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Managing Prison Population Growth, Delivering Effective Community-Based Corrections and Treating Drug-Related and Female Offenders

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Managing Prison Population Growth, Delivering Effective Community-Based Corrections and Treating Drug-Related and Female Offenders RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 57 MANAGING PRISON POPULATION GROWTH, DELIVERING EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY-BASED CORRECTIONS AND TREATING DRUG-RELATED AND FEMALE OFFENDERS Laurence L. Motiuk* INTRODUCTION community falls squarely of those working in correctional facilities and the community Criminal justice policy makers and at large. Certainly, these people are being practitioners have the lead role in called upon to deliver more sophisticated managing prison populations, delivering services to a clientele constantly changing community-based corrections and treating and for a public that is uncertain. offenders. Because of the enormous social Moreover, correctional staff and volunteers and economic costs to society, crime control must do so in a safe, effective and cost continues to present a serious challenge for efficient manner as possible. This, then, many countries. Internationally, changes defines the problem statement for in legal definitions coupled with reduced corrections - the care, custody, control and public tolerance for crime and focused safe reintegration of offenders. The media attention have led to increases in following paper provides background and sanctioning - both custodial and non- a framework for this important work. custodial - of offenders over the last decade. A. Managing Prison Population Realizing that the public, in general, Growth does not fully understand the inner As constant as growth in the use of workings of the criminal justice system prison has been over recent decades, it is a (Roberts, 1993), service providers are being commonly held notion that it will likely called upon to provide accurate information continue well into this century. In North on the care, custody, control and safe America, roughly one-fifth of those under reintegration of offenders. Knowing also correctional supervision (2000 — 2 million that the media has stretched public in the United States and 34,000 in Canada) acceptance to the limit for any correctional are in prison (growing at a rate of nearly failure means that service providers need 3% per year in the United States and to learn everything there is to know about declining at a rate of 3% per year in effectively and efficiently managing prison Canada). Although international trends population growth, delivering community- indicate that there will likely be larger based corrections and treating special prison caseloads to manage (Walmsley, offender groups such as drug-related and 1999), it is notable that Canada has begun female offenders. to experience a recent decline in their prison population. To summarize - public opinion, staff and offenders exert significant influence over In Canada, the ten provinces are the realization of correctional objectives. In responsible for accused persons remanded particular, the task of safely reducing the to prison before trial, young offenders size of the prison population and returning (under 18), probation, adult offenders drug-related and female offenders to the sentenced to under two years incarceration and parole supervision in three provinces. * Canada 248 115TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS The federal government is responsible for 6) increasing the use of Restorative adult offenders sentenced to two years or Justice and mediation approaches; more prison and parole supervision. The 7) supporting Provincial conditional National Parole Board decides conditional release recommendations to amend the release for all federal offenders and Prisons and Reformatories Act for provincial offenders in most provinces. greater administrative flexibility; 8) better sharing information and Between 1990-91 and 1992-93 the technologies within the system; number of Provincial/Territorial prison 9) better informing the public about admissions increased by 22.5%, from criminal justice dynamics and issues; 207,946 to 245,746. Similarly, federal 10) testing innovative, traditional methods prison admissions increased 21.4% based on restoration and healing between 1990-91 and 1993-94 (peaking one through Aboriginal justice and year later than Provinces/Territories) from corrections pilot projects; and 4,646 to 5,642. The increase in admissions 11) working more co-operatively on contributed in large measure to the rapid programs and services through growth of the Canadian prison population Federal/Provincial/Territorial pilot in the 1990’s. Moreover, the total actual- projects. in prison population rose by 16% between 1990-91 and 1994-95 from 29,224 to 33,882. Additional recommendations included: Because of this rapid growth in the prison 1) evaluating diversion programs to population, the Federal/Provincial/ include a component on net-widening; Territorial Ministers responsible for Justice 2) developing technology to assist with the in Canada asked Deputy Ministers and integration of systems; Heads of Corrections to identify options to 3) sharing research findings on program deal effectively with the growing prison effectiveness; and population (Motiuk & Serin, 2000). A paper 4) amending a principle contained in entitled ‘Corrections Population Growth’ recommendation #1 - “incarceration was subsequently developed and presented should be used primarily for the most to the Ministers in May 1996 with a set of serious offenders and offences where the eleven recommendations. Additional sentencing objectives are public safety, recommendations were made in the ‘First security, deterrence or denunciation and Report on Progress’ (CPG 1997). alternatives to incarceration should be sought if safe and more effective Eleven recommendations made to assist community sanctions are appropriate in addressing correctional population and available”. growth throughout Canada were: 1) endorsing a shared statement of These recommendations inspired the principles for the criminal justice formation of numerous working groups at system; all levels of government across Canada. 2) making greater use of diversion These people were tasked with designing, programs and other alternative developing and implementing creative measures; options to deal more effectively and 3) de-incarcerating low-risk offenders; efficiently with prison population growth. 4) increasing the use of charge screening; Another important step towards this 5) making wider use of risk prediction/ objective was to gain a better assessment techniques in Criminal understanding of the most important Justice decision-making; factors influencing the size of the prison 249 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 57 population. been declining in recent years. Factors Influencing the Size of the Sentence length and prison release Prison Population policy/practice are two determinates of the Throughout the 1990s, Canadian crime average length of stay in prison. More control practices resulted in changes in specifically, sentence length determines not criminal code, reporting of crime, court only how much time will be spent in a processing, sentencing and conditional prison but also the earliest possible date release policy and practice. Aside from for supervised release in the community. public policy for crime control and causal Corrections practitioners can impact on the factors linked to crime (such as child average length of stay in prison by assisting poverty, family breakdown, poor education in the selection and preparation of and unemployment), six major factors are offenders for early release and contributing seen to account for the size of the prison to their successful reintegration to the population. They are: 1) crime rates, 2) community with prescriptive intervention sanctioning (incarceration rates), 3) and appropriate supervision. Taken sentence lengths, 4) release policy and together, shortening the average length of practice, 5) offender population profile and stay of prisoners and reducing recidivism 6) successful reintegration/recidivism. should result in a lowering of the size of Another important factor is the offender the prison population. profile (such as number and variety of previous youth or adult convictions, escape Prison Population Management - history, personal characteristics, etc.) of the Offender Reintegration prison population. Offender reintegration can be defined as all activity and programming conducted to The crime rate, particularly the type of prepare an offender to return safely to the crime and the extent to which offenders are community as a law-abiding citizen sentenced to a period of incarceration are (Thurber, 1998). Reintegration the main determinants of prison admission encompasses a broad range of decisions rates (see CSC 2000). In contrast to earlier intended to: place offenders in the least periods, since 1991 the overall trend in the restrictive setting possible, grant number of offences in Canada has been temporary absence or conditional release, downward. In fact, between 1991 and 1998 and invoke suspension or revocation of there has been a 15% decrease in the conditional release when necessary overall number of offences reported by (Motiuk & Serin, 1998). Correctional police. More importantly, since 1993, most service providers can impact on the number categories of violent crime (homicide, of prison releases, the number of prisoners sexual assaults and robbery) have also granted conditional releases, the number decreased. Although comparisons of of offenders who remain incarcerated past European and North American their parole eligibility dates; and the imprisonment rates in 1997 show Canada number of cases who are not reviewed to be relatively
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