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SECTION 2: ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME

This section explains i) how CSC’s program activities, and the plans associated with them, support CSC’s single strategic outcome, and ii) how progress toward achieving the strategic outcome will be measured and reported in CSC’s 2008-09 Departmental Performance Report.

2.1 Custody

As mandated in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, CSC contributes to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society by carrying out sentences imposed by the courts through the safe and humane custody of offenders.

Creating safe conditions within institutions is critical to enabling offenders to focus on the programs and activities that will change their behaviour. Eliminating illicit drugs in the institutions, enhancing our security intelligence capacity, and enhancing our capacity to provide the treatment to offenders with mental health problems are important parts of achieving a safe environment where offenders take accountability for their behaviour. Providing safe institutions is also essential to attracting, retaining, and enabling a skilled staff to affect those interventions with offenders in pursuit of changing their behaviour.

Expected Result of Program Activity: Offenders in institutions are provided reasonable, safe, secure and humane custody.

Program Activity Performance Indicators	Program Activity Targets
Rate of escapees from federal institutions	Reduce over five years
Rate of offender deaths by other than natural causes12	Reduce over five years
Rate of assaultive behaviour	Reduce over five years
Percentage of offenders with identified mental health needs released at eligibility	Increase, over five years, the number of offenders with an identified mental health disorder who are adequately prepared for release at eligibility
Availability of drugs in institutions	Reduce over five years

Setting precise numeric targets for correctional activities is a challenge because the offender population is constantly changing. Offenders who succeed in changing their behaviour eventually return to the community and may be replaced with others who bring the same or different needs. CSC is transforming the way it meets the challenges. Some of the investments CSC will make will need to be tested in pilot projects before being rolled out nationally. Some strategies will produce an impact immediately; others will need time to change attitudes and ingrained behaviours. CSC remains committed to demonstrating that the direction of our transformation is consistent with our targets while finding the best ways to quantify the magnitude of the results in ways that are meaningful to Canadians.

Financial Resources
($ millions)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
1,494.4	1,534.2	1,508.6

Human Resources
(Full-time Equivalents)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
8,956	9,015	9,084

Program Activity Summary: This program activity ensures that offenders are provided with reasonable, safe, secure and humane custody while serving their sentence.  This program activity provides much of the day-to-day needs for offenders in custody including a wide range of activities that address health and safety issues as well as provide basics such as food, clothing, mental health services, and physical health care.  It also includes security measures within institutions including drug interdiction, and appropriate control practices to prevent incidents.

Planning highlights

In order to achieve the expected results, CSC has planned:

• an integrated set of initiatives to eliminate drugs in institutions;
• strategies to manage conflict between inmate sub-populations;
• enhancements for sharing security intelligence to prevent further criminal activity;
• enhancements or improved capacities to assess and address the needs of offenders particularly as they relate to infectious disease and mental health; and
• methods to maximize the level of safety within the institution.

Details of the activities that will produce these results can be found in Section 3.3

Benefits for Canadians

In addition to the punishment aspect of the sentence, Canadians hold offenders accountable for changing their behaviour. CSC has a reputation for offering high quality needs assessments and for offering innovative programming to meet those needs. Making institutions safe, secure, and drug-free is critical to creating an environment where offenders can concentrate on becoming law-abiding.

Teaching offenders how to resolve conflicts and deal with their emotions without violence will make all members of society safer; especially the families and communities to which the offender returns when released or at the end of their sentence.

Some offenders will try to continue their criminal connections and activity while incarcerated, such as drug trafficking. The Security Intelligence work CSC does with its criminal justice and police partners contributes to making institutions safer but also contributes to making communities safer when criminal associates in the community, who try to get drugs into institutions, are arrested and convicted.

Addressing the needs of offenders with mental health problems not only reduces their vulnerability but can reduce the risk they represent to others. Creating an integrated approach to meet those needs promotes the most cost-effective way of delivering services, especially in the community.

2.2 Correctional Interventions

As mandated in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, CSC contributes to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society by assisting the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into the community as law-abiding citizens through the provision of programs in penitentiaries and in the community.

CSC has emerged as a world leader in development, implementation, and delivery of evidence-based programs designed to make offenders accountable for their criminal behaviour, change criminal attitudes, and significantly reduce the risk they present to Canadians when they are released back into society. Many industrialised nations, such as Australia, the UK, and United States, import CSC Correctional Programs to rehabilitate their most serious offenders.

CSC measures the performance of Correctional Programs by comparing the reduction in crime by offenders who participated in programs compared to those who did not participate. As a result, CSC can directly measure significant contributions to public safety.

A recent evaluation has determined that CSC Correctional Programs significantly contribute to crime reduction. For example, offenders who participated in CSC’s National Substance Abuse Program were 45% less likely to return with a new offence and 63% less likely to return with a new violent offence.

The Independent Review Panel noted that the demand for programs created by the changing offender profile has an impact on CSC’s capacity to deliver those programs both in the institution and in the community. CSC’s challenge is to deliver the right programs at the right time in the Offender’s sentence to support the offender’s efforts to change their behaviour.

Expected Result of Program Activity:
Correctional interventions address identified individual offender risks and needs and contribute to the offenders successful rehabilitation and reintegration.

Program Activity Performance Indicators	Program Activity Targets
Rate of participation in correctional interventions identified in the Correctional plan	Increase over five years.
For offenders who participate in correctional interventions:
Rate of completion of the correctional interventions identified in the Correctional Plan	Increase over five years.
Rate of offenders granted discretionary release at eligibility.	Increase over five years.
Rate of offender readmission after release for a new conviction.	Reduce over five years.
Rate of offender readmission after release for a new violent conviction.	Reduce over five years.

Financial Resources
($ millions)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
382.9	373.0	372.8

Human Resources
(Full-time Equivalents)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
2,777	2,752	2,752

Program Activity Summary: The Correctional Interventions Program Activity, which occurs in both institutions and communities, is necessary to help bring positive changes in behaviour and to safely and successfully reintegrate offenders back into Canadian communities. This program activity aims to address problems that are directly related to offenders' criminal behaviour and that interfere with their ability to function as law-abiding members of society.

Planning highlights

In order to achieve the expected results, CSC has planned:

• new methodologies in correctional program delivery that will assist offenders earlier in their sentence, increase program availability, and eliminate redundant services;
• strategies to better structure the offenders’ day to make it more productive,
• programs to increase the job readiness or employability of offenders;
• streamlining the case management processes used to assess and report on offenders’ progress, and
• strategies to address the unique needs of groups within our population including women offenders, Aboriginal offenders, ethno-cultural offenders, and offenders with mental health problems.

Details of the activities that will produce these results can be found in Section 3.3

Benefits for Canadians

Modernizing our employment strategies to match current and emerging employment trends will give offenders skills at finding and keeping a job. This will support their safe transition back into society and reduce the burden they, and their families, might otherwise be on social services in the community.

Better integrating our programs will benefit Canadians by enabling CSC to get more offenders through the necessary program goals within the time and resources available. Ensuring program gains made in the institution can readily continue when the offender is in the community will encourage participation in programs and increase the number of offenders who complete their programs.

Improving our diagnosis, treatment, and management of offenders with mental health problems is essential to helping them safely and successfully reintegrate into the community.

CSC has contributed programming and intervention approaches throughout the world, increasing Canada’s reputation as a country of innovators and professionals. This has attracted global experts who contribute to our ongoing efforts at improvement.

2.3 Community Supervision

As mandated in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, CSC contributes to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society by carrying out sentences imposed by courts through the safe and humane supervision of eligible offenders in the community. 

While many of the interventions used in the community are identified under the Program Activity of Correctional Interventions, CSC also uses other tools to manage offenders while in the community. For example, offenders released in the final third of their sentence on Statutory Release, and those who have been resistant to taking accountability for their behaviour, have had conditions added to their sentence requiring them to live in a community-based residential facility under supervision.

Community staff may work with offenders and their families while the offender is in the institution as well as while on community supervision. Unlike institutions that may have some services located within the facility, offenders on supervision often use local services in the community. They may also require assistance after the end of their sentence when CSC no longer has jurisdiction to provide that service. For all of these reasons, community supervision is heavily dependant on successful relationships and sharing resources with community partners and agencies.

In recent years, changes in the federal offender population have increased the need for additional training for staff to manage challenging situations and measures to ensure staff are safe and secure in their work place.

When all aspects of Community Supervision come together well, offenders complete their supervisi

Expected Result of Program Activity: 
The provision of a structured and supportive supervision of offenders through strong partnerships and safe environments during the gradual reintegration process contributes to the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders and to public safety.

Program Activity Performance Indicators	Program Activity Targets
Percentage of offenders under community supervision who incur new convictions	Reduce over five years
Percentage of offenders under community supervision who incur new convictions for violent offences	Reduce over five years
Percentage of offenders under community supervision who incur new convictions for non-violent offences	Reduce over five years
Percentage of offenders under community supervision who incur suspensions	Reduce over five years

on periods without interruption and without committing new offences.  However, similar to results in institutions, the complexity of all the variables that must interact to produce that result makes precise target setting difficult. CSC remains committed to significant progress in activities to better manage offenders while under supervision as evidenced by reductions in those who return to custody.

Financial Resources
($ millions)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
105.0	105.0	105.1

Human Resources
(Full-time Equivalents)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
1,006	974	974

Program Activity Summary: The Community Supervision Program ensures eligible offenders are safely reintegrated into communities through the provision of housing and health services, where required, as well as staff supervision for the duration of the offenders’ sentence. The expected results for this program activity are offenders who are reintegrated into the community as law-abiding citizens while maintaining a level of supervision, which contributes to public safety.

As noted earlier, correctional interventions which occur in the community are reported in the previous Program Activity area: Correctional Interventions.

Planning highlights

In order to achieve the expected results, CSC has planned:

• strategies to maximize the effectiveness of community residential facilities;
• initiatives to more effectively manage offenders with a residency condition as part of their release;
• ways of strengthening community partnerships and collaborative undertakings
• enhancements to our consultations with citizens;
• improvements in the security of staff working in the community;
• strategies to intervene more effectively with offenders in the community including Electronic Monitoring; strategies specific to short-term offenders, and strategies for offenders on Long-Term Supervision Orders;
• refinements to the skills training and management support of staff working in the community; and
• collaborations with other jurisdictions to identify and share best practices and engage community partners to support mental health services and community reintegration.

Details of the activities that will produce these results can be found in Section 3.3

Benefits for Canadians

The vast majority of offenders will eventually return to the community through some form of conditional release or because their sentence has expired. Ensuring those offenders are effectively and efficiently supervised is essential to public safety.

As stated earlier, the offenders who are now passing through the federal correctional system present more challenges. Many offenders face significant difficulties re-establishing themselves upon return to the community, especially in times of economic downturn. Working closely with partners encourages the most effective use of community resources so that more may be available to other citizens that need them.

Reviewing and improving its use of community-based residential facilities, whether operated by CSC or contracted from community agencies, will result in the security of having the right offenders under the right levels of control and supervision while they are in the community.

Improvements to the structure, management, and staff training in our community operations results in more effective use of limited resources and brings more expertise to bear on preventing re-offending and protecting the public.

Enhancing the consultation process with communities will benefit Canadians by assuring them of meaningful opportunities to influence policy and management decisions.

Employing alternate methods of intervening with offenders in the community, such as using Electronic Monitoring, will allow CSC to use less expensive, but equally effective, controls. In this way, existing resources can be concentrated on those offenders who represent the most challenge.

2.4 CORCAN¹³

 

Program Activity Summary: CORCAN is a Special Operating Agency of CSC that employs federal offenders for its workforce and, in doing so, provides them with working skills necessary to compete in the workforce once released from federal custody.

Employment and employability are recognized as major factors in an offender’s ability to pursue a crime-free life. Up to 20% of the offender population is active in some form of CORCAN training. Over two million hours of employment and training are provided each year in addition to other interventions. However, more than 70% of offenders at admission have unstable work histories; more than 70% have not completed high school and more than 60% have no trade or skill knowledge.¹⁴ Without the means to earn a living upon release, an offender’s rehabilitation is jeopardized.

A major challenge this coming year will be the economic situation within the country. The economic downturn increases pressure to place offenders in meaningful jobs in the community at a time when fewer jobs may be available.  In addition, the economic downturn will lower CORCAN revenues from the sale of products. This may translate into fewer institutional jobs and reduced funds for vocational training.

These challenges can be addressed in part by the correctional interventions CSC is undertaking to encourage offenders to complete their education and in improvements to the employment and job readiness skills CSC will offer to better prepare offenders for the labour market. While the specific plans arising from the Panel Report appear in the Correctional Interventions sections of this document, some of the planning highlights for Transforming offender employment and employability are repeated here for the reader's convenience:

• strategies to extend the time available to offenders to participate in productive activities such as work
• implementation of employment strategies specifically designed for Women Offenders and for Aboriginal Offenders
• implementation of an Employment Skill Assessment tool for all offenders
• exploration of employment related opportunities through private and public sector engagement
• strategies to assist offenders to become better educated and / or skilled for work

Further information about CORCAN, including its annual reports, can be found on CSC’s website.¹⁵

Financial Resources
($ millions)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
0.0	0.0	0.0

Human Resources
(Full-time Equivalents)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
443	443	443

2.5 Internal Services

As are all government departments, CSC is accountable to exercise its mandate in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible. The Report A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety, provided guidance to CSC on the future management of its physical infrastructure, improving information services to victims, the way CSC gets its public education message out, and the way CSC measures and reports on its performance. Further, CSC is engaged in all major government-wide initiatives such as Public Service Renewal and is an effective partner in horizontal initiatives such as Canada’s contribution in Afghanistan or efforts to improve conditions for Aboriginal persons.

As mentioned earlier, previous Program Activity Architectures allocated some common services type costs and results across all of CSC’s previous business lines. The current model groups more of those under Internal Services.

Identifying specific targets for Internal Services is a challenge in that their success is often borne out in the contribution they make to results other Activities. For example, the ultimate success of our communications efforts may be found in the results of a program because volunteers understood CSC’s vision and were drawn to contribute to it. By focusing overall on sound management practices, CSC will create a focused and sustainable environment for its staff and their endeavours.

Expected Result of Program Activity:
Efficient organizational functioning and support to our Transformation Agenda.

Program Activity Performance Indicators	Program Activity Targets
An organizational culture and operation respectful of Public Service values and ethics.	Maintain strong Management Accountability Framework rating in this area in addition to increasing positive responses from staff through surveys.
Effective organizational relationships where conflict is appropriately managed.	A decrease over five years in related staff grievances. An increase over five years in positive responses from staff in surveys.
Public resources are well managed through effective internal controls and timely monitoring.	Financial discrepancies, if any, raised on time and resolved immediately.
Effective outreach to community partners and information services to victims.	Increase in satisfaction ratings over five years.
Recruitment and retention strategies for health care professionals, trades and other occupational groups with low workforce availability.	Reduction in vacancies within CSC health care professionals, trades and other occupational groups.
A Common Human Resources Business Process is implemented in conjunction with the Canada Public Service Agency.	Reduction in timeframes for staffing processes.

Financial Resources
($ millions)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
222.2	203.4	195.8

Human Resources
(Full-time Equivalents)

2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
2,847	2,833	2,833

Program Activity Summary: Corporate and administrative services that support the effective and efficient delivery of operational programs and activities across the organization and which contribute meaningfully to horizontal and / or government-wide initiatives.

Planning highlights

Delivery of much of our Transformational Agenda is done in the other Program Activities areas where direct services occur. However, strong performance on our Internal Services and overall management functions are critical to achieving and sustaining the gains made in individual Program Activities.

CSC will ensure a workplace that fully respects and demonstrates Public Service ethics and values. This will be evident in our human resources strategies to get the right people in the right jobs. It will be visible in the relationships we build internally with partners and with victims of crime. It will be present in our efforts to manage overtime and seek economies and efficiencies in the use of all our resources and the controls we employ to manage those efforts.

In order to achieve the expected results, CSC has planned:

• strategies to improve recruitment and development of employment equity groups;
• actions to improve workplace health and nurture effective labour-management relationships;
• individual learning and development initiatives to ensure that we have the right people at the right place at the right time;
• recruitment and retention strategies for health care professionals, trades and other challenging occupational groups to staff;
• respectful of public service value;
• improvements to our ability and tools for sharing and communicating information;
• enhanced services to victims of crime including collaboration with partners;
• working with community partners to enhance success of releasing offenders to an Aboriginal community as per section 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act;
• the development and expansion of horizontal partnerships with Non-Governmental Organizations, other Departments and jurisdictions including both voluntary and private sector organizations;
• robust control systems for financial transactions;
• development and implementation of strategies to initiate further economies and increase the level of efficiency of CSC’s operations; and
• strategies to ensure the most efficient and effective use of overtime in our operations.

Details of the activities that will produce these results can be found in Section 3.3

Benefits for Canadians

CSC will, over the next three years, transform the efficiency and effectiveness of how we manage and perform our duties. Rigorously ensuring CSC’s financial transactions and controls are working will maximize the benefits Canadians get from their investment in their Correctional Service.

Canadians who have been victims of crime will benefit from CSC’s improvements to Victim Services by providing them with better support and information to understand and contribute to the correctional decisions around the person who victimized them.

CSC’s Strategic Plan for Human Resource Management will benefit Canadians working in CSC or seeking employment, especially those from groups under represented in the public sector. By contributing to a highly skilled professional Correctional Service, Canadians will have a workplace of choice to consider where they can expect to grow personally while making an important contribution to Canada. 

CSC’s internal communications action plans will ensure that Canadians have an informed, responsive Correctional Service, consistently focused on what is important to citizens. Enhanced public consultations and education will help citizens interact and influence CSC’s management decisions. Improvements to our measurement and reporting of results will make it easier for citizens to understand how their Correctional Service is performing.

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