According to Statistics Canada, as of 2018/2019 there were a total of 37,854 adult offenders incarcerated in Canadian federal and provincial prisons on an average day for an incarceration rate of 127 per 100,000 population. Of these, 23,783 were in provincial/territorial custody and 14,071 were in federal custody. [1]
Young offenders are covered by the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), which was enacted in 2003. In 2018/2019, an average of 716 youth between the ages of 12 and 17 were incarcerated in Canada, for a rate of 4 per 10,000 population. This number represents a 10% decrease from the previous year and a 32% decrease from 2014-2015. [1]
Indigenous people are vastly over-represented and make up a rising share in the Canadian prison system, making up 30.04% of the offender population in 2020, compared to 4.9% of the total population.[2] In 2018-2019, the offender population included Caucasians at 54.2% and Black people at 7.2%; meanwhile, Asian people made up only 10.3%, thereby being vastly underrepresented compared to their share of the overall population at 25.3%.[3]
History
The correction system in Canada dates to French and British colonial settlement, when all crimes were deemed deserving of punishment. Such was often meted out in public, as physical pain and humiliation were the preferred forms of punishment, including whipping, branding, and pillorying. In other cases, offenders were transported to other countries and abandoned to their fate. Execution was also used as punishment for serious crimes.[4]
In 1789, Philadelphian Quakers in the United States introduced the penitentiary as an alternative to such harsh punishment. The concept of long-term imprisonment eventually spread to England as an alternative to exiling offenders to the penal colonies, including Canada.[4] The first penitentiary in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) was opened in 1835 as the Kingston Penitentiary. This facility was built by the colonial government and, at the time of Confederation in 1867, it was under provincial jurisdiction (of the Province of Ontario). It came under federal responsibility with the passage of the Penitentiary Act in 1868.[4]
In 1859, the offences punishable by death in Canada included murder, rape, treason, poisoning, or injuring a person with the intent to commit murder, mistreatment of a girl under 10 years of age, arson, among other things. As of 1869, only three offences were punishable by death: murder, rape, and treason.[4]
The federal government opened additional penitentiaries in other parts of Canada in decades following Confederation. An increase in crime during the Great Depression saw a rapid increase in Canada's incarceration rate. The Prison for Women opened in 1934. The Archambault Commission (officially the Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System in Canada) was established that year in response to riots, overcrowding, and strikes in Canadian prisons. The final report was published in 1938 and was the first comprehensive report in Canada to emphasize crime prevention and offender rehabilitation.[4]
In the 1960s, new approaches to rehabilitation and reintegration were adopted. The first 'gradual release' program was introduced at Collins Bay Institution, wherein inmates were allowed to work outside the institution during the day and return in the evening. In 1969, an experimental living unit was opened at medium-securitySpringhill Institution in Nova Scotia, as part of a community pilot program to aid inmates in preparing themselves for "outside" life.[4]
Capital punishment was abolished in Canada in 1976. Also in the 1960s and 1970s, various halfway houses were opened, as well as governments and community groups taking on the essential needs of ex-inmates by providing them with room and board, and often helping them find work, enroll in school, and obtain counselling services.[4]
Additionally, CSC also provides healing lodges specifically for Indigenous offenders, designed with the intention "to address factors that led to their incarceration and prepare them for reintegration into society."[6] CSC currently funds and/or operates 10 healing lodges across Canada, while others are operated by local Indigenous communities or partner organizations.[6]
Security levels
Canada's correctional system designates facilities under various security levels. Most provincial/territorial correctional facilities where offenders serve sentences of less than 24 months, or are held in pre-trial and pre-sentence custody, have cells at different security levels within the same facility.[4][7]
The majority of in-custody offenders are classified as "medium security" risk.[8]
An institution where the perimeter is defined but usually there are no walls or fences.
There are no armed correctional officers, no towers, no razor wire or electronic surveillance equipment.
Restrictions on movement, association and privileges are minimal.
Inmates are non-violent and pose very limited risk to the safety of the community. Many are on work-release programs that allow them to hold jobs during the day.
Inmates show the desire and ability to get along responsibly with fellow inmates with little or no supervision.
Medium Security
These institutions are usually surrounded by chain-link fences topped with razor wire. Firearms are present but not normally deployed within the perimeter.
Inmates pose a risk to the safety of the community. They are contained in an environment which promotes and tests socially acceptable behaviour.
Inmates are expected to act responsibly under regular and often direct supervision and participate in their correctional program plans.
Many of these institutions have training centres and a variety of educational and treatment facilities.
Maximum Security
Maximum-security facilities are surrounded by high (20 feet) walls or fences with guard towers in strategic positions and electronic systems that ensure any movement within the perimeter is detected.
Correctional officers in the towers are supplied with firearms and there are additional locked caches of firearms within the institutions in the event of a serious disturbance.
Various parts of the facility are separated by locked gates, fences and walls. Inmate movement, association and privileges are strictly controlled because inmates pose a serious risk to staff, other offenders and the community.
Inmates are expected to interact effectively with other individuals and in highly structured groups such as in educational and treatment programs and skills development programs.
Some inmates live in segregation units, due either to behavioural problems or out of concern that they will be harmed by other inmates, usually as a result of their crimes.
Other security levels and considerations
Multi-Level Security
Offenders with serious mental health issues are accommodated in multi-level security facilities that combine the features of two or more of the security levels described above.
The highest level of security is reserved for the small percentage of extremely violent male offenders who cannot function safely at the maximum-security level.
The goal of the SHU is to prepare inmates to return to maximum security institutions by evaluating their risks and behaviour and providing appropriate programs.
Women Offenders
There are no firearms within the institution or on the perimeter, which is surrounded by a chain-link fence and topped with razor wire.
Typically, women are housed in living units that accommodate 10 persons. Their movement, association and privileges are designed to give them freedom to pursue educational and training opportunities within the grounds of the institution.
Women with serious behavioural issues may be confined to a "secure unit" within the larger institution.
Aboriginal Inmates
Aboriginal inmates can be found in institutions of every security level. Their particular needs are accommodated in special living units where Native culture and spirituality are taught and practised.
In addition, the Correctional Service of Canada is responsible for the establishment of eight healing lodges across the country, specially designed to accommodate the needs of minimum-security Aboriginal offenders, based on the principles, philosophy and teachings of the Aboriginal way of life. A small number of non-Aboriginal offenders may be accommodated at healing lodges if they are willing to take the same programs as Aboriginal offenders.
Community Correctional Centres
Community correctional centres are federal facilities that house offenders on conditional release. The facility director, parole officers and support staff work as a team, often in co-operation with community partners, to supervise and provide programs for offenders.
Statistics
Indigenous people are vastly over-represented and make up a rising share in the Canadian prison system, making up 30.04% of the offender population in 2020, compared to 4.9% of the total population.[2] In 2018-2019, the offender population included Caucasians at 54.2% and Black people at 7.2%; meanwhile, Asian people made up only 5.3%, thereby being vastly underrepresented compared to their share of the overall Asian population at 17.7%.[8]
Offenders with life or indeterminate sentences represents 24% of the total offender population in Canada. 70% of offenders are serving a sentence for a violent offence.[8]
Offenders with life or indeterminate sentences [8]
A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for convicts who violated federal law, inmates considered dangerous (Brazil), or those sentenced to longer terms of imprisonment (Canada). Not all federated countries have a legal concept of "federal prison".
The United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth is a medium security U.S. penitentiary in northeast Kansas. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. It also includes a satellite federal prison camp (FPC) for minimum-security male offenders.
The Long Bay Correctional Complex, commonly called Long Bay, is a correctional facility comprising a heritage-listed maximum and minimum security prison for males and females and a hospital to treat prisoners, psychiatric cases and remandees, located in Malabar, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The complex is located approximately 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south of the Sydney CBD and is contained within a 32-hectare (79-acre) site. The facility is operated by Corrective Services New South Wales, a department administered by the Government of New South Wales.
The Correctional Service of Canada, also known as Correctional Service Canada or Corrections Canada, is the Canadian federal government agency responsible for the incarceration and rehabilitation of convicted criminal offenders sentenced to two years or more. The agency has its headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Justice that operates U.S. federal prisons and is responsible for the care, custody, and control of federal prisoners.
Saskatchewan Penitentiary is a Medium Security Facility with Maximum Security areas. It is located on a walled 20-acre parcel of land in the Rural Municipality of Prince Albert No. 461, one kilometre west of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. It opened in 1911 built on the site of a former residential school run by the Anglican Church of Canada.
The Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre is an adult male, provincial correctional centre located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It is one of four provincial correctional centres in the province including the Regina Correctional Centre, the Prince Albert Correctional Centre and the only female institution, the Pine Grove Correctional Centre. The centre generally holds approximately 450 offenders, including those of the low security annex, the Saskatoon Urban Camp.
A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries.
Millhaven Institution is a maximum security prison located in Bath, Ontario. Approximately 500 inmates are incarcerated at Millhaven.
The Prison For Women, located in Kingston, Ontario, was a Correctional Service of Canada prison for women that functioned at a maximum security level from 1934 to 2000.
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) is a state law enforcement agency responsible for the incarceration of inmates and management of facilities at state prisons within the state of Louisiana. The agency is headquartered in Baton Rouge. The agency comprises two major areas: Public Safety Services and Corrections Services. The secretary, who is appointed by the governor of Louisiana, serves as the department's chief executive officer. The Corrections Services deputy secretary, undersecretary, and assistant secretaries for the Office of Adult Services and the Office of Youth Development report directly to the secretary. Headquarters administration consists of centralized divisions that support the management and operations of the adult and juvenile institutions, adult and juvenile probation and parole district offices, and all other services provided by the department.
A prison, also known as a jail, gaolpenitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are confined against their will and denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state, generally as punishment for various crimes. Authorities most commonly use prisons within a criminal-justice system: people charged with crimes may be imprisoned until their trial; those who have pled or been found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of imprisonment.
A Gladue report is a type of pre-sentencing and bail hearing report that a Canadian court can request when considering sentencing an offender of Indigenous background under Section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code.
Punishment in Australia arises when an individual has been accused or convicted of breaking the law through the Australian criminal justice system. Australia uses prisons, as well as community corrections. When awaiting trial, prisoners may be kept in specialised remand centres or within other prisons.
The Federal Penitentiary Service is a federal agency of the Ministry of Justice of Russia responsible for correctional services.
A healing lodge is a Canadian correctional institution designed to meet the needs of Aboriginal inmates. Healing lodges were created to address the concern that traditional prisons do not work on aboriginal offenders. Aboriginals are over-represented in the prison system and are also more likely to be the victims of crime. In healing lodges, the focus is on healing and reconnecting with indigenous culture while inmates serve their sentences. Connecting to nature, participating in cultural ceremonies, and learning spiritual teachings are how Healing Lodges process the rehabilitation and healing of inmates. They also have access to spiritual guidance from Elders and are encouraged to maintain connections with their families and communities. Healing lodges were proposed as an alternative for Aboriginal female offenders, but there are now healing lodges for Aboriginal male offenders as well. Women's healing lodges are minimum/medium-security facilities, and men's healing lodges are minimum-security facilities.
Criminal sentencing in Canada is governed by the Canadian Criminal Code. The Criminal Code, along with the Supreme Court of Canada, have distinguished the treatment of Indigenous individuals within the Canadian Criminal Sentencing Regime.
The Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston was a Canadian inquiry headed by Justice Louise Arbour concerned with prisoners' rights and the treatment of federally-incarcerated women. The Commission's final report was released in 1996, and was dubbed the Arbour Report.
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