MANDATE
The Correctional Investigator is mandated by Part
III of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act as an
Ombudsman for federal offenders. The primary function of the Office
is to investigate and bring resolution to individual offender
complaints. The Office as well, has a responsibility to review and
make recommendations on the Correctional Service's policies and
procedures associated with the areas of individual complaints to
ensure that systemic areas of concern are identified and
appropriately addressed.
MISSION STATEMENT
The Office of the Correctional Investigator, as
an Ombudsman for federal offenders, is committed to
maintaining an accessible independent avenue of redress for offender
complaints and to provide timely recommendations to the Commissioner
of the Correctional Service of Canada and the Minister of Public
Safety which address the areas of concern raised on complaint.
OPERATIONS
The Office, over the course of the reporting
year, received 7,993 complaints. The investigative staff spent 344
days in federal penitentiaries and conducted in excess of 2,800
interviews with inmates and half again that number of interviews
with institutional and regional staff. In addition to responding to
individual complaints, the Office meets regularly with inmate
committees and other offender organizations and makes announced
visits bi-annually at each institution during which the investigator
will meet with any inmate, or group of inmates, upon request. We
had, over the course of this reporting year, in excess of three
hundred meetings with various offender organizations, including
inmate committees, lifer groups, black inmate associations, native
brotherhoods and sisterhoods.
The areas of complaint continue to focus on those
long-standing issues which have been detailed in past Annual
Reports. A specific breakdown of the areas of complaint,
dispositions, institutional visits and interviews are provided in
the statistics section of the Report.
Among Areas of Concern identified in this year's Annual Report
are:
- Aboriginal Offenders
- Institutional Violence
- Women Offenders
- Inmate Programs
- Conditional Release
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