Over-representation of Specific Groups in Federal Institutions (CSC)
Issue:
There is an overrepresentation of Indigenous and Black offenders in Correctional Service of Canada institutions. The Service also recognizes that there are specific needs for other ethnocultural populations, such as Black offenders.
Proposed Response:
- The Correctional Service of Canada recognizes that there is an overrepresentation of Indigenous and Black Canadians in our correctional system. This is something they take seriously and are actively working on together with our criminal justice system partners.
- The Correctional Service of Canada is legally required and committed to ensuring that correctional policies, programs and practices respect the diversity of the offender population.
- The Service is working to increase horizontal collaboration with Indigenous communities and organizations, with other federal government departments, and with the provinces and territories to address Overrepresentation.
- The Correctional Service of Canada is conducting research to better understand the experience of ethnocultural offenders under its care, including Black offenders. Currently, Black offenders are offered a comprehensive level of varied interventions and services, aimed at supporting their reintegration.
- There is more work to do – the Service is listening, learning and taking actions to address the systemic issues that lead to these outcomes.
Background:
The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) continues to observe an increase in the number of federally sentenced Indigenous offenders. CSC also recognizes that there are specific needs for other ethnocultural offender populations, such as Black offenders.
Indigenous Offenders
CSC continues to see an increase in the proportion of federally sentenced Indigenous offenders. At the end of Fiscal year 2020-2021, Indigenous offenders represented 31.6% of the total in custody population and Indigenous women offenders represented 43.2% of the total in custody women population.
CSC is working to respond to the disproportionate representation of Indigenous peoples in custody, through a variety of programs such as:
- The National Indigenous Plan which includes streamlining existing Indigenous resources and services to ensure that those offenders choosing to access the Indigenous Continuum of Care interventions are prioritized for placement at specific sites.
- Indigenous Interventions Centres (IICs) are a key component of regional Indigenous action plans. The IICs integrate intake, programs and interventions, and engage Indigenous communities at the start of an Indigenous offender’s sentence, or at least two years before their first eligibility date.
- CSC has implemented the Pathways Initiative for offenders who are committed to following an intensive traditional path of healing which includes the active involvement of Elders. The Indigenous Women’s Pathways Continuum provides opportunities for Indigenous women to engage in intensive healing interventions supported by Elders through specific activities.
- CSC has implemented correctional programming for Indigenous and Inuit offenders, designed to meet their specific needs by including ceremonial sessions, culturally relevant materials and Elder involvement.
- CSC has developed and continues to deliver Indigenous Social History (ISH) training for staff. The focus of this training is the integration of ISH considerations in decision-making and increased responsiveness to the unique needs of Indigenous offenders in interventions.
- Responsivity resource kits were developed to provide correctional and education program staff with the tools needed to work and interact effectively with offenders with special needs and/or those that require special considerations in the program context, such as women and Indigenous offenders.
- In December 2019, CSC convened a Sub-Committee of our Executive Committee focused on Indigenous Corrections. This committee has identified eight priority areas that span not only the federal correctional continuum, but also CSC efforts to recruit and sustain an exemplary level of Indigenous staff, enhance Elder interventions, and collaborate across federal government departments as well as with provincial and territorial counterparts.
- The Sub-Committee will continue to provide strategic analysis, horizontal advice, and recommendations to EXCOM while ensuring a strong voice and action on Indigenous issues within CSC’s senior management team.
- The Connecting Spirits, Creating Opportunities (CSCO) initiative is a wellness and community-building initiative for Indigenous employees that will support the participants and their managers in career planning. Ultimately, the goal of the CSCO is to promote retention of culturally competent Indigenous employees in support of succession planning.
Decisions with respect to sentencing are outside of CSC’s control. CSC does, however, influence the time Indigenous offenders spend in custody by providing culturally responsive programs and interventions to address an Indigenous offender’s risk, provide effective rehabilitation and foster successful community reintegration. There has been a significant increase in the percentage of discretionary releases for Indigenous offenders, from 23.5% in fiscal year 2013-2014 to 38.6% in fiscal year 2020-2021. Additionally, CSC makes targeted efforts to recruit and retain Indigenous employees. CSC is one of the largest employers of Indigenous peoples in the core public administration.
Black Offenders
8.6% of incarcerated offenders identified as Black at the end of 2020-21, while 7.1% of offenders supervised in the community identified as Black. From 2016-2017 to 2020-2021, the proportional decrease of incarcerated Caucasian offenders was 23.2%, and incarcerated Black offenders showed a decrease of 7.2% during the same period.
CSC is conducting research to better understand the experience of ethnocultural offenders under its care, including Black offenders. This multi year project has already highlighted the profile and diversity of this population and Emerging Research Results were produced in 2019. CSC is presently looking at aspects of the in-custody experience, such as participation in correctional programs, education, and employment.
CSC will also be studying how ethnocultural offenders are reintegrating in the community in terms of program participation, employment opportunities and successful completion of sentence. It is anticipated that the full research report will be available in Winter 2022. CSC invested $20,000 for this project, in addition to approximately a 1.5 full time employee equivalent from CSC’s Research Branch (combination of research managers, analysts and students). CSC used a combination of internal and external resources, in collaboration with Nipissing University.
Currently, Black offenders are offered varied interventions and services aimed at supporting their reintegration. These initiatives include: addressing cultural employment and mentorship needs; receiving virtual community in-reach from community service providers and volunteers, when possible; providing culturally-relevant materials for personal development purposes; and when appropriate, recommending and facilitating Day Parole releases to “other locations”, as defined by the Parole Board of Canada, which may include offenders’ home communities in order to support access to enhanced cultural supports, where appropriate.
Although there are no specific correctional programs for Black offenders, the enrolment and completion rates of Black offenders in the Integrated Correctional Program Model and the Women Offender Correctional Programs show positive participation and results. As offenders’ ethnicity and culture are important responsivity factors in effective correctional programming, initial training for program staff include responsivity factors, how to address them, and how to adapt interventions within programs to the specific needs of ethnocultural offenders.
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