33 26 42 66 53 115 56
 
Ontario Prison for Women              
Beaver Creek 6 13 35 19 18 36 21
Frontenac 24 40 24 15 35 60 33
Pittsburg 10 1 6 . 4 3 4
 
Prairies Riverbend 10 2 9 29 43 155 41
Rockwood 1 2 2 7 6 3 3
 
Pacific Elbow Lake . 2 2 7 6 3 3
Ferndale 6 9 56 28 63 38 33
Table A-3: Reintegration ETAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Medium Security Institution (Offenders Granted Group or Individual ETAs)
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Dorchester 28 21 32 52 37 37 35
Springhill 515 372 336 61 49 71 234
 
Quebec Archambault - MED . 1 696 252 9 9 161
Archambault - MAX . . . . . . .
Cowansville 36 12 10 5 . 1 11
Drummond 404 199 77 14 15 1 118
La Macaza 102 44 21 13 14 53 41
Leclerc 24 18 11 2 . . 9
 
Ontario Bath - MED . . . . 177 20 33
Bath - MIN 1141 1457 1951 837 58 . 907
Collins Bay 39 30 18 8 2 . 16
Joyceville 23 21 33 13 9 4 17
Warkworth 44 22 9 23 5 4 18
 
Prairies Bowden 50 54 7 . . 1 19
Drumheller 19 20 4 . 1 . 7
Sask. Pen. 2 3 98 1328 1102 1122 609
Stony Mountain 29 21 23 23 30 27 26
 
Pacific Matsqui 6 4 28 45 6 14 17
Mission 123 57 64 61 31 13 58
Mountain 852 508 110 71 19 2 260
William Head 163 80 115 190 103 60 119
Table A-4: Reintegration ETAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Medium Security Institution (Offenders Granted Individual ETAs Only)
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Dorchester 42 35 46 24 43 63 42
Springhill 16 44 51 49 48 98 51
 
Quebec Archambault - MED . 9 45 20 34 30 23
Archambault - MAX 1 1 . . . . 0
Cowansville 62 74 55 22 9 15 40
Drummond 46 59 52 39 6 3 34
La Macaza 112 63 31 18 15 21 43
Leclerc 54 32 26 9 3 1 21
 
Ontario Bath - MED . . . . 13 49 10
Bath - MIN 10 4 28 38 2 . 14
Collins Bay 70 33 41 16 25 18 34
Joyceville 74 37 63 58 13 10 43
Warkworth 43 45 33 47 45 38 42
 
Prairies Bowden 134 57 84 51 41 37 67
Drumheller 157 190 80 56 121 99 117
Sask. Pen. 5 2 8 7 1 1 4
Stony Mountain 55 93 60 13 40 73 56
 
Pacific Matsqui 9 18 37 55 17 28 27
Mission 51 55 109 82 26 25 58
Mountain 16 23 12 14 36 29 22
William Head 36 6 16 90 138 134 70
Table A-5: Reintegration ETAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Maximum Security Institutions (Offenders Granted Group or Individual ETAs)
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Atlantic . . . 12 . . 2
 
Quebec Donnacona 12 13 . 4 2 . 5
Port Cartier . . 1 . . . 0
RRC - Quebec 3 1 1 . . . 1
 
Ontario Prison for Women 719 585 550 159 99 69 364
Kingston 8 9 5 1 . . 4
Millhaven . . . . . . .
Millhaven A.U. . . . . . . .
RTC - Ontario 1 1 . . . . 0
 
Prairies Edmonton . 11 13 . . . 4
RPC - Prairies . . 3 2 4 . 2
SHU - Prairies . . . . . . .
 
Pacific Kent . . . . . . .
RPC - Pacific . 1 . . . . 0
Table A-6: Reintegration ETAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Maximum Security Institutions (Offenders Granted Individual ETAs Only)
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Atlantic 4 . . 9 22 16 9
 
Quebec Donnacona 27 8 2 1 . . 6
Port Cartier . . 1 . . . 0
RRC - Quebec 9 1 . 1 . 1 2
 
Ontario Prison for Women 142 282 203 441 485 194 291
Kingston 14 30 33 10 2 . 15
Millhaven . . . 1 . . 0
Millhaven A.U. . . . . 1 . 0
RTC - Ontario 3 2 . 2 . . 1
 
Prairies Edmonton 24 22 11 4 . . 10
RPC - Prairies 40 27 24 17 19 12 23
SHU - Prairies . . 1 . . . 0
 
Pacific Kent . . 1 1 . . 0
RPC - Pacific . 1 11 1 1 . 2
Table A-7: Reintegration UTAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Minimum Security Institutions
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Westmorland 239 185 223 80 155 176 176
 
Quebec FTC - Quebec - MED 316 18 . . . . 56
FTC - Quebec - MIN . 139 230 318 542 643 312
Montee St. Francois 659 632 445 333 340 430 473
Ste.-Anne-des-plaines 605 461 401 284 211 227 365
 
Ontario Prison for Women . . . . 1 88 15
Beaver Creek 256 172 192 248 198 200 211
Frontenac 485 373 476 351 286 262 372
Pittsburg 381 284 210 115 50 46 181
 
Prairies Riverbend 330 302 151 129 260 291 244
Rockwood 486 433 268 243 493 284 368
 
Pacific Elbow Lake 187 150 173 123 86 122 140
Ferndale 743 801 422 400 276 316 493
Table A-8: Reintegration UTAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Medium Security Institutionss
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Dorchester 8 16 5 6 15 18 11
Springhill 61 61 83 48 44 44 57
 
Quebec Archambault - MED . 16 63 21 5 1 18
Cowansville 179 171 123 54 18 32 96
Drummond 100 148 60 66 16 4 66
La Macaza 11 16 21 17 23 29 20
Leclerc 112 67 18 4 4 1 34
 
Ontario Bath - MED . . . . 31 26 10
Bath - MIN 321 545 456 240 22 . 264
Collins Bay 142 148 164 48 16 8 88
Joyceville 12 36 61 28 8 1 24
Warkworth 126 99 63 20 31 9 58
 
Prairies Bowden 382 129 97 93 34 65 133
Drumheller 98 119 39 24 41 277 100
Sask. Pen. 10 2 . 1 20 10 7
Stony Mountain 51 29 24 9 3 2 20
 
Pacific Matsqui 10 23 32 7 6 7 14
Mission 93 40 32 6 15 5 32
Mountain 189 272 216 153 30 52 152
William Head 327 221 133 100 104 50 156
Table A-9: Reintegration UTAs by Institution and Fiscal Year: Maximum Security Institution
Region Institution 90-91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 6 Year Average
Atlantic Atlantic . . 1 1 . . 0
 
Quebec Donnacona 55 50 . 1 8 . 19
 
Ontario Prison for Women 66 79 129 79 80 39 79
Kingston 4 . 7 2 3 . 3
RTC - Ontario . . . . 1 1 0
 
Prairies Edmonton 29 37 . . . . 11
RPC - Prairies 1 . . . . . 0
 
Pacific Kent . . 1 . . . 0
RPC - Pacific 1 4 . . . . 1
Date Modified: 2015-03-05

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