Quantitative examination of program overrides and community outcomes for women offenders

Research Highlights: Program overrides to moderate intensity were appropriate and have decreased since the implementation of the CRI.

In 2018 the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) changed its policy for correctional program assignments, adopting the Criminal Risk Index (CRI) to guide decision-making regarding offender program intensity levels.^{Footnote 1} Using the previous program selection criteria^{Footnote 2}, an evaluation of Correctional Reintegration Programs (CSC, 2020) found that more than half of the women who completed programming were overridden into a program for which they did not initially meet the selection criteria. Women who received an override to moderate intensity and women who initially met the program selection criteria for moderate intensity experienced comparable rates of any revocation when risk relevant differences were controlled.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a quantitative examination of program overrides and community outcomes for women offenders using the CRI as the primary program assignment tool.

Analyses were conducted with an admission cohort (N = 709; 34% Indigenous) which included all women offenders admitted to federal custody between February 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019. Follow-up data was collected until December 31, 2021. Program overrides were examined as were differences on risk relevant variables and community outcomes between women who received an override relative to women who initially met the program selection criteria.

An examination of demographic characteristics indicated that the majority of women were serving shorter sentences and were convicted of drug-related offences. Most of the study cohort scored low (45%) to moderate (43%) on the CRI. Although a large proportion of program referrals aligned with CRI scores, 28% (n = 90) of women with a low CRI score were overridden from engagement to moderate intensity while 20% (n = 16) of women with a high CRI rating were underriden from high to moderate intensity.

Further analyses demonstrated that, among women who completed moderate intensity programming (n = 416), 20% (n = 81) did not initially meet the program selection criteria for moderate intensity based on the CRI and received an override into the program. These results were consistent across Indigenous ancestry.

Comparisons on risk relevant indicators showed that women who received an override from engagement to moderate intensity generally scored lower on risk and need variables compared to women who initially met the program selection criteria for moderate intensity; however, both groups demonstrated elevated risk on key areas related to criminal behaviour relative to women who initially met the program selection criteria for engagement only.

Women who received an override to moderate intensity had higher rates of suspensions than the engagement only group but they had lower rates of any revocations compared to women who met the criteria for moderate intensity. However, once time at risk in the community was controlled for, there were no significant differences in the likelihood of negative community outcomes between the groups.

Based on the risk relevant differences across override status, these findings suggest that overrides to moderate intensity were warranted and appropriate and they are being done on a more limited basis than what was found in the evaluation study. However, given the recent implementation of the CRI and limited follow-up period for the study sample, more research with expanded follow-up times is needed to replicate the findings of this study.

Smeth, A., & Derkzen, D. (2023). Quantitative Examination of Program Overrides and Community Outcomes for Women Offenders (Research Report R-458). Ottawa, Ontario: CSC.

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