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SECTION II: ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME
Analysis by Program Activity
2.1 Strategic Outcome
The OCI’s Strategic Outcome (SO) is "the problems of offenders in the federal correctional system are identified and resolved in a timely and reasonable fashion". It is also the expected result of the OCI’s Program Activity (PA) "Oversight of Correctional Operations", which regroups the four OCI Priorities/Program Sub-activities described above (Section I – C. Summary Information).
As the chart below illustrates, each expected result at the Program Sub-activity/OCI Priority Level is expressed and should be perceived conceptually as a link in the results chain following from and to the OCI’s Strategic Outcome (SO) and its expected result.
| Strategic Outcome | Expected Results |
|---|---|
| The problems of offenders in the federal correctional system are identified and addressed in a timely and reasonable fashion | |
| Program Activity | Expected Results |
| Oversight of correctional operations |
|
| Program Sub-Activity | Expected Results |
| Investigate and resolve individual offender issues |
|
| Investigate, monitor and resolve systemic offender issues (Mental Health is an area of special interest) |
|
| Monitor, evaluate and provide representations on CSC management of mandated issues (s.19 investigations and Use of Force incidents) |
|
| Investigate, resolve and provide leadership on specifically identified issues ( e.g. Women Offenders and Aboriginal Offenders) |
|
The Logic Model presented below illustrates the OCI’s views of its service delivery methods to support its mandate and achieve its strategic outcome of timely and reasonable identification and resolution of problems encountered by federal offenders.
The Logic Model identifies the linkages between the activities of the OCI Program and the achievement of its outcomes. It clarifies the activities that make up its program and the sequence of outcomes expected to result from these activities.
2.2 OCI Logic Model
2.3 Oversight of Correctional Operations
| Planned Spending | Authorities | Actual Spending |
|---|---|---|
| 3,114 | 3,268 | 3,156 |
| Planned | Actual | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| 22 FTEs | 22 FTEs | 0 FTEs |
The OCI’s program activity is the "oversight of correctional operations" and its expected results are that the Correctional Service will improve its compliance with regard to Law, policy and procedures, fairness and its previous undertakings and that OCI interventions and recommendations, will have an impact (attribution), on CSC performance with regard to the resolution of offender problems.
The exercise of performance measurement is a challenge for an agency like the OCI that has no direct authority over the expected results of its interventions. The OCI’s influence, as with any ombudsman agency, is limited to the recommendations it may make to effect change. That being said, the OCI is reporting on a range of results from ‘did not meet’ to ‘exceeded’ and these are directly attributable to the actions that CSC took in response to the OCI’s interventions. The OCI, with assistance from the Treasury Board Secretariat, will be further reviewing its performance measures in an attempt to develop indicators that more accurately reflect the outcomes upon which it can exert some influence.
Priority 1
Investigate and resolve individual offender issues
The role of the Correctional Investigator is to be an Ombudsman for federal offenders. The primary functions of the Office are to investigate and bring resolution to individual offender complaints. The vast majority of concerns are addressed by the OCI at the institutional level through discussion and dispute resolution.
Performance in 2006-2007
In 2006-2007, the OCI recorded 7,662 complaints from or on behalf of federal offenders, compared to 7,591 during the fiscal year 2005-2006. OCI staff conducted 2,701 interviews with federal offenders in 2006-2007 as opposed to 2,426 interviews in the previous fiscal year. During every visit to an institution, OCI staff also meets with several staff members within the institutions to seek resolution to offender issues. The OCI is proud of the responsiveness and the successes experienced in resolving offender issues at the institutional level.
These numbers reflect the consistency with which the OCI continues to provide services to Canadians and more specifically, to federal offenders. The number of complaints is indicative of the level of need reported by federal offenders and ongoing challenges for the OCI. This only reinforces the need for the OCI to maintain its dialogue and work with the Correctional Service of Canada to improve its responsiveness to longstanding issues.
Consequently, the OCI must continue to respond to recurring complaints while considering innovative and proactive strategies to resolve systemic issues. For example, the "areas of concern" addressed with institutional and regional managers allow for the OCI’s ongoing monitoring of the Service’s performance on a number of specific systemic issues and to submit recommendations accordingly.
In 2006-2007, staff of the OCI spent 407 days within federal correctional institutions, as opposed to 370 days in the previous fiscal year. The increase in our institutional presence and in the number of individual interviews has been achieved through internal reallocation of resources and the use of other temporary staffing mechanisms such as interchanges, to assist with the ongoing absences of two investigative staff members. This has not been without its own challenges, and discussions are ongoing with Treasury Board to find solutions to the gaps in our resourcing levels which continue to be impacted by workload pressures.
Priority 2
Investigate, monitor and resolve systemic offender issues
While the primary role of the Office of the Correctional Investigator is to investigate and resolve complaints from individual offenders, it has, as well, the responsibility to review and make recommendations on the Correctional Service of Canada’s policies and procedures associated with the areas of individual complaints to ensure that systemic areas of concern are identified and appropriately addressed.
Performance in 2006-2007
As indicated above, the OCI is concerned with the slow pace of progress made by the Correctional Service of Canada, with regard to a number of long standing systemic issues, despite significant efforts and a broad spectrum of recommendations by the OCI towards improvements or resolution.
Among the key issues that remain of concern are: (1) the delivery of health care services that meet professionally accepted standards; (2) the introduction of a needle exchange program to curtail the spread of infectious diseases such as Hepatitis C and HIV within and outside the penitentiary walls; (3) the implementation of an internal grievance system that meets the legal requirement "for fairly and expeditiously resolving offenders’ grievances"; (4) full implementation of CSC’s harassment policy; (5) the elimination of the policy which requires that federally sentenced offenders serving a minimum life sentence for first- or second-degree murder be classified as maximum security for at least the first two years of federal incarceration; (6) the development of risk assessment tools that do not unjustifiably over-classify women and Aboriginal offenders; (7) the reduction of offenders, often mentally ill, serving a significant part of their penitentiary sentence in administrative segregation; (8) the significant improvements in safe and timely reintegration of Aboriginal offenders into the community: (9) implementation of a more humane and less restrictive alternative to long-term segregation of women; (10) unreasonable delays in convening CSC investigations into serious injury or death of inmates; and (11) the decrease in the high number of delays in presenting cases to the National Parole Board for consideration.
There are also a number of areas where the OCI’s interventions and recommendations to the Service have had a measure of success with regard to systemic issues. The tabling of the OCI’s Annual Report 2005-2006 provided an opportunity for Canadians to reflect on the gross over-representation of Aboriginal People in federal Corrections. The tabling of the report also provided added incentive to the CSC to move forward on several key initiatives, including the completion of its Aboriginal Strategy. Hopefully, this monitoring will lead to an improvement in the Service’s overall performance in these areas.
Priority 3
Monitor, evaluate, and provide representations on CSC’s management of mandated issues (s.19 investigations and Use of Force incidents)
Section 19 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act requires that the Office review all investigations conducted by the Correctional Service of Canada following the death of serious bodily injury to an inmate. The OCI is also engaged in conducting reviews on all institutional incidents involving the Use of Force, in keeping with the recommendation of the 1996 Arbour Commission of Inquiry.
With respect to the OCI reviews of both Section 19 investigations and Use of Force interventions, the OCI pursues all issues of remaining or on-going concern with CSC officials at the appropriate level.
Performance in 2006-2007
A key objective in the OCI’s oversight of correctional operations is to ensure that federal offenders are held in safe and secure custodial environments.
Accordingly, a major concern is that CSC staff use force against inmates only when there is no other viable option and then, only to the extent required in the circumstances.
The security and safety of the person is a fundamental protection offered by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Checks and balances such as those provided by the OCI are perhaps of greater importance in a correctional environment, where the power relationship between the keepers and the kept are exceptionally unequal.
In 2006-2007, the OCI identified that the total number of incidents involving the application of force against incarcerated offenders remained consistent with the previous year. There were, however, noteworthy increases in some regions and decreases in others. While such fluctuations across regions have come to be expected, the total number of force related incidents remains of concern. CSC places significant focus on the "changing inmate profile" as the key variable in explaining the level of violence within federal institutions. While the OCI does not question that such change is important, it continues to believe that greater focus on dynamic security and alternate dispute resolution methods, especially at higher security levels, must be a central component in reducing that level of violence.
The Office has continued to identify and work with CSC with respect to the emergence of patterns of problematic applications of force. It has also pursued at every opportunity, through on-going discussion, its position that CSC has to continue to work towards implementation of its full Mental Health Strategy and, by extension, its use of force with respect to mentally disordered offenders.
The Use of Force portfolio within the OCI has struggled with the continuing Use of Force volume pressures versus the resources available to manage this important aspect of the Office’s mandate. Compliance targets relating to timeliness of OCI reviews of Use of Force incidents have been an on-going priority but they are, nonetheless, susceptible to the significant surges in reported incidents that occur frequently in any reporting period. The Office is currently pursuing sources of funding to assist in meeting established Compliance targets.
As in past years, another dimension of the OCI’s focus on the safety and security of federal institutions is on the timeliness and quality of the investigation the Correctional Service of Canada undertakes, as per Section 19 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, when an offender suffers serious bodily injury or dies.
For many years now, the OCI has maintained that the timeliness and quality of CSC’s investigative process, including meaningful analysis of the findings and enterprise wide sharing of lessons learned, was absolutely critical in lowering the level of institutional violence. The OCI continues to be concerned with both the timeliness of the over-all CSC process for reviewing in-custody deaths and the extent to which CSC has used the results of those reviews to cause measurable improvements to its operations occur.
In 2006-2007, the OCI undertook to complete a more in-depth analysis of deaths that occurred within the CSC facilities and which were not as a result of natural causes. The study reinforced many of the concerns that the OCI has been identifying and pursuing with CSC for a number of years. CSC’s response to these concerns will remain a focal issue through the next reporting period.
While the OCI is encouraged by the ongoing identification by the Service of institutional violence as a priority area, it will continue to insist that CSC invests the resources necessary to systematically gather and thoroughly analyse significant data on this critical correctional problem.
Along the same vein, the OCI has spent most of the last year dealing with a large backlog of s. 19 investigation reviews that accumulated during the Coordinator’s re-assignment of duties related to the issues of mental health programming between October 2005 and the end of July 2006. While the OCI did not meet its compliance target of reviewing s.19s within 20 days of receipt between October 2006 and March 2007, it has made significant progress in resolving this large backlog.
Priority 4
Investigate, resolve and provide leadership on specifically identified issues (Women and Aboriginal Offenders)
The Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) conducts specialized investigations and attempts to resolve the issues raised by or on behalf of Women and Aboriginal Offenders. In cooperation with its partners, both governmental and non-governmental, it provides observations, advice, and direction to the Correctional Service of Canada and others regarding these issues.
Performance in 2006-2007
The OCI’s interventions and the active support of several key stakeholders have led to some progress by the Service in addressing some long standing systemic issues.
Foremost among these is the recognition by CSC that their initial classification instrument for women offenders was discriminatory and resulted in higher than needed security classifications for women. As a result, the Service has signed a contract for the development of a new initial classification instrument, that is gender sensitive and which recognizes the unique needs and circumstances of racialized women and women living with disabilities.
CSC has also been able to increase accommodation for women upon release to the community in the Atlantic and Pacific regions. These regions were previously underserved. Additionally, CSC has recognized that it must address the employment and employability needs of women offenders in order to reduce the likelihood of re-offending. As such, the Service conducted an employment needs survey for incarcerated women, which resulted in the development and implementation of a National Employment Strategy Framework for this population.
However, the OCI has been less successful in influencing CSC into meaningful corrective action on a number of critical issues. Among these, the OCI is concerned that there has been a significant increase in the number of women offenders returning to the community on Statutory Release, rather then on Day or Full Parole over the last two years. During the same period, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of waivers and postponements of National Parole hearings by women offenders, especially Aboriginal offenders.
At least part of the explanation revolves around timely access to correctional programs, notably in secure women’s units. Additionally there remains a lack of access to Aboriginal programming outside the Prairie Region.
The plight of Aboriginal offenders in the federal correctional system has been a key issue for the OCI for at least a decade. Countless recommendations have been during that period to address discriminatory correctional practices and improve treatment offered by the Correctional Service of Canada.
For several years the Office of the Correctional Investigator has strongly recommended the Service develop initiatives that would enhance the capacities to provide effective interventions for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Offenders. Partly in response to these recommendations the Correctional Service Canada introduced the National Action Plan for Aboriginal Corrections in the fall of 2006. The objectives of the Aboriginal Strategy were twofold; to implement a continuum of care for Aboriginal offenders and to address systemic barriers related to timely, safe reintegration.
In response, there have been considerable investments by CSC and some positive outcomes. The focus of Aboriginal offender program assignments has shifted over the past year towards more cultural-specific programming. Fiscal year 2005-2006 saw a significant increase in the percentage of Aboriginal offenders assigned to such programming. The range of Aboriginal-specific programs continues to be expanded by CSC.
Notwithstanding the above, the overall correctional outcomes of Aboriginal offenders have not measurably improved. The systemic bias of existing classification and penitentiary placement instruments continues to result in an overrepresentation of Aboriginals in maximum security institutions and an under-representation in minimum security institutions. Aboriginal offenders are less likely to be granted temporary absences or day or full parole at their eligibility dates. Their longer period of incarceration and increasing tendency to be freed either on statutory release or at warrant expiry results in less time in the community for programming, other forms of custodial assistance and supervision. There has been a noted increase in the numbers of Aboriginal offenders who have their conditional release suspended and revoked. Aboriginal offenders are re-admitted to federal custody within two years after warrant expiry more frequently than non-Aboriginal offenders.
Aboriginal correctional issues continue to be a key area of concern for the OCI. We will continue, with the cooperation of our numerous stakeholders in the Aboriginal community, to engage the Service in a constructive and productive dialogue on addressing systemic barriers, and the adoption of culturally responsive correctional practices and strategies.