Corrections
As a victim, it is important to understand how the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board operate. If the offender is sentenced to less than two years imprisonment, he or she will be sent to a provincial correctional facility. The provincial correctional service will then assess the offender and determine the institution in which the sentence will be served. However, if the sentence is two years or more, the offender will be sent to a federal penitentiary under the authority of the Correctional Service of Canada. It will assess the offender and decide whether the sentence will be served in a minimum, medium or maximum security federal facility.
The Parole Board
The National Parole Board and the Correctional Service of Canada do not automatically inform victims of an offender’s pending release. Like other members of the general public, victims can apply for general information about the offender, including the length of the sentence, and review dates for applying for temporary absences, and day and full parole.
41 Victims can apply to receive additional information not available to the general public, including: where the offender is imprisoned; the date on which the offender is to be released on a temporary absence, day parole, full parole, or statutory release; the conditions of the offender’s parole;
and the offender’s destination upon release. The Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board will provide this information if they believe that the victims’ interests in the information outweigh the offender’s privacy interests. Victims can also request to be notified on an ongoing basis of information such as the offender’s transfer from one institution to another.
It may be useful to update your victim impact statement for use in parole or release hearings, particularly if there is new information about the effects of the crime. Victims may present a statement at National Parole Board hearings either in person, in an audio or video recording, or may submit a letter. Victims also have the right to be informed about all hearings regarding the offender. To register your interest in these proceedings, contact the National Parole Board (www.npb-cnlc.gc.ca).
Conditional Release
There are various ways in which offenders can be reintegrated into society after serving all or part of their sentences. One of the National Parole Board’s major functions is to make conditional release decisions for offenders sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more.
Conditional release acts as a bridge between incarceration and the offender’s return to the community. There are four types of conditional release: temporary absence; day parole; full parole; and statutory release.
A prison warden may allow an offender to leave the correctional facility temporarily for a specific reason, such as attending a funeral for an immediate relative or for a medical appointment. The offender may be escorted by an officer. Typically, an offender becomes eligible to apply for a temporary absence after serving the longer of six months or one-half the time required to reach eligibility for full parole.
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Day parole prepares the offender for full parole or statutory release.
Offenders on day parole are allowed to leave the facility during the day, usually to go to work or school, but must return at night. Except for certain categories of offenders, a person typically becomes eligible to apply for day parole after serving one-sixth of his or her sentence. While the National Parole Board makes the decision to grant day parole, the Correctional Service supervises offenders in the program.
Full parole allows the offender to serve the remainder of his or her sentence in the community under the supervision of a parole officer.
Parole is not granted automatically. Most offenders may apply for full parole after serving a third of their sentence.
The law allows most offenders to earn one day off their sentence for every two days served with good behaviour. Thus, except in very limited circumstances, all federal inmates must be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. While the National Parole Board cannot prevent these offenders from being released, it can require them to meet certain conditions upon leaving prison.
Offenders released on parole are subject to mandatory conditions. They must:
• travel directly from prison to their place of residence and immediately contact their parole officer;
• remain within Canada;
• obey the law and keep the peace;
• inform their parole officer if they are arrested or questioned by the police;
• refrain from owning a weapon, except as authorized by their parole officer; and
• advise their parole officer of any change in address or status.
The Correctional Service may recommend additional parole conditions.
Based on these recommendations or its own initiative, the National Parole Board may require offenders to meet other conditions, such as refraining from contacting the victim, abstaining from alcohol and drugs, and obtaining treatment. The only major limitation on the optional conditions is that they must relate to the offender’s previous criminal behaviour.
43 Offenders may have their conditional release revoked and be returned to prison if they commit a crime, breach their parole conditions or present an undue risk to the public. More than half of the offenders sent back to prison are returned for violating a parole condition, rather than for committing a new crime.
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