Home Programs Corrections Protection against high-risk offenders Warrant Expiry Date

Warrant Expiry Date

 A Warrant Expiry Date (WED) is the date a criminal sentence officially ends, as imposed by the courts at the time of sentencing.

Offenders who reach Warrant Expiry after completing their entire sentence are no longer under the jurisdiction of Correctional Service Canada (CSC). Neither CSC nor the National Parole Board (NPB) has the legal authority to lengthen or shorten a court sentence.

The majority of federal sentences given in Canada have a Warrant Expiry Date. Convicted offenders given a life sentence or an indeterminate sentence do not have a Warrant Expiry Date because they will be serving their sentence for the remainder of their lives, whether in a penitentiary or under supervision in the community. Offenders serving life/indeterminate sentences represent 20% of the active federal offender population.

Every year, approximately 4,500 offenders reach their Warrant Expiry Date. 

Preparing for  WED -- working with police and our partners

Public safety is always CSC’s primary consideration when any offender is being released. If CSC has reasonable grounds to believe that an offender reaching WED will, upon release, pose a threat to any person, CSC provides police with all information under its control and relevant to that perceived threat. The decision lies with the police whether public disclosure of the offender’s release is necessary.

A comprehensive information package is prepared 90 days prior to the offender’s release at WED to assist police in determining what action could be taken. The WED information packages include documents such as, the offender’s criminal profile, correctional plan, records of institutional behaviour and psychological/psychiatric evaluations. With this information, police services can also apply to the courts to impose on an offender a “peace bond” under section 810 of the Criminal Code that can result in various conditions being applied to the offender’s behaviour while in the community.