Summary of CSC advancement - Federal Pathway Annual Progress Report 2024 to 2025

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Correctional Service Canada (CSC) contributes to public safety in Canada. We support the safety and well-being of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people inside and outside of the Canadian justice system.

To do this, we have been advancing the calls for justice relating to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which can be found in the Government of Canada's 2024 to 2025 Federal Pathway Annual Progress Report. We have been developing culturally responsive solutions that better support the challenges Indigenous Peoples face within the federal correctional system.

Here's how we've been taking action towards real, progressive and systemic change. We've:

• Appointed our first-ever Deputy Commissioner for Indigenous Corrections, Kathy Neil, a Métis woman, on May 1, 2023
• Supporting Indigenous women and gender diverse people in the Correctional Officer Training Program and increase representation within our workforce
• Creating Indigenous Interventions Centres to provide streamlined support to federally incarcerated Indigenous people, from the commencement of their sentence
• Streamlining the Section 84 release process to remove barriers to early release to Indigenous communities
• Maintaining and expanding partnerships with Indigenous communities and organizations to increase support services for federally sentenced Indigenous people transitioning to the community
• Implementing several reintegration initiatives that support federally sentenced Indigenous Peoples as they transition to a life in the community, including project funding for Indigenous organizations delivering trauma and life skills interventions
• Implementing the Indigenous Offender Employment Initiative in Prairie, Ontario and Pacific regions

Read more about each Call for Justice relating to the federal correctional system and what we're doing to advance them, below.

CSC provides culturally appropriate interventions, treatments and facilities focused on transition to the community.

CSC is also:

• Enhancing placements in Section 81 Healing Lodges as part of the Section 81 Strategic Action plan
• Continuing to prioritize placement in Section 81 Healing Lodges and exploring additional partnerships to increase capacity in communities across the country
• Improving correctional programs tailored to Indigenous women’s unique needs, ensuring they have access to culturally grounded healing and rehabilitation services (launch of pilot project planned in the fall of 2025)
• Reviewing policy to help Indigenous women maintain familial bonds while incarcerated. The Audit of the Mother-Child program was completed in the spring of 2025, and its implementation plan will be finalised in the fall of 2025, with a completion date of 2027
• Consulting Indigenous organizations such as the National Indigenous Advisory Committee (NIAC)

CSC currently provides funding to 10 Healing Lodges across Canada. It manages some of them, while others are managed by partner or community organizations. CSC finalized a Section 81 Strategic Action Plan which monitors progress. CSC is:

• Reducing barriers to the full utilization of existing Section 81 Healing Lodge agreements
• Creating new agreements through relationship building and renewed partnerships with Indigenous communities and organizations
• Removing barriers and increasing supportive releases for Indigenous women in home communities

CSC is in the process of updating policies to define the objectives and steps required to obtain a lower security classification.

• CSC works with academics to include Indigenous voices and Indigenous research methodologies when developing security assessment tools.  In 2023 to 2024, CSC completed a four-year research project with the University of Regina. It was focused on developing a culturally informed and evidence informed risk assessment tool and process for federally sentenced Indigenous individuals
• In 2024 to 2025, CSC began examining how best to implement the insights from this research
• CSC continues to engage external, independent experts and Indigenous partners to review its research findings, identify systemic biases and improve its classification practices. This contributes to better access to correctional programming, education, and healing initiatives for federally sentenced Indigenous individuals

CSC is:

• Reviewing and implementing correctional programs and practices tailored to Indigenous women’s unique needs, ensuring they have access to culturally grounded healing and rehabilitation services. Launch of the Indigenous Women Offender Correctional Program is planned to be piloted in the fall of 2025 over an 18-month period
• Preparing a case management bulletin to remind CSC staff members of their obligations to ensure Indigenous Social History, mental health considerations and victim concerns are included in the decision-making process

CSC works with National Indigenous organizations, federal departments and advisory bodies to help ensure the successful rehabilitation and community reintegration for Indigenous women. This includes:

• Engaging with and funding community partners who deliver culturally responsive mental health and trauma services, addiction treatment, and life skills counseling
• Programs that provide mentorship from Elders, access to cultural teachings, and life skills training
• Gang disaffiliation programming
• Expanding reintegration supports and strengthening engagement with remote Indigenous communities to contribute to a more holistic and culturally responsive transition to community life
• Increasing awareness of CSC services within Indigenous communities to enhance accessibility and support continuity of care upon reintegration into the community
• Providing Healing Lodge placements for incarcerated Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ individuals which aligns with Section 81 release planning from Healing Lodges to communities
• Funding Indigenous organizations to develop and implement community-driven reintegration programs

One of CSC’s priorities is ensuring that individuals incarcerated in Canada's federal institutions have access to quality, safe, patient-centred care. CSC provides essential health care and reasonable access to non-essential health care to offenders in keeping with professional standards.

CSC policy ensures that:

• The inmate’s state of health and/or health care needs are considered in all decisions relating to transfer
• Admissions to a CSC Treatment Centre for Psychiatric Hospital Care are a clinical decision based on clinical admission criteria

In fall 2017, CSC enshrined in policy the requirement to use men’s Regional Treatment Centres (RTCs) for women only in emergency circumstances and only for short-term periods. Further, CSC requires that these placements only occur based on the recommendation of the treating physician and that services provided to any woman placed at a men’s RTC will be monitored by CSC’s Regional Person-Centred Health Committee for the duration of their stay. All efforts are made to minimize the number of transfers while attempting to keep individuals close to their home community.

CSC is revising Indigenous programming to provide an immersive cultural environment for rehabilitation. Additionally, CSC has taken steps to ensure correctional programming considers Indigenous women's lived realities, including intergenerational trauma and culturally responsive healing practices and rehabilitation services. Families, survivors, and Indigenous communities benefit from this initiative by ensuring Indigenous women in the correctional system receive culturally safe and trauma-informed rehabilitation services. CSC is:

• Continuing to prioritize placement in Section 81 Healing Lodges and is exploring additional partnerships to increase capacity in communities across the country
• Improving Indigenous women’s timely access to programs and services, including by reviewing how minimum-security units operate to effectively support access to these resources
• Working to reduce the disproportionate suspension and revocation rates of Indigenous women

Removing barriers for Indigenous women to maintain familial bonds while incarcerated is important. CSC’s Audit of the Mother-Child Program Report has been published. Its implementation plan will be finalised in the fall of 2025, with a completion date of 2027. CSC will review its policies accordingly.

CSC is:

• providing approximately 3.5 million in funding for community reintegration initiatives
• Providing funding to Indigenous organizations so they can offer needs-based and culturally responsive reintegration support for federally sentenced Indigenous Peoples
• Providing Indigenous women with employment and employability skills training through the Indigenous Offender Employment Initiative (IOEI)
• Increasing engagement and collaboration with Indigenous communities, regarding reintegration, through our partners
• Working to expand the national Offender Digital Education (ODE) initiative, which was based on the Digital Education Project (DEP) pilot. The DEP blends in-class and computer-based approaches that help federally sentenced individuals to achieve their educational goals. Through this pilot, a range of courses are offered, including Indigenous course material and resources that specifically address the learning needs of federally sentenced Indigenous Peoples
• Partnering with local organizations and post-secondary institutions to offer education courses that incorporate Indigenous content, language and culture

Elders, spiritual advisors and Elder's helpers guide Indigenous Peoples in federal corrections to traditional Indigenous ways of life, based on their own teachings. They work both individually and in groups using teachings, counselling, and traditional ceremonies and practices. CSC is reviewing and revitalizing policies and procedures related to Indigenous corrections in consultation with the National Elders Working Group (NEWG) to provide direction on the role of the Elders in cultural interventions. The NEWG met three times in the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year. This gave various groups opportunities to consult on:

• Initiatives such as the modernization of the Offender Management System
• Policy development
• The Indigenous Justice Strategy
• The Indigenous Health Action Plan, and
• The Health Accreditation Cultural Safety and Anti-Racism Standard

CSC audits and evaluates important projects and seeks advice on research being conducted from the newly established Indigenous Research Advisory Circle.

In March 2024, CSC supported moving forward with regional and national discussions on how to implement an improved procurement model for Elder services. This includes:

• Reviewing Elder expenditures in fiscal year 2024 to 2025
• Establishing internal centres of expertise in Elder contracting and payment
• Reviewing challenges and best practises of utilizing 3rd Party Contracts for Elder engagement, and
• Review of resources needed for the future

Removing barriers for Indigenous women to maintain familial bonds while incarcerated is important. CSC’s Audit of the Mother-Child Program Report has been published. Its implementation plan will be finalised in the fall of 2025, with a completion date of 2027. CSC will review its policies accordingly.

CSC is also broadening the Mother-Child Program, by broadening the definition of “mother” to be more culturally inclusive, and to reflect kinship bonds.

CSC provides programs and services that address offenders’ criminal behaviour. CSC offers these both in institutions and in the community. For more information: https://www.canada.ca/en/correctional-service/programs/offenders/programs.html

Strip searches are one of several approaches and tools that CSC uses to prevent the entry of contraband into institutions. CSC is:

• Improving measures to prevent contraband from entering our institutions to ensure a safe and secure environment
• Continuing to research and introduce new technology as it becomes available to better facilitate the detection of contraband
• Installing and using more Body Scanner technology, which greatly reduce the need for strip searches