Operational and Program Delivery Context – Federal Releases

*Includes releases from institutions at warrant expiry, at warrant expiry with a long-term supervision order, graduations from federal supervision periods to a long-term supervision order upon warrant expiry, deaths, transfers to foreign countries, etc.

• In 2019-20, federal releases directly from institutions remained relatively unchanged (7,322; one fewer) compared to the previous year. Graduations to subsequent federal supervision periods increased 2.0% (from 3,454 to 3,522).
• By region, federal releases directly from institutions decreased in the Atlantic (-6.3%), Quebec (-5.8%), and Pacific (-3.2%) regions and increased in the Ontario (+7.4%) and Prairie (+2.2%) regions in 2019-20. Graduations to subsequent federal supervision periods increased in the Atlantic (+11.1%), Prairie (+4.1%) and Pacific (+7.2%) regions, while a decrease was reported in the Quebec (-3.9%) and Ontario (-1.5%) regions.
• Federal discretionary releases decreased in 2019-20 (day parole; -2.0% and full parole; -3.0%). Federal releases on statutory release increased by 3.7%.

Figure 16. Graduations from Federal Supervision Periods (Violent Offenders)

Figure 17. Graduations from Federal Supervision Periods (Non-Violent Offenders)

The abolition of the APR process resulted in a significant increase of day parole continued and to a lesser extent in a decrease of graduations from day parole to full parole for non-violent offenders in 2011-12 and in 2012-13. However, the gap between the day parole continued and the graduations from day parole to full parole for these types of offenders has been generally increasing in the following years.

• Overall, violent offenders were more likely to continue their day parole supervision while non-violent offenders were more likely to graduate from day parole to full parole.
• In 2019-20, the number of day parole supervision periods that were continued increased 4.9%, there were no significant changes to graduations from day parole to full parole (-0.7%) and to graduations from day parole to statutory release (0.2%) when compared to the previous year.

The following subsection discusses federal releases on statutory release in relation to prior consideration for discretionary release.

• The proportion of federal releases to statutory release where parole was previously granted/directed increased from 21% in 2015-16 to 29% in 2019-20.
• The proportion of federal releases to statutory release where parole was previously denied/not directed decreased from 23% in 2015-16 to 21% in 2019-20. 
• The proportion of federal releases to statutory release with no prior parole decision decreased from 56% in 2015-16 to 50% in 2019-20.

Figure 18. Federal Releases on Statutory Release in Relation to Prior Consideration for Parole

Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, the substantial increase in the proportion of releases on statutory release where parole was previously granted/directed was driven by offenders serving sentences for non-violent offences (from 27% in 2015-16 to 39% in 2019-20).

Compared to the previous year, the proportion of releases on statutory release where there was no prior parole decision was stable for offenders serving sentences for sexual offences. The proportion decreased for offenders serving sentences for violent offences (from 59% to 57%) and for offenders serving sentences for non-violent offences (from 45% to 41%).

When looking at the numbers by Indigenous and non-Indigenous, 3 out of 5 Indigenous offenders and 2 out of 5 non-Indigenous offenders released on statutory release were not seen by the Board for a parole review in 2019-20.

• The proportion of federal releases at warrant expiry, as well as releases on long-term supervision at warrant expiry without a prior parole decision has increased to 87% from 82% in 2019-20 compared to the previous year.
• Overall, in 2019-20, a total of 6,817 (-0.7%) federal offenders were released from institutions and 2,833 (+2.2%) federal offenders graduated from one federal supervision period to another compared to the previous year.

* ‘Other’ includes death, transfers to foreign countries, etc.
Note: The number of releases from institutions and graduations may be greater than the number of offenders released, as an offender could be released from the institution and graduate from one supervision period to another supervision period more than once during the same year.