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2004-2005
Estimates

A Report on Plans and Priorities

Approved

SECTION I: MESSAGE

Correctional Investigator's Message
Management Representation Statement

SECTION II: RAISON D'ÊTRE

SECTION III: PLANNING OVERVIEW

SECTION IV: PLANS AND PRIORITIES BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME

Exhibit 4.1 - OCI Logic Model
Exhibit 4.2 - Spending Profile by Activity
Exhibit 4.3 - OCI Integrated Planning Framework

SECTION V - ORGANIZATION

Exhibit 5.1 - Organization Chart
Exhibit 5.2 - Agency Planned Spending

SECTION VI - ANNEXES

Exhibit 6.1 - Net Cost of Program for the Estimates Year
Other Information
References

Section I: Message

A. Correctional Investigator's Message

The Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) is mandated as an Ombudsman for federal offenders. An effective oversight agency for correctional operations is accepted by Canadians as an essential element of an open and accountable criminal justice process. The strategic outcome expected by Canadians is a Federal correctional system that is fair, safe, humane and equitable. The focus of OCI operations is directed towards the promotion of that outcome.

The independent oversight of corrections encompasses more than the investigation of complaints and the filing of reports. The Office's effectiveness centres on its ability to maintain a responsive investigative process and the impact of its findings and recommendations on fostering positive change. On both counts, significant progress has been achieved.

We have now essentially implemented our first Corporate Strategic Plan. The OCI's priorities, organizational matrix and operations have been realigned to ensure our mandate is carried out with optimal efficiency and effectiveness. Also realized through this change process has been a significant improvement in our agency's capacity to respond to emerging issues and its readiness to explore new strategic directions.

The OCI's governance will be anchored by a well-structured Management Accountability Framework and directed by the highest ethical standards of public service.

Accordingly, the OCI will remain dedicated to achieving excellence vis-à-vis its strategic outcome and to report on its performance in a concise and understandable ways to elected officials and to Canadians. We will be guided in all we do by a clear set of values, which respect and reinforce Canadian institutions of democracy. The OCI will further demonstrate discipline and prudence in all fiscal matters, by engaging in sound risk management, rigorous stewardship, clear accountabilities and responsible spending.

The Office of the Correctional Investigator is committed to being a responsive and well managed federal organization, offering citizen focused services. We will continue to work in collaboration with other levels of government and with the private and not-for-profit sectors to assist in ensuring that Canadians maintain confidence in their criminal justice system.

Howard Sapers
Correctional Investigator

B. Management Representation Statement

Section II: Raison D'être

The Office of the Correctional Investigator provides Canadians with timely independent, thorough and objective monitoring of their federal correctional system, to ensure that it remains fair, equitable, humane, reasonable and effective.

Section III: Planning Overview

The Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) is largely funded through operating expenditures and we have the authority to spend revenue received during the year.

The OCI has now essentially satisfied all the action commitments outlined in the Corporate Strategic Plan it had formally adopted in January 2002. Accordingly, managerial focus will reside on the consolidation of progress achieved at the administrative level, notably in the management of human resources, and at the operational level, in the implementation our Integrated Planning Framework.

Consistent with the OCI's Logic Model and in response to the systemic problems still plaguing the correctional treatment offered to them, the issues of Federally Sentenced Women and Aboriginal Offenders will remain a priority for the OCI. Confronted by an increasing demand for our services, we will continue to optimize the frequency of institutional visits. Also still prioritized will be the timely review and follow-up of investigations conducted under Section 19 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) and of Use of Force videotapes.

Finally, the OCI remains acutely aware that its ability to provide results for Canadians is linked to the level and quality of its participation as a partner in the criminal justice system. Accordingly, it will pursue its efforts to maintain a positive and productive working relationship with the Correctional Service. The OCI will also actively promote an agenda of communication and cooperation among its other partners and stakeholders in the field of corrections.

Section IV: Plans and Priorities by Strategic Outcome

A - Summary

B - Details

The primary strategic outcome of the OCI remains the provision to Canadians of an independent review agency to investigate the problems of federal offenders related to decisions, recommendations, acts or omissions of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Section 19 of its enabling legislation, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) also requires that it review all CSC Investigations convened following the death of or serious bodily injury to an inmate. The OCI is also engaged in similar monitoring of all interventions by Institutional Emergency Response Teams (IERT'S), in keeping with the recommendations of the Arbour Commission.

The maintaining of an independent and objective review process within a correctional environment where the office has virtually no control over neither the number of complaints nor the extent of investigations required presents a number of unique challenges. First, the resolution of disputes in an environment traditionally closed to public scrutiny with an understandably high level of mistrust between correctional officials and inmates, requires that the Office not only be, but be seen to be independent of both the Correctional Service and the Ministry. Second, given that the authority of the Office rests with its power of persuasion and public reporting rather than enforceable recommendations, it is imperative that appropriate administrative and political mechanisms be available to ensure that reasonable, fair, timely, equitable and humane action is taken on the findings made by the OCI.

In recent years, changes to the regulatory and legislative environment have forced the OCI to dramatically expand its services. The Arbour Commission of Inquiry (1996) noted that the statutory mandate of the OCI should continue to be supported and facilitated because only the OCI is in the "unique position both to assist in the resolution of individual problems, and to comment publicly on the systemic shortcomings of the Services."

In 1997, the Auditor General noted that one of the factors creating difficulty at that time, was the overall size of the workload. Indeed since that time the OCI has implemented the recommendations of the Auditor General to address those workload issues, including working with the Correctional Service to improve the inmate grievance procedure and to provide an improved policy and procedure manual to investigators. The Auditor General noted as well, however, that the demand for services remains elevated, incessant and that both the overall volume and complexity of issues continues to increase.

In 2000, the Sub-committee on the Corrections and Conditional Release Act of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, recommended that the budget of the OCI be "increased in order to expand the number of investigators and [to] cover directly related expenses such as office equipment, communications and travel required to conduct investigations".

The OCI does not foresee any diminution or decline in either the overall demand for services or in the complexity of the issues the OCI is called upon to address. The environment in which the OCI is called upon to provide "Results for Canadians" continues to be extremely challenging and one in which innovative and dedicated service provision is essential to moving ahead.

To respond to these pressures, the OCI formally adopted its first Corporate Strategic Plan in January 2002 and identified therein the three operational priorities presented above.

While these remain current, the continuous environmental scanning required to implement the OCI's Integrated Planning Framework has yielded a number of emerging issues.

As outlined in our 2002-2003 Annual Report to Parliament, the OCI will also be concerned, as resources allow, with the correctional treatment offered to particular segments of the federal offender population (young and elderly offenders, offenders with mental health issues, inmates housed in maximum security institutions), the independent review/adjudication of administrative segregation, the adoption and implementation of harm reduction strategies by the Correctional Service in the area of infectious diseases, the use of security information in decision-making affecting offenders, the use of ION Scanners, the ownership and use by inmates of computers, and inmates' access to counsel.

The Logic Model presented below sets out just how the OCI views how it delivers the services necessary to support its mandate and deliver on its commitment to the strategic outcome of responsible, humane, fair and effective corrections.

The logic model identifies the linkages between the activities of the OCI program and the achievement of its outcomes. It clarifies the activities that make up its program and the sequence of outcomes expected to result from these activities.

Exhibit 4.1 - OCI Logic Model

Of legitimate interest to elected officials and Canadians is how the OCI has previously allocated resources and how it plans to do so to respond to the foreseeable demands in upcoming fiscal years. Set out below are spending profiles, consistent with the major activities identified in the OCI Logic Model (exhibit 4.1 above.)

Exhibit 4.2 - Spending Profile by Activity including Program Integrity Resources
for fiscal years 2000-2001 to 2004-2005 (and ongoing)

Individual Inmate Complaint Resolution (i.e. Visits, Cell Effects)

OCI Systemic and Emerging Issues (e.g. Double Bunking, Young and Elderly Offenders)

Mandated Issues (Section 19 (CCRA) Investigations, Use of Force)

Specific Policy Leadership (Aboriginal Offenders, Federally Sentenced Women)

Corporate Services

As stated above, the OCI is committed to being a well managed federal organization. Abiding by such a commitment requires rigorous operational planning, fact-based priority setting, clear accountabilities, timely, thorough and reliable performance review and reporting. Accordingly, the OCI has included performance measurement and evaluation strategies, and accountability and reporting mechanisms in its Integrated Planning Framework (Exhibit 4.3, below). Its ongoing implementation at the operational level has already provided the OCI with a very precise barometer if its success vis-à-vis its Logic Model. The evaluation strategy requires the OCI to take, at regular intervals, an in-depth look at how its program is doing. The primary consideration remains improvements that facilitate the achievement of results for Canadians.

Exhibit 4.3 - OCI Integrated Planning Framework

Section V: Organization

A - Organization Chart

Exhibit 5.1 - OCI Organization

B. Agency Planned Spending

Exhibit 5.2 Agency Planned Spending

The net cost of the OCI program is, at the present time, expected to remain relatively stable over the next three fiscal years. A potential source of increase resides in the OCI's ongoing quest for the additional resources required to offer specialized focus on elderly offenders and young offenders as well as follow-up on the issues associated with Aboriginal Corrections.

* Reflects the best forecast of total net planned spending to the end of the fiscal year.
** Adjustments are to accommodate approvals obtained since the Main Estimates and are to include Budget initiatives Supplementary Estimates etc.

Section VI: Annexes

A. Financial Information

Exhibit 6.1 Net Cost of Program for the Estimates Year

B. Other Information

Website: http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca
Email: org@oci-bec.gc.ca

Statutes and Regulations

Corrections and Conditional Release Act, Part III

Reports

• Correctional Investigator's Annual Report 2002-2003
  (http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca)
  
  
• Auditor General's Report, chapter 33, December 1997
  (http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca)
  
  
• Auditor General's Report, Chapter 32, November 1999
  (http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca)

C. References