Policy bulletin 671

Commissioner’s Directive (CD) 580 – Discipline of Inmates

Guidelines (GL) 580-1 – Duties of the Serious Disciplinary Hearing Advisor and the Clerk

The CD was reviewed following a Board of Investigation recommendation to provide clarification on some aspects of the disciplinary process and requirements as a result of the Compliance and Operational Risk Report completed in the fall of 2017.

Substantive modifications were made to CD 580 – Discipline of Inmates. The most significant include:

• New responsibilities have been added for the Assistant Commissioner, Correctional Operations and Programs, the Director General, Security, the Regional Deputy Commissioners, and the Regional Administrators, Security.
• A paragraph has been added to align with existing legislation that offers certain protections for inmates who seek medical or security assistance in a drug overdose situation.
• New responsibilities have been added for the Assistant Warden, Operations, in terms of overseeing the inmate disciplinary process as well as providing support and guidance to Correctional Managers.
• All references to disciplinary segregation (including specific references to subsection 44(1)(f) of the CCRA) have been removed to align with recent amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, which included the elimination of administrative and disciplinary segregation.
• A new section entitled “Video Evidence” has been added to provide clear direction on access to video-recorded evidence by inmates and their legal counsel.
• Emphasis has been added on the importance of consideration of the inmate’s mental health at the time of the alleged disciplinary offence in order to ascertain if an existing mental health condition may have had an impact on the inmate’s conduct. This has placed increased accountability on the staff member completing the offence report in that consultation must take place with a registered health care professional for those inmates who have a need related to mental health in the Offender Management System.
• Emphasis has also been placed on informing the Independent Chairperson of significant inmate mental health concerns before the imposition of the sanction.
• Notification to police has been deleted from this CD as the section is covered in CD 581 – Violations of the Law by Inmates.
• References to the Official Languages Act have been removed from the responsibilities and procedures sections of the policy. Instead, CD 087 – Official Languages, and the Official Languages Act are cited as references in the Cross-References and Definitions section of Annex A.
• Several editorial changes have been made throughout the document to provide added clarification.

The Guidelines (GL) were created to describe the roles and responsibilities of the Serious Hearing Disciplinary Advisor and the Serious Hearing Disciplinary Clerk.

The CD was revised and the GL were created by the Security Operations Division in collaboration with the Policy Sector. Full consultations were held with internal and external stakeholders, as well as the Inmate Committees.

Staff involved in the inmate disciplinary process, inmates, and Independent Chairpersons.

The Assistant Commissioner, Correctional Operations and Programs, is responsible for this policy. Roles and responsibilities are outlined in the policy document.