Post #249
1100 words; 5 minutes to read
Summary: The annual report (CCRSO) released by Public Safety Canada reveals important and troubling aspects of our criminal justice system.
Audio summary courtesy of volunteer Kimberly Duong.
The annual Corrections and Conditional Release Overview (CCRSO) report by Public Safety Canada is one of the key sources of data on the criminal justice in Canada, including criminal charges, crime rates, sentences, prisons, prisoners and parole. It has changed somewhat over the years but many of the data remain consistent, making it possible to see long-term trends.
The CCRSO report itself does not draw inferences, only reporting data. It is often hard to know if significant changes are the result of policy changes or are random.
We have commented on editions of this publication here, here and here. Here are some findings from the most recent CCRSO, with data up to 2021-22.
In 2021 the Correctional Service of Canada was supervising about 12000 prisoners in prisons, and about 8500 in the community on parole or other forms of supervision.
Numbers in jail and prison
The incarceration rate in Canada is down by about 25% in the last ten years, reversing an earlier trend. However Canada’s rates are still higher than most similar countries. English-speaking countries have higher incarceration rates than countries in Europe or Asia.
Of those in federal prison, almost half were serving a sentence of less than 5 years, and about half of those from 2 to 3 years. On the other hand, about 30% of the prison population is serving an indeterminate (life) sentence. While the total prison population has dropped substantially, the number of prisoners with indeterminate sentences has increased 3% since 2017-18.
Most prisoners are young. In 2021-22, 30% of newly admitted prisoners were between 20 and 29, and another 35% were between 30 and 39. The median age on admission in 2021-22 was 35, slightly older than 10 years earlier.
High proportion of Indigenous prisoners
The prison population is also becoming more diverse. The proportion of White prisoners has decreased somewhat, to just over half. Despite many commitments by the government to change this, the Indigenous prison population continues to increase – now to nearly 30%, vastly greater than the proportion of Indigenous people in the Canadian population. Over ten years the in-custody Indigenous prison population increased by 13%, while the total Indigenous population under supervision increased 22%. Indigenous prisoners are also more likely to be in prison and less likely to be on parole than other prisoners- by 69% to 56%.
The situation is even worse for Indigenous women, who make up half of all female prisoners in the federal system. The number of in-custody Indigenous women increased by more than 40% from 203 in 2012-13 to 291 in 2021-22.
Supervision in the community – parole works!
From 2012 to 2017 the number of people with federal sentences being supervised in the community rose very sharply, but it then declined over the five following years. The number of prisoners released on their statutory release date – 2/3 of the sentence – also dropped.
The number of people in the provincial system being supervised in the community fell by 37% between 2012 and 2021, with a very similar decrease in numbers on probation. No explanation is given for this sharp decrease.
Virtually nobody gets full parole (rather than day parole or warrant expiry release) even though there are many cases where that would make sense. Successful parole completion rates have averaged over 90% for many years; most ‘unsuccessful’ cases involve a violation of rules, not a new criminal offence. Even for those on statutory release, who are the highest risk group, only 5% commit an offence while on parole, and only a small minority of those are considered violent crimes.
Accelerated parole, which was abolished by the Harper government but still applies to some older cases, has a success rate of 96%, raising the question of why it was abolished other than out of general punitiveness.
The rate of violent reoffending during day parole supervision periods has been very low, averaging 0.2%. That means that on average 500 people would have to be kept in jail to prevent one violence offence. That is completely contrary to the rhetoric of people on parole regularly committing crimes.
High costs
Keeping people in jail or prison is expensive. The federal correctional system cost $2.86 billion in 2020-21, when provincial spending was also about $2.8 billion. Federal spending increased 13% increase compared to the prior year and 21% compared to 2012-13. Provincial spending on jails increased by more than 40% since 2011-12.
For comparison, the total of $5.6 billion is substantially more than the federal budget in in 2024 for protecting nature and species at risk, protecting marine and coastal areas, and for climate change mitigation put together.
Given fewer prisoners and higher costs, the cost per prisoner has risen sharply. In 2020-21, the annual average cost of keeping a person in a federal prison was more than $150,000, an increase of more than 25% over five years. That works out to more than $400 per day. The cost of imprisoning women was about 60% higher than for men. Keeping a prisoner supervised in the community (on parole) costs about ¼ as much – less than $40,000 per year. Although 60% of those under the supervision are in prisons, more than 75% of the staff work in custody centres and only 9% work in the community.
Deaths in custody
In the 10-years to 2021-22, 578 federal 503 provincial/territorial prisoners died in custody. Annual deaths in each system reached historical highs in the last 2 years even though there are many fewer prisoners in the federal system now.
Suicides accounted for 14% of deaths in the federal system and 22% in the provincial system. The suicide rate was approximately 58 per 100,000 for incarcerated federal prisoners, and approximately 47 per 100,000 for provincial prisoners – the vast majority of whom are on remand, not serving a sentence. These figures are much higher than the national suicide rate for men between 20 and 50 of about 22 per 100,000.
Over the same time period, 4% of deaths in the federal system and 2% in the provincial system were due to homicide. The low rates hide the fact that the homicide rate in federal prisons was approximately 16 per 100,000, whereas the an overall murder rate in Canada in recent years is about 2 per 100,000.
Meanwhile, escapes in the federal prison system are down sharply over 10 years; there are now very, very few.
Expensive and ineffective
What conclusions might a reasonable person draw from these numbers? The main one is a point made many times before on this blog – that our present system is expensive and produces very poor results. We could spend a lot less and do a lot better.
About this blog: The John Howard Canada blog is intended to support greater public understanding of criminal justice issues. Blog content does not necessarily represent the views of John Howard Canada. All blog material may be reproduced freely for any non-profit purpose as long as the source is acknowledged. We welcome comments (moderated).
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