Pandemic Era Older Offenders (65+) in Canadian Federal Corrections
Research Highlights: The older (65+) offender population in custody and under community supervision continued to grow during the pandemic era.
Why we are doing this study
Marked by the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) experienced an unprecedented decline (-1,392 or 10.1 %) in the federal in-custody population from 13,720 at year-end in 2019-20 to 12,328 in 2021 to 2022. Similarly, there was also a major decline (-903 or 9.6%) in the community supervision population from 9,382 at year-end in 2019-20 to 8,479 in 2021 to 2022. An earlier studyFootnote 1 had found that prior to the pandemic over a five year period (2012-13 to 2017-18) there had been a substantial increase of older (65+) both in federal custody (+530 or 41.4%) and under community supervision (+372 or 50.3%). Understanding whether this trend was sustained during the pandemic era can facilitate the allocation of programming and operational resources.
Publication
RIB-22-29
2023
Research in Brief - PDF
Pandemic Era Older Offenders (65+) in Canadian Federal Corrections
What we did
Historical year-end federal institutional and community supervision counts are recorded as standardized reports in CSC's Corporate Reporting System-Modernized (CRS-M). Similarly, historical counts of federal admissions and releases are also recorded in CRS-M.
What we found
Over the pandemic period to 2021-2022 there continued to be an increase of older (65+) in federal custody (+41 or 5.9%) and under community supervision (+159 or 13.6%).
|
Fiscal Year-end |
2018 to 2019 | 2019 to 2020 | 2020 to 2021 | 2021 to 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custody | 695 | 701 | 672 | 736 |
| Community | 1,168 | 1,245 | 1,307 | 1,327 |
| Total | 1,863 | 1,946 | 1,979 | 2,063 |
| Growth Δ | +83 | +33 | +84 | |
| Ratio In/Out | 37/63 | 36/64 | 34/66 | 36/64 |
Overall, admissions to federal custody for older offenders rose from 167 in 2018 to 2019 to 187 in 2021 to 2022; a difference of +20 (or +12 %). When unpacking this increase by type of federal admission it is notable that the number of 65+ admissions to federal custody through conditional release revocations remained relatively the same at 36 in 2018 to 2019 and 37 in 2021 to 2022. Consequently, some of the growth in the older offender population was due to the increase of new warrant of committal admissions from 126 in 2018-19 to 149 in 2021 to 2022; a difference of +23 (or 18%). On the other hand, the number of older offenders (65+) released from federal custody appears to have decreased from 243 in 2018 to 2019 to 211 in 2021 to 2022; a difference of -32 (or 13.2%). Again, unpacking total releases by type it is noteworthy that there was an increase in day parole releases from 120 in 2018 to 2019 to 158 in 2020 to 2021 and then a decrease to 104 in 2021 to 2022.
While there was a decline in older admissions in year 1 (2020 to 2021) of the pandemic era, there had been an initial rise in earlier releases on day parole, however in year two (2021 to 2022) there was a notable decline. This trend break may be an artifact of the CSC case review exercise undertaken at the beginning of the pandemic to identify and case prepare 65+ release eligible offenders and deemed to be good candidates for discretionary release consideration by the Parole Board of Canada.
| Fiscal Year |
Total Admissions |
65+ Admissions |
Total Releases |
65+ Releases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 to 2019 | 7,333 | 167 | 7,269 | 243 |
| 2019 to 2020 | 6,998 | 177 | 7,245 | 250 |
| 2020 to 2021 | 5,279 | 128 | 6,725 | 266 |
| 2021 to 2022 | 6,268 | 187 | 6,607 | 211 |
What it means
Although the older offender population in federal custody continued to grow during the pandemic era, it appears that more older persons (65+) were being released earlier in their sentence and were managed safely in the community. Collective efforts at efficient case preparation and effective supervision have resulted in a sustained trend of more older offenders being released each year than admitted to federal custody.
For more information
For questions and/or more information, please email 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 and Luc Bisson