Preparing Women Offenders for Release—Correctional Service Canada

Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Preparing Women Offenders for Release—Correctional Service Canada

(Report 5—2017 Fall Reports of the Auditor General of Canada)

17 April 2018

Michael Ferguson, Chartered Professional AccountantCPA, Chartered AccountantCA
Fellow Chartered Professional AccountantFCPA, Fellow Chartered AccountantFCA (New Brunswick)
Auditor General of Canada

Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to speak about the results of our audit on how Correctional Service Canada—or CSC—prepares women offenders for release. Joining me at the table is Carol McCalla, the Principal responsible for this audit.

Our audit focused on the timely access to rehabilitation programs and services for almost 700 women offenders in federal custody. Indigenous women have grown to represent 36% of the women offender population. Although CSC cannot control the number of offenders who receive federal sentences, it can provide them with timely access to rehabilitation programs and culturally appropriate services to prepare them for early release on parole.

We found that the tool CSC used to assign security levels was designed to assess men, not women. CSC also used this tool to refer women offenders to correctional programs, which is problematic because the tool was not designed for this purpose. As a result, some women offenders were held at a higher security level than necessary and were assigned to rehabilitation programs that they did not need.

We found that CSC did not provide women offenders with the rehabilitation programs they needed when they needed them. Most women offenders in federal custody were serving short-term sentences, which often meant that they became eligible for release within the first year of their sentences. However, the majority of women offenders had not completed the rehabilitation programs they needed when they first became eligible for parole, because they did not get timely access to them. As a result, they had less time to benefit from a gradual and structured release into the community, which would support their successful reintegration.

However, we found that CSC increased the use of section 84 release plans for Indigenous women offenders, under which Indigenous organizations or communities are part of the reintegration process. Indigenous offenders with these release plans are more likely to be granted parole than other Indigenous offenders.

But we also found that access to culturally specific programs for Indigenous women offenders was limited at some institutions. For example, Healing Lodges were available only in one region, and they operated at capacity. We found that offenders who participated in Healing Lodge programs had low rates of reoffending on release, yet CSC had not examined ways to provide greater access to more Indigenous offenders.

We also found that CSC used segregation to manage some women offenders, and about half of the women offenders placed in segregation were Indigenous. We found that despite a reduction in the total number of offenders segregated each year, 20% of segregation placements were for longer than 15 days, the limit recommended by some prisoners’ rights groups.

Two thirds of sentenced women offenders have been identified as having mental health issues. We found that CSC did not have sufficient capacity to deliver the mental health services that women offenders needed. Mental health teams were not fully staffed across the women’s institutions, and CSC’s one psychiatric hospital operated at or near capacity over the past two years. CSC had not yet secured additional beds within provincial psychiatric hospitals to address identified shortfalls. We also found that CSC used cells on its segregation range to monitor women offenders at risk of self-harm or suicide, without 24-hour access to clinical treatment or support.

We are pleased to report that CSC has agreed with all of our recommendations and has committed to taking corrective action. In particular, CSC agreed to no longer place women offenders at risk of self-harm or suicide in cells on the segregation range.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening statement. We would be pleased to answer any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.