Corrections in Yukon—Department of Justice

Opening Statement to the Yukon Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Corrections in Yukon—Department of Justice

(2015 March Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Yukon Legislative Assembly)

9 June 2015

Jerome Berthelette
Assistant Auditor General

Good morning, everyone. Madam Chair, I am pleased to be in Whitehorse today to discuss our report on corrections in Yukon. This report was tabled on March 5th in the Yukon Legislative Assembly. With me are members of the audit team, Michelle Salvail and Ruth Sullivan.

In this audit, we looked at whether the Department of Justice adequately planned for and operated the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

We found that the Department of Justice adequately planned the Whitehorse Correctional Centre. The facility was designed and built to meet the territory’s identified current and future needs for housing inmates. This included taking into account requirements for space to ensure the safe and secure custody of inmates and to meet program obligations for inmates. We also found that the Department was working to address recruitment challenges and its reliance on overtime.

In addition, we looked at whether the Department was meeting its key responsibilities for offenders within the corrections system, including inmates in the Whitehorse Correctional Centre and offenders under community supervision. The Department is responsible for developing and providing access to programs and services to help prepare offenders for reintegration into the community.

The Department is required to identify an offender’s rehabilitation needs and major areas of risk of reoffending. It is also required to use that assessment to develop a case plan for the offender. The case plan is intended to include programs and services that address the offender’s rehabilitation needs and major areas of risk of reoffending.

We found that the Department is missing two key opportunities to better prepare an offender for successful reintegration into the community: The first is when the offender begins serving a sentence in the Whitehorse Correctional Centre, and the second is when the offender makes the transition to community supervision.

We found gaps in the case management of offenders in the correctional centre, and even larger gaps in the case management of offenders under community supervision. For example, in our sample, 88 percent of offenders in the correctional centre had case plans, but only 38 percent of offenders under community supervision had case plans.

We also found that the Department is not providing offenders with sufficient access to rehabilitation programs. Of the 21 offenders in our sample who were identified as needing core rehabilitation programs, 13 were not offered all the programs while they were in the correctional centre. Of those 13 offenders, 12 were not offered all the programs after their transition to community supervision. As a result, those 12 offenders completed their sentences without getting access to all the rehabilitation programs identified for them.

This finding matters because the primary goal of Yukon Correctional Services is the safe reintegration of offenders into communities as law-abiding citizens. By not doing all that is required to help offenders with their rehabilitation, healing, and reintegration into the community, the Department is not meeting this goal.

Addressing the problems we found in our audit will allow the Department to improve offenders’ chances for rehabilitation and better prepare them for successful reintegration into the community.

Madam Chair, this concludes my opening statement. I am happy to answer any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.