Comparing federal women admissions and custody profiles: 2020-21

Research Highlights: Profiles of women admissions and in-custody differ substantially due to the accumulation of individual's with longer sentences.

Population profiles of federally sentenced women will yield different pictures depending on whether they are based on admissions drawn over a period time or an in-custody snapshot taken at a particular point in time. Demographic and sentence information is recorded for every offender and thereby the entire population. These profile variables can serve to inform a strategic correctional management framework that includes needs, capacity, process and performance assessments.

From the Correctional Service of Canada's Corporate Reporting System-Modernized (CRS-M) reporting platform, data were gathered on the 2020-21 federal women admissions and year-end in-custody population (419 and 618, respectively) in relation to five major characteristics, namely age, diversity, sentence length, major offence and offender security level. Given the recent declines in federal admissions of 21.4% (533 in 2018-19 to 419 in 2020-21) and year-end in-custody counts of 11.8% (701 in 2018-19 to 618 in 2020-21) over the last three years, one may expect to see the impact of muted growth and reduced populations.

Statistics show that women admissions and year-end in-custody are roughly equivalent proportionally in age distributions and diversity representation. These profiles reflect populations where the majority are under 35 and almost equivalent in White and Indigenous representation.

However, the profile of women admissions differs from the year-end custody population in that substantially more are serving shorter and fewer having an indeterminate sentence; more are convicted of drug offences and fewer for murder; and less are classified as maximum security and more undetermined due to the security classification process still in progress at the time of data extraction. These observed differences between admissions and in-custody snapshots are explained by the accumulation of longer sentenced individuals in the in-custody snapshots, particularly those convicted of murder with later eligibility dates for conditional release.

The general finding is that the federal women admission population differs from a year-end in-custody snapshot in being comparatively younger, serving shorter sentences, and less often for murder or classified maximum security. The relatively high percentage of Indigenous women admissions and in-custody populations requires strategic planning to ensure the delivery of appropriate and effective programming for safe reintegration.

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Prepared by: Larry Motiuk and Mike Hayden