Profile of all warrant of committal admissions to federal custody: 2014-2015

• In 2014/15 there were 4,777 warrant of committal (WOC) admissions of offenders to federal custody; this is down considerably from 2012/13 when there were 5,105 WOC admissions.
• From 2012/13 to 2014/15, the number of women admitted increased from 273 to 363. In 2014/15 8% of all new admissions were women.
• From 2012/13 to 2014/15, the number of Aboriginals admitted to federal custody decreased from 1145 to 1047. In 2014/15 22% of admissions were Aboriginal.
• While 39% of all offenders admitted on a WOC in 2014/15 were under the age of 30, 15% were 50 years or older.

• Forty-eight percent of admissions were for sentences of under three years and 39% were for sentences of three to less than six years. Only 8% of sentences were from six to less than ten years and 2% of sentences were ten years or longer. The remaining 3% were indeterminate sentences.
• Over the last five years, the proportion of sentences for periods of less than three years has declined slightly (from 52% to 48%) and there has been an almost equal increase in sentences of three to less than six years in length (from 36% to 39%).
• The most common major offences for offender admissions in 2014-15 were drug-related (26%), sexual (16%), assault (13%), robbery (13%), and property offences (11%).
• A small proportion of major offences involved other non-violent (8%), homicide-related (7%) or other violent (6%) offences.

• Sixty-one percent of WOC admissions were initially classified as medium security followed by minimum (30%) and maximum security (9%). Over the last five years, the proportion of offenders initially classified as minimum security increased (from 27% to 30%).

• Upon admission, most offenders were assessed as having high static risk (45%; measured using their criminal history, offence severity, and sex offence history) or medium static risk (41%), and only 14% of offenders were assessed as having low static risk.
• Most offenders upon admission were rated as having low (33%) or medium (41%) reintegration potential; only 26% offenders were assessed as having high reintegration potential.

• According to their assessment at admission, the vast majority of offenders were considered to have moderate (34%) or high (59%) levels of need in areas amenable to intervention.
• More than half of all incarcerated offenders were considered to have moderate or high needs in the following domains: personal/emotional (75%), attitudes (73%), associates (64%), substance abuse (62%), and employment (55%).

• Overall, three-quarters of offenders (77%) were considered engaged in their correctional plan upon admission. To obtain this rating the offender also had to be rated as moderate or high on motivation to follow their correctional plan (73% and 15%, respectively) and on accountability (67% and 12%, respectively) – that is, accepting responsibility and recognizing problems.

Please e-mail the Research Branch or contact us by phone at (613) 995-3975.

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

Prepared by: Keown, L.A., Wardrop, K., & Cousineau, C.

Data retrieved on April 19th 2015 from CJIL year-end snapshot databases.