But first……

IN MEMORIAM:
Paul Saliba began a challenging quest for justice in early 2017 when a visit to his incarcerated son at Bath Institution west of Kingston was cancelled after a confrontation with prison guard Darin Gough.  Paul was not willing to let Correctional Service of Canada deny him a public courtroom accounting of CSC staff wrongdoing.   He persisted through numerous government-initiated delays, just as a patient court admired his tenacity.  He once said he was certain CSC was stalling, waiting for him to die.
Paul Saliba died on December 11, 2024.
He asked his son to carry on with the lawsuit but its future is doubtful.  Yes, CSC will do what it must to prevent any employee from giving sworn testimony.
R.I.P.
….search “Paul Saliba” or “Darin Gough.”

CANADA’S FEDERAL PRISONS HOUSE A CONSTANT OFFENDER POPULATION OVERSEEN BY THE ALL BUT AUTONOMOUS AUTHORITY OF A LARGE BODY OF CIVIL SERVANTS HEADED BY AN EXECUTIVE TEAM AT CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF CANADA’S OTTAWA NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS THAT RUNS INTERFERENCE TO LIMIT EXTERNAL SCRUTINY AND OVERSIGHT.

Benjamin Perrin is a law professor at the University of British Columbia and was Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s lead criminal justice advisor in support of tough-on-crime solutions. Now a proponent of tough-on-crime is stupid-on-crime, he has authored Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial.

The Globe and Mail published his op-ed, “From ‘tough on crime’ to a new transformative vision for Canada’s justice system,” back on September 29 in 2023.  He wrote, “We need to abolish traditional prisons and jails, and only separate people from society as a last resort.  For the limited number of people who need to be separated, we need rehabilitation and healing centres, instead of archaic jails and prisons.”

This perspective is anathema to Correctional Service of Canada.  Its national headquarters almost certainly partners with other Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) components to underscore the potential threat prison reforms are to public service jobs.  This prompts civil servants in government ministries to discourage their political bosses from probing CSC operations by trivializing the gloomy reports of committees, inquests, commissions of inquiry, and the Office of the Correctional Investigator, for a start.  As a further buttress, The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC-CSN) stresses the risks reforms have on community safety.

Prioritizing the security of the organization over the execution of its mission leaves offenders in CSC’s charge with a “they don’t care” mantra that is reinforced by the often patronizing or curt daily interactions with prison staff and exchanges with local, regional, and national management.  No doubt there are many within CSC’s ranks who do see good purpose in their work, but the environment’s totality sees the chaff rising to the top.

Correctional Service of Canada pays token homage to its prescribed mandate through CORCAN, an agency within the Service that is primarily responsible for providing job training and employability programs to offenders.  These are practical and constructive offerings but are limited to only a small number of the incarcerated.  Just so, what rehabilitative programing CSC touts is not readily at hand, often circulating from one institution to another, and open to few inmates.  CSC does better than simply pay lip service to its stated purpose, but it tends to focus on the negative while justifying the scanty provisions for “encouraging and assisting offenders to become law-abiding citizens.”.

CSC Commissioner Anne Kelly publishes an “update for offenders and their families” almost weekly.  It is circulated and posted in every institution and is available online.  She is the cheerleader for the federal prison service, leaving the inmates under her charge wondering if she’s ever been behind the high walls and barbed-wire fences.  Commissioner Kelly ignores the system’s shortcomings and her office’s battles with the legal challenges that plague CSC and instead plays to a blinded public.

One exceptional example of CSC’s retention planning is its purposeful limits on the use of computers in general and an outright ban on internet access.  A recent lawsuit challenging CSC’s policy “argues that the internet ban and overall technological deprivation behind bars undermines the correctional service’s mandate to prepare prisoners to successful reintegrate in society,” according to a Toronto Star report on the legal action.

Lawyer Paul Quick represents the John Howard Society and the complainant prisoner in this suit.  “In 2024,” he says, “if we want people to find work, to find housing, to lead stable and positive lives, they need internet access and basic digital skills.  If we take these things away, we take away opportunities for a law-abiding life.”  He adds, “We don’t just imprison people’s bodies now, we imprison their minds and waste their lives.  In doing so, we also make it harder for them to re-enter the community.”

What the policy must be in all federal prisons for every inmate, at every security level, is the opportunity to be fully engaged for the five business days each week.  The institutional part-time jobs already at hand, multi-disciplined relevant job-training including work on prison farms where they exist, tasked exposure to the latest technologies and access to online educational programs, mental health and addiction remedies that go far beyond what is now in place, counter-institutionalization initiatives, prison-based cultural/social/lifestyle community orientations, and full-time interfaith resources are all a start.  Add “off-hour” gym, yard, recreational avenues as necessary life-skills elements.

What we have now are thousands of inmates who are over-warehoused, underfed, lethargic, wary, anxious and temperamental, often needing better healthcare and positive feedback from their institutional overseers.

Correctional Service of Canada must lower its barriers to third-party oversight as part of a realignment strategy to bring practice into line with policy first and then update policies to reflect a compliance with its mission statement.  Those committees, inquests, and commissions have justifiably serious concerns.  It’s well past time for CSC to stop hiding in its fortress.

Will they?  No, CSC would rather have a stable prison industry.