IT IS THE FIRST RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERY EMPLOYEE OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF CANADA TO PUT THEMSELVES OUT OF A JOB.
Recall that the target when sitting for an exam is perfection, an illusive improbability but the goal, nonetheless. Disregard candidates looking to be average; that’s a cop-out. So, move that assumption of the pursuit of perfection away from the study hall and into a real-life environment. What is our purpose when a person who has committed a criminal offence is separated from society and placed into the hands of the Correctional Service of Canada for a period of confinement?
Well, CSC has an answer in its mission statement, which reads, “the Correctional Service of Canada, as part of the criminal justice system and respecting the rule of law, contributes to public safety by actively encouraging and assisting offenders to become law-abiding citizens, while exercising reasonable, safe, secure and humane control.”
CSC can’t control who or how many end up under its “reasonable, safe, secure and humane control.” Law enforcement and the courts decide that on our behalf. Our prisons must accommodate. But it’s a bit like the adage of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. Prisons are our answer when we fail to prevent wrongdoing by insisting on government policies to ameliorate the root causes of criminal activity.
Some argue that our reactionary status quo is fiscally more responsible than pro-active community initiatives, although we do offer token supports to neighbourhood strategies aimed at diverting vulnerable populations away from criminality. Conservatives though are particularly aligned with the notion that putting more people in prison for longer periods and making confinement conditions harsher is a crimedemic solution. That concept imagines a political advantage, but magnifying lawlessness to justify draconian responses is not only expensive, it also fails the smell test, and constitutional law to boot. Is it really cheaper to keep doing what we do? Does what we do substantively benefit society?
Okay, so back to our opening premise. Correctional Service of Canada ends up with thousands of men and women in its custody, men and women it will actively encourage and assist to become contributing members of the community according to its mission statement. This is an operation with over 18,000 employees and about 14,000 offenders under its control. CSC is publicly funded, provides compensation, benefits, and job security to its workers. Persons who have committed crimes are its bread and butter, its raison d’être.
No criminals, no prisons. No 18,000 civil servants. A reality check says we will always need a means of separating some people from the rest of society, perhaps for a lifetime. As it is now, crime and our response to it costs billions a year, tears at the fabric of our communities and tragically impacts the people in them. What if we could reduce crime? What if we looked at the criminal constituent as lost and misdirected societal assets? Correctional Service of Canada’s role is only one component of any blueprint to lowering crime rates and its job is to turn around the lives of offenders by executing its mission statement. That has been a part of its mandate for decades. How well is it doing?
There’s the rub. CSC Commissioner Anne Kelly and her spokespersons will list the opportunities inmates have in the system to improve their prospects after release to the community. What Commissioner Kelly and her spokespersons don’t say is how limited those opportunities are, how restrictive their application is, what is omitted, and why the differences between policy and practice are not addressed. And how do you square job security with turning lives around? Therein lies a basis for thoughtful reflection.
The Senate of Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights undertook a two-year study of what it titled “Human Rights of Federally-Sentenced Persons.” The committee issued a preliminary report of findings in February of 2019 and following additional analysis and audit it released a 300-plus page final report in June of 2021. The opening paragraph of the introduction to this final report reads, “Federal correctional facilities are frequently hidden from sight. They operate behind barbed wire fences and concrete walls. They are designed to keep people in, but their security protocols often keep people out as well. These conditions allow the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) to operate with limited external scrutiny and oversight. Once incarcerated, federally-sentenced persons, who comprise some of the most disadvantaged people in our society, rely and depend on the CSC to respect and safeguard their rights. Nonetheless, since the 1970s to present day, reports by the Correctional Investigator, parliamentary committees, inquests, and commissions of inquiry have underscored the CSC’s inability to meet this obligation.”
The committee’s report made 71 recommendations covering all facets of the prison experience. Yes, this was in 2021, but how many of those recommendations have been considered or implemented? After those decades of Correctional Investigator reports, the committees, inquests, commissions, and this Senate study, is CSC better equipped today to meet its mandate?
More to come. Stay tuned.
No vigilance, no democracy.
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