Day parole home placements during the pandemic: Understanding case characteristics

Research Highlights: During the pandemic, Private Residence Day Parole releases involved offenders who were lower risk and need.

Publication

Why we are doing this study

Over the pandemic period, the Parole Board of Canada considered private residences as alternatives to Day Parole placements at Community-based Residential Facilities [CBRFs] (i.e., Community Correctional Centres and Community Resource Centres). A previous studyFootnote 1 found that during the pandemic era, there was an upward shift in the number of Day Parole Private Residence placements, particularly to the homes of parents and intimate partners. It was also observed that these particular home location releases were highly successful. This analysis unpacks the case characteristics of these Day Parole releases.

What we did

All Day Parole releases from federal custody are recorded as standardized reports in CSC's Offender Management System (OMS). Case-level data on Day Parole releases over the Pandemic era (2020-21, 2021-22) were extracted from OMS to establish comparison groups comprised of all Day Parole releases (N=4,276) and those released to Private Residences (N=518). Selected characteristics included age, diversity, sentence length, major offence, criminal risk index (CRI), and dynamic need (at release).

What we found

In comparison to all Day Parole releases over the pandemic era, the Day Parole to Private Residences population (see Table 1) can be described as:

  1. being slightly younger;
  2. diverse, though with lower Indigenous representation;
  3. serving shorter sentences (≤ 4 years) with considerably fewer having long sentences or indeterminate sentences;
  4. less likely to be serving sentences for murder (1.4% vs 8.3%) or violent offences (38.4% vs 47.0%);
  5. having very good or good criminal risk index ratings (89.6% vs 61.5%); and
  6. having low dynamic or criminogenic needs (54.2% vs 11.2%).
Table 1. Population Profile: Day Parole Releases
Characteristic All Day Parole Releases
N=4,276*
% (n)
To Private Residences
N=518*
% (n)
Age
< 35 39.7 (1,696) 47.1 (244)
35 to 64 54.2 (2,318) 45.8 (237)
65+ 6.1 (262) 7.1 (37)
Diversity
White 57.1 (2,443) 59.7 (309)
Indigenous 21.6 (925) 13.1 (68)
Black 8.1 (347) 7.9 (41)
Other 11.3 (483) 17.8 (92)
Sentence Length
≤ 4 years 61.0 (2,610) 77.8 (403)
Over 4 years 29.9 (1,279) 20.8 (108)
Indeterminate 9.1 (387) 1.4 (7)
Major Offence
Murder (I or II) 8.3 (354) 1.4 (7)
Violent (Schedule I) 47.0 (2,008) 38.4 (199)
Drug (Schedule II) 30.5 (1,305) 47.3 (245)
Non-Violent (Others) 14.2 (608) 12.9 (67)
Criminal Risk Index
Very Good + Good 61.5 (2,630) 89.6 (464)
Fair 17.5 (748) 7.3 (38)
Poor + Very Poor 17.4 (746) 2.6 (13)
Dynamic Factors
Low 11.5 (493) 54.2 (281)
Moderate 53.6 (2,290) 40.3 (209)
High 34.9 (1,493) 5.4 (28)
Note: *Missing cases are not presented in this table. The number of missing cases for DP releases (Private Residences) was 78 (8) for diversity, 152 (3) for CRI, and 1 for Major Offence.

What it means

Profile differences emerged between Day Parole releases to CBRFs and Private Residences. Day Parole home placements were more likely to involve offenders serving shorter sentences for non-violent offences, with lower risk and need. Such profile characteristics likely explain their high success rate on Day Parole (98.5%). The finding that fewer Indigenous offenders were released to private homes suggests that other release options may need to be developed and equipped with appropriate supports.

For more information

Please e-mail the Research Branch.

You can also visit the Research Publications section for a full list of reports and one-page summaries.

Prepared by: Larry Motiuk, Laura McKendy and Shanna Farrell MacDonald

Page details

Date modified: