3.1       CORRECTIONAL SERVICE CANADA’S RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ACCOMMODATING FEDERAL INMATES

Every year, CSC is responsible for slightly more than 22,000 offenders, approximately 13,000 of whom are inmates at a correctional facility and 8,800 others who have been released under community supervision.[14] It operates a total of 57 correctional facilities: six for women and 51 for men. Of these, 16 are minimum security institutions, 20 are medium security, eight are maximum security and 13 are multi-level. All correctional facilities for women, including the five regional facilities and the aboriginal institution Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge, are multi-level. The CSC also manages 16 community correctional centres, 175 community residential facilities and 84 parole offices.

To house offenders who are unable to function normally at a regular correctional institution as a result of mental disorders, CSC also operates five regional treatment centres (RTCs), also known as psychiatric or rehabilitation centres. They are located in Abbotsford, British Colombia, Dorchester, New Brunswick, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Kingston, Ontario and Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec.[15] CSC does not have an independent psychiatric facility to house and treat female offenders requiring intensive mental health care. However, it can accommodate female offenders in a specialized unit at the regional psychiatric centre in Saskatoon. This women’s unit has 12 beds.[16] Some female offenders can also receive treatment at the Institut Philippe-Pinel in Montreal pursuant to an agreement between CSC and the Government of Quebec which offers a total of 12 beds for psychiatric treatments of male and female offenders.

It is the responsibility of mental health professionals assigned to the regular institutions to recommend offenders (male and female) for admission to an RTC. According to documentation provided by CSC, only those offenders who meet the following conditions may be admitted:

• Offenders suffering from acute mental or psychiatric illnesses, such as psychoses;
• Offenders with chronic mental illnesses;
• Offenders with cognitive, cerebral disabilities or deficits, such as the full range of fetal alcohol syndrome disorders);
• Older offenders with physical or mental problems, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s;
• Offenders in crisis, such as those who are suicidal, or cases of chronic self-injuring.

RTCs are therefore available to offenders (male and female) with serious mental health problems or who require special intervention. Their aim is to stabilize these individuals so that they can return to the general inmate population. During the Committee study, witnesses noted that some offenders are released too soon from RTCs and very quickly find themselves in crisis once again in the regular correctional institutions. The situation is attributable in part to insufficient space to accommodate all federal inmates with serious mental health problems. This reportedly contributes to a revolving-door syndrome, and a tendency towards crisis management rather than prevention.

Minimum or medium security women offenders with mental health needs who do not meet the admission criteria of the Saskatoon regional psychiatric treatment centre or the Institut Philippe-Pinel are treated in structured living units within the perimeter of women’s regional correctional institutions. Maximum security women are treated in security units, also located at women’s regional institutions. Here is what CSC’s former Deputy Commissioner for Women, Elizabeth Van Allen, told the Committee:

CSC has implemented the structured living environment, which provides a separate living space and programming area within the institution for women classified as minimum or medium security. It is a therapeutic environment that is staffed 24 hours a day with an interdisciplinary team that can provide specialized correctional, rehabilitative, and mental health treatment.

Finally, for women requiring similar intensive intervention but who are classified as maximum security, CSC constructed security units at each of the five regional women’s institutions. These units feature heightened security measures coupled with an interdisciplinary approach similar to the structured living environments that provides intensive staff intervention, programming, and treatment to these higher-risk women.[17]

According to testimony before the Committee, CSC’s capacity to respond to the needs of offenders with mental disorders is largely limited to the care and treatment provided at RTCs. Canada’s Correctional Investigator, Howard Sapers, stated the following in his most recent report:

Yet despite the need, the capacity of the federal correctional system to respond to and treat mental illness is largely reserved for the most acute or seriously chronic cases—those receiving psychiatric treatment in one of the five Regional Treatment Centres. Most other mental health problems are either untreated or receive limited clinical attention.[18]

The situation is all the more alarming in that most federal offenders with mental disorders do not meet the admission conditions for RTCs. This is the case in particular of many offenders with personality disorders, anxiety, insomnia, brain injuries, depression and fetal alcohol syndrome disorders. The Correctional Investigator points out in his report that fewer than “10% of offenders are ever admitted to or treated in the therapeutic environment of the RTCs.”[19] Appearing before the Committee, Mr. Sapers stated:

The overwhelming majority of offenders suffering from mental illness in prison do not generally meet the admission criteria that would allow them to benefit from the services provided in the regional treatment centre. They stay in general institutions, and their illnesses are often portrayed as behavioural problems or… are labelled as disciplinary as opposed to health issues. This is especially true for offenders suffering from brain injuries and for those with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.[20]

3.2       CORRECTIONAL SERVICE CANADA’S BUDGET

To fulfill its mandate, CSC has a budget of almost $2.5 billion for 2010-2011, up $255.7 million from the previous year.[21] When he appeared before the Committee, CSC Senior Deputy Commissioner, Marc-Arthur Hyppolite, indicated that most of CSC’s budget is consumed by fixed costs. The 2010-2011 Estimates in fact show that about 69% of its resources are allocated to the provision of care and custody of offenders, which includes fixed and semi-fixed costs for security systems, salaries for correctional staff, facilities maintenance, food services and capital. Some 18% is allocated to correctional interventions, which includes case management and offender programs that target criminogenic factors underlying criminal behaviour, and training and job readiness activities for offenders. Lastly, CSC devotes some 5% of its budget to community supervision of offenders.[22] As will be noted in Chapter 5 of the report, a number of witnesses feel that CSC does not devote sufficient funds to correctional programming, which accounts for 2 to 2.7% of the budget.

3.3       CORRECTIONAL SERVICE CANADA’S STAFF

CSC has some 17,000 employees, including 7,000 correctional officers, 2,500 parole officers or program officers, 750 nurses and 340 psychologists.[23] Health professionals represent approximately 3.7% of CSC’s work force (excluding staff members who work in RTCs).[24] CSC also benefits from the contribution of some 9,000 volunteers working in its institutions and in the community. Volunteer activities include tutoring, literacy services, chaplaincy services, raising awareness of Aboriginal culture, traditions and spirituality, as well as multicultural and social events and substance abuse treatment programs. CSC also relies on the participation of citizen advisory committees, made up of volunteers who participate in various ways in developing CSC policy and practices.