Conditional Release Decisions – Long-Term Supervision

Official Title: Performance Monitoring Report 2017-2018, Conditional Release Decisions – Long-Term Supervision
From: Parole Board of Canada

Long-Term Supervision

Tables 95-99

The court may impose a long-term supervision order (LTSO), not exceeding ten years, if it is satisfied that it would be appropriate to impose a sentence of two years or more for the offence of which the offender had been convicted, there is substantial risk that the offender will reoffend, and there is a reasonable possibility of eventual control of the risk in the community.

The Board may establish conditions for the long-term supervision of an offender that are considered reasonable and necessary in order to protect society and to facilitate the successful reintegration of the offender into society. A long-term supervision order, unlike other forms of conditional release, cannot be revoked by the Board. However, the Board can recommend that charges be laid under the Criminal Code if the offender has demonstrated by his/her behaviour that he/she presents a substantial risk to the community because of a failure to comply with one or more conditions.

• On April 8, 2018, 889 offenders had long-term offender designations, which amounts to 3.8% of the total offender population. Of those, 319 offenders with long-term offender designations were still incarcerated; 71 were on statutory release and four were on day parole prior to the commencement of their LTSOs; 487 were in the community under long-term supervision orders and eight had been deported upon their release on LTS.

Figure 21. Long-Term Supervision Population

Since 2000, when the first offender was released on a long-term supervision order, the long-term population in the community has been constantly increasing reaching 495 in 2017/18. Forty-eight (48) offenders were released at warrant expiry on long-term supervision orders in 2017/18 and 26 were released on long-term supervision orders after reaching warrant expiry on conditional release.

• The long-term supervision population increased in three regions in 2017/18: the Quebec (+9), Ontario (+7) and Prairie (+14) regions, decreased in the Pacific region (-3) and remained the same in the Atlantic region.
• On April 8, 2018, 63% of federal offenders on long-term supervision were those sentenced for schedule I-sex offences, 35% were those sentenced for schedule I-non-sex offences and two percent, sentenced for non-scheduled offences.
• Twenty-seven percent of offenders (27%) on LTSOs were Indigenous, compared to 1% of Asian offenders, 7% of Black offenders, 60% of White offenders and 4% of offenders in the Other category.
• The Board rendered 607 decisions for offenders on long-term supervision orders in 2017/18, a 5% increase compared to the previous year.
• Following a policy change in 2016 to increase the maximum period of a residency condition to 365 days, the number of post-release residency conditions imposed and prolonged for offenders with long-term supervision orders decreased in 2016/17 by 43% (from 338 in 2015/16 to 194 in 2016/17). The numbers started stabilizing in 2017/18, reporting a modest increase (from 194 in 2016/17 to 216 in 2017/18). A small increase was reported in the pre-release category as well (from 59 in 2016/17 to 70 in 2017/18). It should be noted that while the Board has been rendering fewer decisions to impose residency conditions since 2016/17, residency orders were overall for longer periods of time (up to a year).

Table 95. Long-Term Supervision Population

Note: Excluded as of April 8, 2018, were 6 LTSOs who were UAL (Atlantic 1, Quebec 2, Pacific 3).

Table 96. Total Long-Term Supervision Population by Indigenous and Race

Table 97. Offence Profile of the Total Long-Term Supervision Population (%)

Table 98. Federal and Provincial Long-Term Supervision Decisions

Definition: ‘Other’ includes the decisions of no action, laying of information recommended and panel hearing ordered.

Table 99. Residency Conditions on Federal and Provincial Long-Term Supervision

Note: Total = (pre-release imposed + pre-release prolonged - cancelled) + (post-release imposed + prolonged).