PAROLE IN CANADA

Don Quixote note:
I have decided to post various information re the proposed halfway house that will be the subject of much debate in this community over the next 6 months. This info will be posted to the Corrections Canada info category for future reference. Most of it will be from sources that will be acknowledged with a link but from time to time I will present my own observations using Don Quixote as noted etc. There are so many misconceptions about the history of the former halfway house and what the City Council agreed to for the establishment of a future halfway house that I thought I would share my observations and information to ensure that we are all debating with a full deck of information and not misinformation.

The first misconception that I wish to explore is that of having an halfway house would simply be a safeguard to watch the 42 parolees already forming the caseload for the 3 Parole officers in Vernon as some of these people would be moved into halfway house supervision. This misconception was laid to rest with an article from the Vernon Courier:

Corrections vows to work with city Lang confirmed that there are 42 parolees already in Vernon, but none of them would be eligible for the halfway house, meaning that residents of the house would be new to Vernon.

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http://www.isrcl.org/Papers/2004/Dunberry.pdf

The National Parole Board of Canada is the paroling authority for offenders serving a sentence of two years or more. The provincial and territorial governments are the paroling authorities for offenders serving terms of imprisonment of less than two years. In practice,however, only three provinces have parole boards and so the National Parole Board is the paroling authority for provincial offenders in the other seven provinces and three territories.The Mission of the Board is to make independent quality conditional release and pardon decisions.There are two types of parole in Canada. The first is day parole,which provides offenders with opportunities to participate in community-based activities, such as treatment, education or employment usually for periods of up to six months. Day parolees are in the community during the day, but return nightly to a community facility such as a halfway house, or occasionally to an institution. Day parole is designed to prepare offenders for full parole. Eligibility for day parole is set by law, six months before full parole eligibility, in most cases.The second type of parole is full parole, which allows offenders to serve the remainder of their sentence living in their home in the community under supervision. Eligibility for full parole is set, by law, at one third of a sentence, in most cases.Parole boards in Canada make decisions about the timing and conditions of release of offenders on parole based on a thorough review of the case and an assessment of risk. Community safety is the key consideration in any parole decision and we believe that it is through safe reintegration of offenders and good supervision in the community, that this will be achieved.

We work very closely with the Correctional Service of Canada who is our key partner. Correctional Service of Canada is responsible for case preparation which includes, looking for criminal records, details of the crime, reasons for sentencing by the Court, social and family history, psychological assessments, psychiatric reports, victim impact statements, assessments by the institutional parole officers, release plans, community assessments, etc. Correctional Service of Canada presents the case before the Board and supervises the offender if parole is granted. In the private sector, volunteer organizations, such as the John Howard Society and the Elizabeth Fry Society also contribute to the supervision of offenders under contract with the Correctional Service of Canada.There is also a third program called Statutory Release. Almost all inmates, if they have not already been paroled, go on supervision at the completion of 2/3 of their sentence. In these cases, the Board simply sets the conditions of release.The Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) is our shared legislative framework.