COVID-19 update for offenders and their families: April 30, 2020

This content is a message to federal offenders and their families from Correctional Service Canada's (CSC’s) Commissioner.

As we continue to face the COVID-19 public health situation, we want you to know that we are taking actions to protect your health and safety, and ensure you continue to maintain contact with your support networks and legal counsel.

As you know, CSC has suspended visits at all federal institutions across the country, including for legal counsel. You can continue to communicate with your legal counsel by telephone, mail, and fax.

During COVID-19, if your legal counsel is working from home and uses a third-party service for call forwarding, they can provide CSC with their number and it will be added to the institution’s common access list. This will allow a three-way call with your legal counsel.

It is important that you continue to have access to your legal counsel. In cases where you are not able to fund the cost of phone calls, please provide notice to CSC staff at least 24 hours before you wish to have a phone call with your counsel. This allows us to facilitate your call as soon as possible, either by allowing you to place a collect call or by authorizing the use of a government telephone line.

Correspondence sent by mail or fax will continue to be delivered to you. We are following the Public Health Agency of Canada’s guidelines related to mail correspondence. To prevent any risks associated with COVID-19, regular mail is quarantined for 72 hours before it is distributed, unless it is privileged mail, in which case it is distributed within 24 hours.

Effective immediately, CSC will temporarily waive the cost of all outgoing faxes from inmates to their counsel during the COVID-19 pandemic. You will likely be asked to complete an Inmate Request form as well as a consent form to share information with counsel. Please attach this to the documentation that needs to be sent by fax.

Thank you again for your ongoing cooperation. I appreciate it. Stay safe and well.