Episode 1: CSC 101: Introduction to federal corrections

Kirstan: Hello and welcome to our very first episode of Prisons Inside Out, a brand-new podcast from the Correctional Service of Canada. I'm your host, Kirsten Gagnon. I've been with CSC for quite some time now and over the years, one thing has become clear. When it comes to federal corrections in Canada, people have a lot of questions. That's one of the main reasons we are starting this podcast. I want to give Canadians a better understanding of what we do as a department. Why the work we do matters and how our over 18,000 employees are changing lives and protecting Canadians every day.

I'm here today with Véronique Rioux, who's been with CSC for more than a decade. Véro has been leading the charge on the podcast project from day one. Véro, tell me a bit about why we're doing this project.

Véronique: : Since I first started working for Corrections, people around me always have questions about how the prison system works. So, they see something on TV, and they hear something on the radio, and they want to know if it's like that in real life.

So, by default, the work we do is behind closed doors and for obvious reasons, but it's clear to us that people are curious and want to know more. And with this podcast, we're hoping to be more open and shed some light on the work we do. For most Canadians, understanding of corrections is shaped by the movies and TV shows we watch. Before I started at CSC, if you said the word federal prison, I would immediately think of shows like Orange is the New Black or PrisonBreak. And I wonder what other people think.

Vox-pop: : I always wondered what inmates eat? Do inmates go to school while they're incarcerated? What's the response when an inmate escapes? What is the difference between a maximum and a minimum-security prison? How many inmates do we have in Canada? Do inmates have access to internet in prison?

Kirstan: In future episodes, we're going to dive into the many different subject areas within Correctional Service of Canada. Topics like inmate transfers, security classifications, social programs, history, and the list goes on. There's so much to talk about, but in this episode, we wanted to keep it light and cover the basics. So here's CSC 101.

So Véro, how many federal prisons are there in Canada?

Véronique: : There's a total of 43 federal institutions in Canada, and this includes the five prisons for women. And the Correctional Service of Canada also manages 14 community correctional centres, also known as halfway houses.

Kirstan: And this doesn't count the 200 managed by some of our partners in the community. How many people are serving federal sentences?

Véronique: : In total, there's about 21,000 people under the jurisdiction of the Correctional Service of Canada. But this includes those who are incarcerated and those who are serving the remaining of their sentence in the community under supervision. So in custody, we have about 13,000 inmates, and in the community, there are about 8,300 people being supervised by parole officers in different locations across the country.

Kirstan: What are the most common types of sentences and how many inmates are serving a life sentence?

Véronique: : 27% of offenders under our jurisdiction are serving a life sentence. And 6% are serving 10 years or more. 32% between 4 and 10 years and 34% are serving less than 4 years.

So, what's the difference between federal and provincial territorial corrections?

Véronique: : In Canada, there are two different correctional systems. So you have the provincial territorial systems that incarcerate those who are sentenced to two years less a day. And at the federal level, those who are in our institutions and supervising the community are those who are serving sentences of two years or more.

Kirstan: Are there a lot of escapes from federal penitentiaries?

Véronique: : Well, escapes do happen, but they're not frequent. For an example, there's been an average of 11 escapes per year in the past five years, but this represents about 0.1% of the total inmate population. And also, escapes are usually from minimum security institutions, so they're not the typical escapes we see in the movies or in the shows where it's super sensational, where they climb up walls and go through barbed wire.

Minimum security institutions do not have, they usually don't have a fenced perimeter.

Kirstan: Can inmates in Canada vote?

Véronique: : Absolutely. So, inmates who have a Canadian citizenship and are over 18, obviously, have a right to vote since 1993. They can vote in every provincial and federal election.

Kirstan: And can inmates access the internet?

Véronique: : Generally speaking, they do not have access, but they can have access to complete their programs. So they are supervised by staff while they access the internet and so really, it’s a controlled access.

Kirstan: So, it’s not for everyone, just if specific people are doing a program that requires it.

Véronique: : That’s correct.

Kirstan: And interestingly, they don't have cell phones either. And when you go into a federal institution, there's actually phones all over the ranges where inmates can make calls, so they do have access to their families that way if they have approved numbers on their calling lists.

Do inmates go to school while incarcerated?

Véronique: : Education is a really important component for reintegration. It increases the offenders chances to successfully transition back to the community so absolutely they can go to school while they're incarcerated and in fact those who have not completed a grade 12 or a secondaire cinq in Québec have education as an identified need in their correctional plan. So they're encouraged to pursue education while they're incarcerated.

Kirstan: And are all inmates entitled to visiting rights in our federal institutions? I know some people think that if you're locked up, you don't get to see anybody on the outside.

Véronique: : So, there are different types of visits. There's what we call open and closed visits. Open is in a shared room, common area where inmates would have visits with their family, for example, with other inmates and other visitors. Closed visits is where we have a barrier between the visitor and the inmate. There's also video visitation, so based on different site schedules, inmates have access to FaceTime with their families and friends, but they also have that virtual option to speak with their network.

The goal is to keep contact with the support network in the community. Maintaining those contacts really helps inmates with their successful reintegration when they do maintain the community support.

Kirstan: Are there lots of gangs in prison?

Véronique: : Well gangs is a reality in prison. It makes for a very complex and diversified inmate population just considering that in our institutions we have about 250 different gangs and when we think about that spread in 43 institutions it means a lot of management for the inmate population to ensure the safety and security of our staff, our institutions, and the security of the offenders.

Kirstan: And are there a lot of drugs in prison? You know, we hear about drone drops and about seizures and that sort of thing. What would you say? Would you say that's a real problem?

Véronique: : Well, problematic substance use is a phenomenon across the world, and we are not immune to this. We were also experiencing the effect of Canada's opioid crisis, but we do have some tools to limit the flow of drugs in our institutions.

So for example, we have searches, detector dogs, we have detection technology, just like we see in airports. We do have a zero tolerance for drug trafficking, but because we know it's present, we also have harm reduction programs to help offenders either overcome their addiction or help them having safer ways for consuming.

Kirstan: If an inmate is serving a life sentence, will they ever get out of prison?

We know that some people are extremely dangerous.

Véronique: : Well, a life sentence means that the person will remain under the supervision of the Correctional Service of Canada for the remaining of their life. But with a sentence, you're always going to be eligible for parole. So, for example, you have a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. This means that you must serve 25 years in a federal institution. But after 25 years, you may go before the Parole Board of Canada to ask to be released on parole.

Kirstan: And they're a separate organization, separate from Correctional Service of Canada. So they make independent decisions. And so I guess we would provide a recommendation or not. And then they'd go before the parole board. And then what happens if, say, they do make parole, we continue to supervise them?

Véronique: : Yeah. So, as you said, the parole board of Canada is independent from CSC. So, they make the decision based on...our recommendation. We also provide all the relevant information from the offenders' files, so their behaviour during their incarceration, the programs they followed. But if they do get paroled, then they remain under our jurisdiction, which means that they are supervised by a parole officer in the community. And based on their risk, for example, they can be met by parole officers once a week.

Kirstan: They can be met by parole officers once every two weeks if they do not have a residency condition, which means that they would have to live in a halfway house.

And tell me about the voice of victims in this process. Like the parole board may get all the information from us, but what about victims?

Véronique: : So, victims are invited to make a victim statement that will be submitted to the parole board of Canada before the offenders parole hearing and those statements and victim concerns are taken into consideration in those decisions.

Kirstan: With all these questions, it's clear that there's a lot of misconceptions about what the Canadian prison system is actually like. This brings us to the final part of today's episode called Common Corrections. At the end of each podcast episode, Common Corrections looks at a common misconception that Canadians have about our federal correctional system. We'll do our very best to debunk the myths and set the record straight. This episode's common correction is...

Do inmates really wear orange jumpsuits?

Véronique: : That's a great question, and the simple answer is no, not in Canadian federal prisons. Inmate in a federal prison gets a standard set of items that include jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a white t-shirt, polo shirts, long sleeves, and underwear. And some offenders can at times even wear their own clothes. That depends on which institution they're in.

For women offenders, for example, there are no standard clothing and dress codes, but there are some local rules of items that they cannot wear for safety and security reasons.

Kirstan: Well, Véronique, thanks so much for talking to me today. It was really interesting to capture some of these highlights of CSC 101. Thanks for joining me and for your time. Thanks for having me. Do you have an idea for the next common correction? What's something you've always wondered about. We'll do our best to let you know if what you've heard is true. Let us know on Twitter or Facebook at the Correctional Service of Canada. A big thank you again to today's guests, Véronique Rioux. If you'd like this show, please rate it, review it, or subscribe. I'm your host, Kirstan Gagnon, and thanks for listening.