CSC Stats on Incarceration, Covid Management (placemats)

CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF CANADA UPDATE ON COVID-19

SNAPSHOT
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS:

• CSC manages approximately  13,900 inmates in 43 correctional institutions across the country.
• From the beginning of the pandemic  until June 17, 2020:
• 1310 inmates were tested and 360  tested positive.

• There were outbreaks at five institutions:
• Port-Cartier Institution (Quebec)
• Grand Valley Institution for Women (Ontario)
• Mission Institution (British Columbia)
• Joliette Institution for Women (Quebec)
• Federal Training Centre (Quebec)
• There have been two deaths.
• 142 CSC employees tested positive,  132 (or 93%) have recovered.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW

Existing Infection Prevention  and Control Measures

Overarching approach in place in all federal correctional institutions include:

• Preventing the introduction of COVID-19 into our sites by limiting access to all but critical workers and actively screening anyone entering a site.
• Working in partnership with local public health authorities, PHAC and Indigenous Services Canada.
• Providing all institutional employees and inmates with non-medical masks. Additional personal protective equipment (PPE) is available and provided to staff, as needed, including gloves, medical masks, face shields/goggles and gowns.
• Increasing access to health care services and professionals, including nurses and doctors, and the necessary equipment, supplies and medications in all institutions.
• Strengthening infection prevention and control measures by working with specialists to conduct reviews and implement recommendations that help prevent exposure and spread of illness.
• Building our own contact tracing capacity by training over 200 employees.
• Enhancing and increasing cleaning protocols, hand sanitizing stations, and providing extensive training and education.
• Establishing protocols with local hospitals for transfer of care, if needed.

Infection Prevention  and Control (IPC) and  Environmental Health Reviews

• Independent, expert-led reviews have been  or are being conducted at all 43 institutions.
• Reviews are completed by experts from PHAC, Health Canada, local public health and community consultants and are prioritized for completion based on risk.
• In March and April, CSC reviewed  IPC practices with each site.
• In May 2020, IPC webinars were co-hosted  by PHAC and CSC with participants attending  from all sites and regional headquarters. 
• Following the webinar, all sites received  an IPC self-assessment tool to ensure  IPC compliance. 
• CSC is committed to fully addressing  the results of all reviews.
• Lessons learned at one site are being  shared and implemented across all sites.

Summary of Review Findings

• Recognition that COVID-19 is difficult  to contain in closed environments,  including prisons.
• Consistent acknowledgement of strong frontline leadership and staff commitment  to preventing and containing the spread  of COVID-19.
• Need to support ongoing infection and prevention training for all staff, starting with re-training everyone on PPE.
• Need to continue to strengthen cleaning and disinfection practices, including a quality assurance program, requirements for commercial cleaners particularly in outbreak situations, and increased training/supervision  of inmate cleaners.
• Procedures for waste disposal (ie: no touch bins with liners).
• Importance of cohorting staff and inmates  to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• Importance of thoughtfully thinking about work flow and how people move throughout institutions to reduce the risk of virus transmission at outbreak sites (ie: working from clean to contaminated, placement of hand sanitizing stations, layout of PPE donning and doffing stations).

JUNE 17 • 2020
Work Underway

• Develop options to sustain, within CSC, IPC expertise, rigorous cleaning standards, and expanded public health capacity for the mid to long term.
• Develop and deliver IPC education for staff, offenders, volunteers and contractors.
• Expand the use of technology to support the delivery of rehabilitation programs, health services, administrative and staffing training capacity, while simultaneously supporting physical distancing and other controls.
• Review infrastructure requirements to better support IPC standards (eg: HVAC, hot water for laundry, dedicated medical isolation cells etc).

Shaping the “New” Normal

• The health and safety of our employees, offenders and the public remain our top priority.
• A governance structure is in place to look at different operational activities and make recommendations.
• The timeline of when any activities will resume will vary across the country, based on provincial and local circumstances and public health advice.
• Ongoing communications and engagement with employees, inmates, unions and stakeholders will continue to be a priority moving forward.

• Actively screening all inmates for COVID-19 symptoms at intake and release by health care staff.

• Active Monitoring of inmates by Health Care for COVID-19 symptoms at the following frequency:
• Daily at intake for 14 days.
• Daily, for 14 days, of all close contacts of any inmate that tested positive for COVID-19.
• Daily for all inmates at outbreak sites.
• Three times a week for all inmates at risk for a more severe outcome due to COVID-19.

• Medical Isolation for:
• 14 days for all inmates admitted on a Warrant of  Committal or returning to federal custody following suspension/revocation.
• 14 days for all inmates who are a close contact of a COVID-19 positive case.
• All symptomatic and COVID positive inmates until  medically cleared.

• Self-isolation for all symptomatic staff and any close contacts of a COVID-19 positive case.

• Self-isolation of offenders in the community for 14 days when released from an outbreak site.

• Real-time epidemiological support to understand the nature of  outbreaks and transmission points.

Testing of Inmates at Time of Admission and Release

•  Offer testing to all inmates at intake, prior to their release from  medical isolation.
  
•  Offer testing to all inmates prior to their release to the community. Positive results reported to local public health and a plan  jointly developed.  

Testing of Symptomatic Inmates

•  Offer testing to all symptomatic inmates no matter how minor the symptom.
  
• Complete contact tracing from symptom onset and offer testing.

Testing of Symptomatic Staff

• Refer all symptomatic staff to local public health for   symptomatic testing.
  
• Complete contact tracing from symptom onset and   offer testing.

Testing of Inmates and Staff when there is an Outbreak

•  Offer testing to all inmates and staff who are at risk for  contracting COVID-19.
  
•  For any positive tests, complete contact tracing and offer testing.

Asymptomatic Surveillance - Offenders & Staff

• Weekly monitoring of community transmission rates to identify  institutions located in COVID-19 hot zones.
  
• Offer testing to all inmates and staff at institutions where  community transmission is elevated.
  
• For any positive tests, complete contact tracing and offer testing.
  
•  Re-offer testing over several weeks/months when sites remain in hot zones over several weeks/months.

Expanded Testing Capacity through Partnerships

•  COVID-19 testing requires significant medical and material resources and organization.
  
• Expanded testing strategy requires additional testing capacity.
  
•  CSC will engage with public health authorities, private labs and the National Microbiology Lab to assist in building  additional capacity.

Date: June 24, 2020
Classification: Unclassified
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch / Agency: CSC

CSC Incarceration and COVID-19 Statistics

Issue: The Correctional Service of Canada has successfully implemented a number of measures to protect the inmate population from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proposed Response:

• The Correctional Service of Canada is committed to protecting the safety and health of staff, inmates, and the public during these unprecedented times.
• The Service is taking measures to ensure the safety and health of its correctional staff and inmates by following the advice of local Public Health agencies and working very collaboratively with its Union partners.
• As of June 17, 2020 the Correctional Service of Canada no longer has outbreaks in any of its institutions across Canada.
• Since the pandemic began, the Service has had outbreaks in five of its 43 institutions, with 360 inmates testing positive out of a total of 13,900 inmates, 357 or 99% have fully recovered. Two inmates have died as a result of complications from the virus.
• To date, out of 142 of our employees who have tested positive, 137 or 97% have fully recovered.
• When the pandemic began, the Service focused heavily on preventing the introduction of the virus in its institutions by quickly suspending visits from the public; temporary absences, except when medically necessary; work releases; and interregional and international transfers.
• A number of measures were put in place to prevent spread of the virus, including:
• Strengthening infection and prevention control measures and implementing enhanced cleaning/disinfecting protocols;
• Providing all staff and inmates with masks;
• Actively screening anyone entering institutions for critical work;
• Limiting the movement of inmates, and adapting practices to support physical distancing;
• Conducting daily wellness checks for signs of symptomatic inmates;
• Immediately testing for COVID-19 anyone reporting symptoms;
• Medically isolating inmates with symptoms, or who had tested positive for the virus, or who were being admitted to federal custody;
• Working with local public health authorities to ensure inmates’ access to local hospital care, if required; and finally
• Implementing our own tracing capability by training over 250 of our employees
• CSC has also worked with the Public Health Agency and local health departments and community experts to have independent, expert-led reviews completed in all of its facilities.
• To date, all 43 of CSC’s institutions have had an Infection Prevention and Control or an Environmental Health review completed.
• Moving forward, the Service is focusing its efforts on:
• Ensuring access to the necessary personal protective  equipment;
• Expanding its testing strategy;
• Strengthening public health partnerships; and
• Considering and preparing for a gradual and careful resumption of operational activities

• With different provinces starting to lift restrictions around COVID-19, the Service has committees in place, with representation from labour partners and external stakeholders, that are making recommendations on which programs and activities can resume, when and the safeguards that need to be in place. We are starting by resuming in-person correctional programming in our institutions to support the rehabilitation of offenders.
• The timeline around reinstating any activities will vary across the country, based on provincial and local circumstances and public health advice.
• Adopting a gradual approach to resuming any activities – including decisions around who can enter our institutions – is key to making sure everyone, including families, are as safe as possible.

Background: The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has successfully implemented a number of measures to protect the inmate population from the COVID-19 pandemic. As of June 17, 2020, there are no outbreaks across any CSC institutions across Canada; however, one active case remains linked to the Federal Training Centre in Quebec.

Financial Government Support

On June 9, 2020, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Honourable Bill Blair, announced the Government of Canada’s intention to provide up to $500,000 to five National Voluntary Organizations (NVOs). This funding will support the development of pilot projects aimed at adapting important services that assist with the reintegration of offenders under supervision at community-based residential facilities (halfway houses), and to develop knowledge to help similar organizations learn from the innovative responses that have been implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Release of Offenders

CSC and the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) are working collaboratively to facilitate the safe release of federal inmates into the community with public safety being paramount in all discretionary release decisions. As mandated by the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA), all releases to the community happen within existing authorities.

As of June 21, 2020, the federal custody stands at 13,075. From March 1, 2020 to June 21, 2020, the federal custody population has declined by 883 inmates. That represents a decline of 6% (812 inmates)for the male custody population and a decline of 10% (71 inmates) for the female custody population.

During the months of March, April, May and June, releases consistently outnumbered admissions, thereby effectively reducing the federal custody population. Over the past 3.5 months, there continues to be a sustained and pronounced reduction of the federal custody population.

We are engaging with our community partners on an ongoing basis to ensure that offenders on conditional release have a safe, secure and supportive environment to which they can return. This is an important part of any safe and successful release into the community.

Next Steps

To shape the “new normal”, the Commissioner has created a governance structure made up of subject matter experts, union representatives, senior managers from different sectors of CSC and external representatives, to look at different operational activities and make recommendations. As a first step, CSC is preparing to resume some services, activities and programs. These decisions are based on whether there is community transmission of the virus and on public health guidance.

One of CSC’s first priorities is to support offender safe releases; we are therefore looking at resuming group programming in the near future. Group programming will look different than prior to COVID-19. Groups will be significantly smaller, chairs will be spaced 3 meters apart, everyone will be wearing masks, and session lengths may be shorter. CSC will continue to explore and identify with public health authorities how to adapt our environments and infrastructure to increase our ability to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

For correctional programs, in places where there is no local transmission of COVID-19, we expect to begin resuming correctional programs at some sites by the end of the month.

Contacts:

Prepared by: Raj Oberoi, Officer, Parliamentary Relation, 613-794-9632
Approved by: Kirstan Gagnon, Assistant Commissioner, Communications and Engagement, 613-995-6867

Date modified:

2021-09-13