SECU Committee Report

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

Mr. Kevin Sorenson, M. P.
Chair
Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Sorenson:

On behalf of the Government of Canada, I am pleased to provide you with the following response to the recommendations of the Second Report of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security:  Drugs and Alcohol in Federal Penitentiaries: An Alarming Problem.

The Committee Report astutely notes that the presence of illegal drugs and other contraband substances in penitentiaries is not a new problem, but remains a complex, multi-faceted challenge whose response requires an array of interventions including interdiction, prevention and treatment, and community-based initiatives. 

It is clear that tackling drug use and the drug trade in prisons is beneficial to offender rehabilitation, as well as to the safety of prisons and the people who live and work there as well as the community as a whole.  Canada’s penitentiary system shares the same challenges as other prison systems in addressing drug use and trade.  It works closely with other correctional organizations to identify and share tools and tactics.  Its partners are drawn from correctional front lines, from the policing community, from research, from local and federal legislators, and community volunteers. 

Our Government’s strategy to combatting drugs and alcohol in prison is a well-balanced mix of interdiction tools and training, treatment and programming, and offender accountability under community supervision.  I am pleased, Mr. Chair, to provide more detail to the Government’s specific efforts along three general themes, as follows.

Interdiction Tools and Training

As articulated in our 2011 election Platform, drug use among prisoners dramatically reduces their chances of rehabilitation.  Tackling drug use and the drug trade in federal prisons would greatly increase the success of rehabilitation efforts, and it would go a long way to making the system safer for correctional staff and offenders.

Advancing this commitment, the Government is considering options for increasing disciplinary fines for offenders charged with disciplinary offences which include the possession or use of illegal drugs in penitentiaries.  The Government is also considering options for expanding the random urinalysis testing program.  This information will prove useful not only for institutional efforts, but will provide meaningful information for later parole decisions.  Options are also being explored to deny parole when applicants fail drug tests.

Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act contains amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) that, once in force, will introduce mandatory minimum penalties for trafficking or possession of drugs in a prison or on prison grounds, including penitentiaries.  If convicted, an offender trafficking in drugs or other contraband inside or on the grounds of a penitentiary will be subject to a minimum sentence of two years imprisonment.  In order to ensure that offenders caught engaging in such offences, and visitors attempting to smuggle drugs and other contraband into penitentiaries are dealt with appropriately, CSC will continue to work closely with police and Crowns to ensure that drug-related charges are prosecuted. 

Despite current efforts, cell phones continue to serve as a conduit for inmates to engage in criminal activities, both inside and outside penitentiary walls.  CSC currently employs various tools to prevent inmates from obtaining and using cell phones including: routine and random searching by Correctional Officers of inmates and their cells; searching of visitors; searching perimeter grounds of the institution; x-Ray baggage scanners; and walk-through metal detectors and body orifice metal detectors.  CSC also uses various types of cell phone detection technology including hand-held-portable and fixed detectors.

While detection and prevention tools are useful, each has limitations and despite continued efforts to detect and seize these devices, rendering these devices ineffective may prove to be the most effective means of disrupting these criminal activities.  The use of jamming technology is currently prohibited in Canada, as the technology causes interference with, or obstructs, radiocommunications, including those required for emergency management and public safety.

Moving forward, any jamming solution adopted by CSC will be explored with a view to ensuring that it would not interfere with communications in surrounding communities, have no negative impact on staff or offender health and safety, or interfere with local first- responder emergency communications.

As part of CSC’s fundamental transformation of its operations to improve public safety, CSC is implementing a consistent national approach to managing the principal entrances of our institutions to help eliminate the flow of drugs from entering them.

On August 29, 2008, the then Minister of Public Safety announced $122 million in funding over five years to help eliminate drugs in federal institutions.  In response to previous recommendations made by the Correctional Service of Canada Review Panel in 2007, this funding was used to develop and implement a more rigorous approach to drug interdiction in order to create safe and secure environments where offenders can focus on rehabilitation.  The funding supports an expanded detector dog program; increased security intelligence capacity in institutions and communities; enhanced partnership with law enforcement organizations; and enhanced perimeter security.

The Government appreciates the Committee’s recognition of the continued challenge and impressive efforts of CSC to combat the use of drugs in prisons, both in terms of supply and demand. CSC is taking further steps to further enhance its goal of eliminating drugs in institutions by expanding detector dog teams and security intelligence capacity, conduct further research on interdiction tools and technology, and improve data collection, monitoring, and evaluation surround interdiction practices.

Treatment and Programming

To address demand for illegal drugs and alcohol, CSC will continue to deliver substance abuse programs to offenders whose criminal behaviours are linked to substance abuse.  CSC has also implemented a focused, evidence-based strategy around addictions.  Offenders are provided with programs tailored to address specific treatment needs in order to ensure their safe return to the community.

The Correctional Plan (CP) is an essential element in the rehabilitation of federal offenders as it is the tool by which offender needs, such as poor behavioural control, or drug and alcohol addiction, as well as formal aspects of the sentence such as parole eligibility dates, are developed into objectives, expected gains, and required programming.  The CP identifies specific areas requiring intervention such as substance abuse, either in terms of needed treatment, or monitoring offender behaviours related to the use of intoxicants.

On March 13, 2012, Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, received Royal Assent, amending the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) to specifically enshrine in law the role of the CP in identifying an offender’s expected behaviour, including their conduct toward others, their participation in programs, and their meeting of court-ordered obligations.  An offender’s active engagement, participation and progress in attaining the objectives of their CP are considered in decisions regarding their conditional release or any other privilege.  Bill C-10 amendments will also provide CSC with legislative authority to use incentives to encourage offenders to make progress in meeting the objectives of their CP.

In order to assess and triage offenders’ needs and to determine an appropriate plan for intervention and support, it is critical that the CP should be completed as early as possible in the offender’s sentence. CSC has made significant and recent investments in streamlining the offender intake process.

The intake assessment provides a structured assessment and referral process to determine the factors that contributed to the offender’s criminal behaviour, and to assign appropriate correctional interventions to address those factors.  Given the importance of having inmates begin their correctional programs as quickly as possible, CSC has recently created various expedited intake assessment measures, including the requirement that the CP be finished within the following timeframes: for offenders serving sentences of four years or less, within 70-days from admission; for offenders serving sentences of more than four years (including indeterminate and life), within 90-days from admission; for young persons transferred to a penitentiary, within 70-days from admission; and for offenders serving sentences of four years or less for a non-violent offence, a compressed offender intake assessment is completed within 60-days from admission.

At the time CSC officials appeared before the Committee, timely completion of Correctional Plans (CP) within the 90-day period was functioning at a national average of 78%.  In the last year, CSC has taken steps to enhance case management activity, particularly at intake and can now report a significant increase in performance.  Nationally, on average, 91.4% of Correctional Plans are completed on time.  CSC will continue to monitor performance in this area.

In order to more effectively understand and develop strategies to address offender substance abuse, CSC has implemented a focused, evidence-based strategy around addictions.  Programs of varying intensities and for specific populations are offered by CSC to provide offenders with the most appropriate programming with the goal to reduce substance abuse and to help significant numbers of offenders reintegrate in the community without relapse.  The recently piloted Integrated Correctional Program Model (ICPM) provides more timely access to correctional intervention by allowing offenders to begin participating in programs as close as possible to intake, to continue their involvement through enrolment in a moderate or high intensity program and then participate in institutional or community maintenance to manage their risk as required.  In addition to ICPM, substance abuse programs are provided to offenders at intake.  Both programs have contributed to providing correctional programming as early as possible in the sentence.

The Government recognizes that mental illness and addiction are significant factors in both offending and rehabilitation.  When these factors can be dealt with in the community before crimes are committed everyone benefits in both human and economic terms.  The presence of so many people with mental illnesses in our corrections system can be traced back to the wave of provincial deinstitutionalization that occurred in Canada during the 1970s and 1980s.  Deinstitutionalization was eventually coupled with statutory, judicial and practical expansions of the mentally ill to refuse treatment, and to reject committal to care.  The result is that large numbers of people with mental illnesses have now found their way into correctional institutions, including federal prisons.  We must stop relying on our prisons to act as a parallel heath care system. 

To address the needs of mentally ill offenders who are already under CSC jurisdiction, a number of investments and system improvements have been made.  As of January 2010, CSC has fully implemented the Computerized Mental Health Intake Screening System (CoMHISS), a computerized system to screen new offenders for mental health problems at intake.  CSC is currently developing version II of CoMHISS, which is expected to be released in fall 2012 and will include additional assessment factors, including for cognitive impairment. 

 CSC’s mental health programming offers a spectrum of services, including group and individual interventions in the areas of mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention, assessment and individualized treatment planning, and evidence-based treatment and support services in a manner respectful of diversity (i.e. Aboriginal and women offenders). 

CSC is also continuing to pilot specialized intermediate mental health care units in penitentiaries, the goal of which is to address the needs of offenders who are unable to cope in regular institutional settings, but whose mental health problems are not so severe as to require care in a psychiatric facility (i.e. a Regional Psychiatric Centre).  The Structured Living Environments at women’s institutions provide intermediate mental health care for women with significant mental health concerns and/or cognitive limitations.  There are also two such units being piloted for male offenders.  In November 2010, CSC opened a Complex Needs Unit (CNU) pilot in Pacific Region for repeat self-injurious male offenders.  At the same time CSC also has a 30-bed Intermediate Mental Health Care Unit pilot in the Ontario Region.  In general, the profiles of the men admitted include those with major mental disorder, low cognitive functioning, or both.  

CSC has also put into place Intensive Support Units (ISUs), in each of its five regions.  Access to the ISUs is available to offenders with substance abuse problems and those without who wish to live in an institutional environment that is free of drugs and the interpersonal problems associated with inmate drug use.  Inmates volunteer to reside on the Unit and sign a standardized contract that incorporates the Unit rules and the security and search procedures they will undergo in order to minimize the availability of drugs, including the increased use of urinalysis testing, increased searching of the unit and the offenders, and greater use of various electronic security devices.

Efforts have also been directed toward improved staff training including, a two-day mental health awareness training to provide front-line staff with an understanding of mental health issues for offenders, provide specific information regarding mental disorders, and enhance strategies for working with and supporting offenders with mental disorders.

CSC has made valuable and necessary efforts to address treatment and programming measures and these efforts are demonstrating results, but they should not eclipse the need for earlier interventions and support prior to an individual’s involvement in the criminal justice system.  The sooner treatment can be offered and risk addressed in the community, the better for the individual and the better for the correctional system.

Offender Accountability on Conditional Release

In order to ensure offenders maintain ties to their family and friends in the community, CSC encourages family visits.  These relationships form an important foundation for when offenders are set to be released to the community.  Because visits can also serve as an opportunity to bring drugs into institutions, visitors may pass through a number of security precautions on entry.  Visiting areas are also monitored by CSC staff.  Once released, offenders are transitioned, assessed, and then supervised in the community in a manner that is appropriate to their risk and needs.  Offenders are ultimately accountable for their behaviour, and community supervision is intended to actively encourage them to assume responsibility for their actions while on release in the community.

To ensure that new parolees are adequately supported upon their release, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) starts the community reintegration process at intake with a preliminary assessment conducted within five working days of an offender receiving a federal sentence.  At intake risk and needs are assessed, and the CP is developed. Within the CP, the Community Strategy is specifically aimed at preparing the offender for release to the community.

Research has consistently shown that employability is a contributing factor to enhancing successful reintegration.  For this reason, CSC is proactive in arranging community partnerships that offer offenders meaningful employability skills and that allow offenders to contribute to the community.  Habitat for Humanity is one example where CSC, through its correctional industry program (CORCAN), has created a partnership to build community-based housing projects across Canada.  CORCAN provides offenders with on-the-job training opportunities through employment in over 100 CORCAN shops in federal institutions across Canada.  The majority of CORCAN production sites are ISO certified and strive to provide a work environment comparable to the private sector while recognizing institutional settings and training imperatives. 

In summary, the Government will continue its commitment to addressing drugs and alcohol in penitentiaries in order to achieve drug free prisons.  Recent legislative amendments in Bill C-10 will assist CSC and partners in this undertaking, as will the continued investment in correctional programs and treatment, and operational enhancements undertaken by CSC including investments in tools and training for front-line correctional staff. 

CSC will continue to provide effective treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, support offenders in the community, and apply effective interdiction tools and techniques.  CSC remains focused on the initiatives outlined in this Response, and intends to ensure that operational efficiencies and innovation realized through Economic Action Plan 2012 add impetus to moving forward towards achieving the ultimate goal of drug-free penitentiaries.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the members of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security for the diligent and important work you do, on an ongoing basis, in studying matters related to public safety that are of real and legitimate concern to all Canadians.

Yours sincerely,

Vic Toews, P.C., Q.C., M.P.