Corrections Essays - Government Of Canada, Penology,

Corrections The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is a federal agency responsible for incarcerating and rehabilitating most criminal offenders in Canada . The Commissioner of the CSC is appointed by the Prime Minister and answers directly to the Minister of Public Safety. The Penitentiary Act of 1868 brought prison a number of prisons under federal control. However, the provincial governments (there are ten provinces and two territories) generally have the responsibility for administering the criminal justice system, including most police services, courts, and some correctional facilities (Roberts, 1998). The province s have sole control of facilities housing offenders sentenced under two years. The federal facilities house the more seri ous offenders, sentenced to two years or more . The Canadian penal system lies between two correctional traditions: the British and the American . It is strongly influenced by the Aub urn system in New York and the Philadelphia system in Pennsylvania. Canada has about 234 prison facilities between the federal and the provincial systems. Even though a number of correctional facilities are under the federal government control, the province s staff and administer the day to day services. They work together in both a cost sharing and manpower sharing relationship. The Federal Level When an offender is sentenced to two or more years, they automatically go under the jurisdiction of the Correctional Service of Canada. The CSC is divided into five regions: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairie and Pacific. The CSC has a total of 57 institutions broken down in each of the five regions. Those institutions are then broken down in minimum, medium and maximum security institutions for both men and women as well as community correctional centers. The average population of maximum and medium security institution in Canada is considerably smaller than their counterparts in the United States, never exceeding 500 inmates and generally averaging around 300-400 prisoners, depending on the type of the institution ( Griffiths et al., 1980 ). The minimum security institutions have even smaller population, usually around 20 offenders. As of 2013 , 14,761 inmates are under the control of the CSC ( International Centre for Prison Studies , 2013). The Prov i n ci al Level When an offender is sentenced to less than two years, which includ es fines and community services , they are under the jurisdiction of the provincial government. Pretrial services and remand facilities for offenders confined until their trial or who could not meet bail conditions imposed by the court are provincial responsibilities (Griffiths et al., 1980). All youthful offenders not serving over two years in prison are also under the jurisdiction of the provincial government. Each province operates their own facilit ies except in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, which are under the direction of the federal government. There are currently 177 provincial correction al facilities stretched across the ten Canadian province s and territories. As of 201 3 , 23,843 inmates are under the supervision of the provincial governments (ICPS, 2013) . There are a wide variety of physical facilities operated by the provinces: ma ny of the institution are old and there is often little segregation of offenders awaiting trial , from those who have been convicted (Griffiths et al., 1980) . Some provinces, even use police holding cells to house sentenced inmates. Recent Trends Canadian prisons are becoming overcrowded, which is placing enormous pressure on the whole system. According to ICPS, 2013, the provincial prison system is sitting at 100.1% capacity. The Canadian prison system can house a total of 38,604 inmates, which means they are well over capacity. Many inmates have reported that they had to share a cell with one or more inmates. There has also been a decline in government spending on corrections, which is also putting a strain on the prison system. Reducing the prison population has emerged as a gove rnment priority since c orrect ions , account for one-quarter of the total criminal justice budget (Roberts, 1998). As a result, judges are expected to impr ison less offenders or adapt a go "soft " approach. Many of these softer approaches being developed are through community-based sanctions. The offender will remain at liberty provided that he abides by certain mandatory and optional c onditions