Speakers
Larry Motiuk PhD
Parallel Workshops
The two-year duration and multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic had a number of direct impacts on the federal (sentenced two years or more) custody population in Canada. Along with concerted efforts to maintain health and security in institutional settings throughout the waves of the pandemic, there were considerable shifts in size and composition of the in-custody population. In particular, substantial numerical declines were observed in both the federal (sentenced two years or more) men and women in-custody population (-1,640 or 12.4% and -103 or 14.8%, respectively). Not only were there changes around how many inmates there were across operational settings (size), it was coupled with observed shifts in the characteristics of these populations (composition). To better understand the nature of the evolving population profile, selected statistics were gathered at mid fiscal year in September 2019 (pre-COVID), then at year-end 2020-21 and then again for 2021-22 in relation to eight major characteristics. Namely age, diversity, sentence length, major offence, offender security level, criminal risk, criminogenic needs, and past parole eligibilities. The operational restrictions imposed and changes in composition over the pandemic period presented some unique challenges in the delivery of custodial services and correctional interventions. This session will focus on describing how the shifts in custodial populations in Canadian Federal corrections system that were brought about by the pandemic period manifested itself and discuss the various challenges, lessons learned and new opportunities that will influence the correctional environment for the near future.
