SCRA Committee Report

RECOMMENDATION 1

The Sub-committee recommends that section 4 and section 101 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended so that the paramountcy of the protection of society is established as the (stand-alone) basic principle applicable to the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board. What remains of section 4 and section 101 is to be retained, as amended, as guiding principles.

RECOMMENDATION 2

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended by adding child pornography offences and criminal organization offences (as defined in section 2 of the Criminal Code) to the schedules. As it further amends criminal legislation, Parliament should consider adding other offences such as deceptive telemarketing to the schedules as a means of denouncing criminal conduct.

RECOMMENDATION 3

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to allow a police officer observing an offender to be in breach of a condition of any form of conditional release to arrest that offender without warrant.

RECOMMENDATION 4

The Sub-committee recommends that section 19 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require the Correctional Service to investigate and report to the Commissioner of Corrections on the job-related death of, or serious bodily injury to, correctional staff.

RECOMMENDATION 5

The Sub-committee recommends that section 17 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require that only Correctional Service staff be authorized to act as escorts in the escorted temporary absences accorded to maximum-security inmates.

RECOMMENDATION 6

The Sub-committee recommends that the Correctional Service of Canada increase its efforts and allocate additional resources (1) to obtain more quickly the information considered necessary to conduct offender intake assessments that are effective for offenders' safe reintegration into the community; and (2) to ensure that the information it receives is accurate and complete.

RECOMMENDATION 7

The Sub-committee recommends that the Correctional Service of Canada increase its efforts in community programs and allocate more resources to them, in order to ensure that offenders on conditional release receive the support considered necessary for their successful reintegration into the community.

RECOMMENDATION 8

The Sub-committee recommends that paragraph 4(h) and subsection 151(3) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended by adding offenders who are young, elderly, or have serious health problems to the list of offender groups considered to have special needs.

RECOMMENDATION 9

The Sub-committee recommends that the Correctional Service of Canada create a deputy commissioner for Aboriginal offenders position, with powers and responsibilities similar to those of the existing deputy commissioner for women position.

RECOMMENDATION 10

Since previous Auditor General of Canada audits of the process of reintegration into the community have not addressed issues specific to women or Aboriginal offenders, the Sub-committee recommends that the Auditor General carry out an evaluation of the process of reintegration into the community available to women, as well as an evaluation of the process available to Aboriginal offenders in the federal correctional system.

RECOMMENDATION 11

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require Correctional Service Canada to review all cases eligible for statutory release in order to determine whether they should be referred to the National Parole Board for a detention review.

RECOMMENDATION 12

The Sub-committee recommends also that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require the National Parole Board to review all cases eligible for statutory release in order to determine whether special conditions need to be attached to the inmate's release and, if so, to identify these conditions.

RECOMMENDATION 13

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to ensure that the accelerated parole review procedure is not available to offenders incarcerated for offences listed in Schedule II to the Act, regardless of whether there has been a judicial determination of parole eligibility.

RECOMMENDATION 14

The Sub-committee also recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to ensure that the National Parole Board, in reviewing the cases of offenders eligible for accelerated parole review and determining whether they should be released on day parole or full parole, takes into account the general recidivism criterion.

RECOMMENDATION 15

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended in order to combine work releases and escorted and unescorted temporary absences into a single structure and to make the Correctional Service responsible for granting, renewing and extending these forms of conditional release at its discretion.

RECOMMENDATION 16

The Sub-committee recommends that a provision be added to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act providing offenders with the possibility of requesting National Parole Board reviews of Correctional Service decisions concerning escorted and unescorted temporary absences.

RECOMMENDATION 17

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to include, in the list of grounds for granting escorted and unescorted temporary absence release, participation in educational, occupational, and life-skills training programs.

RECOMMENDATION 18

The Sub-committee recommends that section 116 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to allow institutional heads to grant escorted temporary absences for group activities considered likely to foster offenders' socialization.

RECOMMENDATION 19

The Sub-committee recommends that section 121 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to make offenders serving life sentences or indeterminate sentences who are terminally ill eligible for parole on compassionate grounds. In these cases, the Act must provide that National Parole Board decisions are subject to approval by the Chair of the Board.

RECOMMENDATION 20

The Sub-committee recommends that section 121(1)(d) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended so that offenders subject to deportation orders under the Immigration Act are considered exceptional cases and may thus be granted parole solely for the purposes of deportation at any time during their sentences.

RECOMMENDATION 21

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to provide for the adjudication (by independent chairpersons appointed by the Solicitor General as part of the inmate discipline process) of involuntary administrative segregation cases every 30 calendar days and of voluntary administrative segregation cases every 60 calendar days.

RECOMMENDATION 22

The Sub-committee recommends that section 30 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to add a new level of security classification to be known as special security and that section 18 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Regulations also be amended to define the new level of security classification.

RECOMMENDATION 23

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Corrections and Conditional Release Regulations be amended to provide a complete legal foundation for the continued existence of the special handling unit and the transfer, review and monitoring measures to which it is subject in its day-to-day operation. Provision should be made in these amendments for representation from outside the Correctional Service on the Special Handling Unit National Review Committee.

RECOMMENDATION 24

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to allow for the appointment of independent chairpersons and senior independent chairpersons for five-year renewable terms, during good behaviour, by the Solicitor General. The amendment should specify that independent chairpersons are to exercise adjudicative functions with respect to administrative segregation and serious disciplinary offences. Finally, the amendment should set out criteria to be applied in the selection and appointment of independent chairpersons.

RECOMMENDATION 25

The Sub-committee recommends that subsection 163(3) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Regulations be amended to require the National Parole Board to render, wherever possible, post-suspension decisions within 45 days of case referral or offender reincarceration.

RECOMMENDATION 26

The Sub-committee recommends that section 141 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require the National Parole Board to advise an offender in writing of the reasons for withholding information to be used in the consideration of a case. The Parole Board should also be prohibited from considering withheld information where the offender has not been advised in writing of the reasons for non-disclosure.

RECOMMENDATION 27

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to prevent National Parole Board members appointed to the Appeal Division from participating in any other parole decisions during their terms as members of that Division. Regional members of the National Parole Board should also be prevented from participating in Appeal Division decisions. At least one member of each Appeal Division panel reviewing a case should be a lawyer.

RECOMMENDATION 28

The Sub-committee recommends that sections 192 and 193 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended so that the annual and special reports of the Correctional Investigator are submitted simultaneously to the Minister and to Parliament.

RECOMMENDATION 29

The Sub-committee recommends that section 192 and section 193 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended so that the annual and special reports of the Correctional Investigator are automatically referred to the standing committee of the House of Commons responsible for considering the activities of the Office of the Correctional Investigator.

RECOMMENDATION 30

The Sub-committee recommends that section 195 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended so the responses by the Correctional Service to the recommendations by the Correctional Investigator are included in the Correctional Investigator's annual and special reports.

RECOMMENDATION 31

The Sub-committee recommends that section 170 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require the Correctional Investigator to conduct an independent investigation when an inmate is seriously injured or dies, even if another investigation is already being conducted under section 19 or section 20 of the Act.

RECOMMENDATION 32

The Sub-committee recommends that the budget of the Office of the Correctional Investigator be increased in order to expand the number of investigators and cover directly related expenses such as office equipment, communications, and travel required to conduct investigations.

RECOMMENDATION 33

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to include a provision requiring the Correctional Service to establish representative local citizens' advisory committees at each penitentiary and parole office in Canada, and including a general description of these committees' advisory, independent observer and liaison roles.

RECOMMENDATION 34

The Sub-committee recommends that section 82 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require the Correctional Service to establish regional Aboriginal advisory committees.

RECOMMENDATION 35

The Sub-committee recommends that section 77 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be replaced by a section requiring the Correctional Service to establish a national women's advisory committee responsible for advising it on providing appropriate correctional services to women offenders.

RECOMMENDATION 36

The Sub-committee recommends that paragraphs 26(1)(b) and 142(1)(b) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to allow for the provision to victims, as defined in the Act, of offender information related to offender program participation, offender institutional conduct, and new offences committed by a conditionally released offender resulting in reincarceration.

RECOMMENDATION 37

The Sub-committee recommends that subparagraph 26(1)(b)(ii) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to allow for the Correctional Service of Canada to advise victims (as defined in the Act) in a timely manner, and wherever possible in advance, of the planned, anticipated, or scheduled routine transfer of inmates.

RECOMMENDATION 38

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to facilitate victim access, for consultation purposes at Correctional Service or Parole Board offices, to audiotape recordings of Parole Board hearings.

RECOMMENDATION 39

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to allow victims, as defined in section 2 and section 99, to presumptively attend and personally read statements, at the beginning of Parole Board hearings, that set out the impact of the offence on them since the offender's conviction, or any concerns they have about the conditions of any release. Such victims should also be able to present their statements on audiotape or videotape.

RECOMMENDATION 40

The Sub-committee recommends that the Solicitor General of Canada, in conjunction with the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board, develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent any unwanted communications from offenders in federal correctional institutions, especially with victims.

RECOMMENDATION 41

The Sub-committee recommends that:

(a) the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended by adding part IV to establish the victims' information and complaints office, to have jurisdiction over victim-related activities of both the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board;

(b) this office be empowered to both provide information to victims as defined in the Act and to receive, investigate, and resolve individual and system-wide victim complaints; and

(c) the office be empowered to table its special and annual reports containing Correctional Service and Parole Board comments on its findings and recommendations, simultaneously with the Solicitor General of Canada and Parliament. The Act should provide for the referral for consideration of such special and annual reports to the appropriate standing committee of the House of Commons.

RECOMMENDATION 42

The Sub-committee recommends that paragraph 4(j) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to allow for staff organizations to be involved in the process of developing correctional policies and programs, and to require the provision of mandatory, ongoing appropriate staff training.

RECOMMENDATION 43

The Sub-committee recommends that the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board comprehensively review their training and job classification programs to determine their adequacy, availability, accessibility, relevance and efficacy. This comprehensive review should ensure that: all positions have detailed job descriptions reflecting on an ongoing basis the functions actually performed by employees and members; all employees and members are provided with an amendable manual containing current information required to perform their functions; and all employees and members have access to national on-the-job training directly related to the functions to be performed by them. Once this has been completed, both agencies should keep their training and job classification programs under continuous review.

RECOMMENDATION 44

The Sub-committee recommends that the Correctional Service of Canada increase the budgetary allocation provided for inmate health care, using current or increased fiscal resources, so as to ensure the delivery of quality services from within or outside of the Correctional Service.

RECOMMENDATION 45

The Sub-committee recommends that section 13 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require the warden of a correctional institution to refuse to receive an offender if there is not a certificate signed by a registered health care professional at the time of admission or transfer. This section should be further amended to provide for correctional staff access to such health care information, only to the extent strictly necessary to take steps to protect their own health.

RECOMMENDATION 46

The Sub-committee consequentially recommends that section 23 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be further amended to require the Correctional Service to acquire health care certificate information mentioned in section 13 in relation to offenders sentenced, committed, or transferred to a penitentiary.

RECOMMENDATION 47

The Sub-committee recommends that the search and seizure provisions of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require the non-intrusive search for the presence of drugs of all those entering and leaving penitentiaries.

RECOMMENDATION 48

The Sub-committee recommends that section 62 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended so that at each penitentiary there is a warning conspicuously posted at the entrance or the visitor control point that any person or vehicle entering or leaving a penitentiary is subject to being searched under the Act or Regulations, explicitly including reference to searches for the presence of drugs.

RECOMMENDATION 49

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Regulations be amended to allow the warden of a correctional institution to suspend for a determinate period of time the right of an inmate to have visitors and/or the right of anyone to visit an inmate where it has been determined that a visitor has attempted to bring drugs into a penitentiary.

RECOMMENDATION 50

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be reviewed with the goal of simplifying its structure, organization and language.

RECOMMENDATION 51

The Sub-committee further recommends that any future amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be drafted in plain language.

RECOMMENDATION 52

The Sub-committee recommends that the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board review their communications and public education strategies with the goal of countering misinformation about the corrections and conditional release system.

RECOMMENDATION 53

The Sub-committee recommends that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be amended to require that a further comprehensive review of its provisions and operation be undertaken in five years by a committee of the House of Commons. If the Act is not amended, this review should commence within five years of the government response to this report. The next five-year review should be concentrated on: the steps undertaken to implement the findings and recommendations contained in this report; statutory release; maximum-security/special-needs women offenders; and the memorandum of understanding between the Correctional Service and the Correctional Investigator.