1. International Corrections and Prisons Association Conference Expert Network on External Prison Oversight and Human Rights Montreal, Canada October 22, Dr. Ivan Zinger Correctional Investigator of Canada

2. Federal Corrections in Canada
Offenders serving sentences of two years or more
13,358 male and 693 women inmates
9,309 offenders under community supervision
Correctional Service Canada (CSC): 17,300 employees and $2.4B budget
Average annual cost of maintaining a federal inmate (2015/16):
$112, 743 per male inmate
$192, 742 per woman
Aboriginal Offenders 29% of offender pop. vs. about 4% of the total Canadian pop.
Black Offenders 8% of pop. vs. about 3% of the entire Canadian population
Compared to their male counterparts, women present higher rates of mental health needs at 51% compared to 26%
In December 1991, Canada ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Under this Convention, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interests not to do so (Article 37(c)). However, upon signing and ratification, Canada placed a reservation to the Convention that allowed children to be detained with adults when “appropriate” and “not feasible” to separate them.
The numbers of youth (those under the age of 18) in federal custody have historically been low. These were usually limited to cases that could not be adequately or safely managed in a youth secure custody setting. In some cases, a youth was transferred to federal adult custody to access programming or services not offered in the youth system.
The passage of the Safe Streets and Communities Act (March 2012) amended the Youth Criminal Justice Act to prohibit any young person under the age of 18 from serving their sentence in an adult penitentiary.
CSC confirms that there are no youth (under the age of 18) currently serving a sentence in federal custody. There are, however, specific instances in which a young person can serve their sentence in federal custody. For example, the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) allows judges to impose an adult sentence on a youth found guilty of a serious offence (e.g. murder, attempted murder, manslaughter or aggravated sexual assault) who was fourteen years of age or older when the crime was committed (The YCJA allows provinces and territories to raise the age at which this obligation applies to 15 or 16). Youth can be sentenced as adults and placed in a youth facility. They may be moved by the provincial director of the youth facility to an adult facility at twenty years of age if the provincial director feels that youth custody is not in the best interests of the young person and would jeopardize the safety of others.

3. Mission Statement
“As the ombudsman for federally sentenced offenders, the Office of the Correctional Investigator serves Canadians and contributes to safe, lawful and humane corrections through independent oversight of the Correctional Service of Canada by providing accessible, impartial and timely investigation of individual and systemic concerns.”

4. 2017-18 Annual Statistics By the Numbers – 2017/18 $4.7 M budget
36 FTEs
352 days spent in penitentiaries
5,846 offender complaints
1828 interviews with offenders
1,487 use of force reviews
137 deaths in custody and serious bodily injury reviews
24,578 toll-free phone contacts
81,927 hours on toll-free line
25 million website hits

5. 17% of total in-custody population (14,159) contacted the OCI
2017/18 Complaints
17% of total in-custody population (14,159) contacted the OCI
15% of all Indigenous inmates (558 of 3,798).
36% of all FSW (247 of 692).
33% of all Indigenous FSW (83 of 253).
19% of all Black inmates (225 of 1,174).

6. Top Complaints by CategoryFY

7. Priorities

8. Systemic Investigations

9. “The degree of civilization in
a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1862)