Lecture 2: Sentencing & Custody Classification Flashcards
Why is crime of concern to Canadians?
- High rates
- High costs
- Possible victimization
- New Canadians must adapt
What should sentencing do?
Sentencing should alter criminal behaviour by attempting to manage its consequences
What is restorative justice?
Restorative justice is a systematic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing the wounds of victims, offenders and communities caused or revealed by the criminal behaviour.
What are the key elements of Restorative Justice?
a) identifying and taking steps to repair harm
b) involving allstakeholders
c) transforming the traditional relationship between communities and their governments in responding to crime.
What are the key values of restorative justice?
- Encounter: Create opportunities for victims, offenders and community members who want to do so to meet to discuss the crime and its aftermath
- Amends: Expect offenders to take steps to repair the harm they have caused
- Reintegration: Seek to restore victims and offenders as whole, contributing members of society
- Inclusion: Provide opportunities for parties with a stake in a specific crime to participate in its resolution
What are the types of Restorative Justice approaches?
1) Victim offender mediation: Conferencing and Circles
2) Providing victim assistance
3) Ex-offender assistance
4) Restitution
5) Community Service
What is the evidence for restorative justice (i.e., victim-offender mediation program)
- Strong support by victims, offenders and criminal justice practitioners
- Victims wanted to know why offence took place and convey impact to offender
- Lower recidivism rate and greater restitution
What is provincial corrections?
Provincial jurisdiction - offenders with sentences under 2 years, community sentences or probation; young offenders
What is federal corrections?
Federal jurisdiction – offenders with sentences of 2 or more years (better data available)
15,215 incarcerated + 7,754 under community supervision
Who is the single largest employer of psychologists?
Staff (18,244): correctional staff (42%), parole officers, social workers, psychologists (CSC [correctional service Canada] is Canada’s single largest employer of psychologists)
What are the typical lengths of sentences?
- 53% of custodial sentences by adult courts are less than 1 month
- Sentences for men usually longer than for women
- 3.1% of custodial sentences are 2 or more years
- Length of a sentence has implications for assessment and treatment services
How many crimes result in federal sentences (crime funnel)?
Relatively few (4718) compared to the number reported to police (2,204,812)
Where are the majority of CSC employees clustered?
They are clustered in custody centres (77.2; e.g., correctional officers, administrative support, health care, parole officers, program staff and instructors/supervisors)
Is the cost of keeping an inmate incarcerated higher for females or males?
It is much higher for females. Could be for various reasons like health and hygiene.
What is the most common area of offender complaint received by the office of correctional investigator?
Health care (838 complaints in 2017-18)
What percentage of offenders are in custody vs. in the community (e.g., day parole)?
60.7% of offenders are in custody and 38.5 are actively supervised and 0.8 are temporarily detained in a non-CSC facility
Has the number of offenders in a CSC facility decreased or increased in the last 4 years?
it has decreased
What proportion of the offender population is 50 or over?
25%
What proportion of offenders are caucasian?
56.3% (24% indigenous, 7.3% black, 5.5% asian, other/unkown 5.9%, Hispanic 1.1%)
What proportion of offenders are serving a sentence for a violent offence?
69.7%
What security level are the majority of offenders classified as?
classified as medium risk
What has happened to the number of offenders of escapees since 2013-2014?
remained stable
Has the proportion of offenders in the community under supervision increased or decreased in the past 5 years?
Increased
What are the components used for custody placement?
- public safety concern
- escape risk concern
- institutional adjustment concern
What does initial assessment include?
Orientation Critical concerns Protective custody Initial plans Sentence administration Medical Security Mental Health Suicide Supplementary (education/vocation, substance abuse, family violence, sex offender, psychological)
What are examples of static factors?
Criminal history Offence severity Sex offence history Detention criteria Statistical risk estimate (SIR-R1)
What are some examples of dynamic factors?
Employment Marital/Family Associates Substance Abuse Community Functioning Personal/Emotional Attitude
What are internal and external prison classification systems?
External:
-Custody level placement (L,M,H)
Internal:
-Cell allocation (single/double/dorm)
-Regular population or Protective Custody
-Program assignment (match criminogenic needs)
What are the purposes of assessment tools?
- Guide and structure decision-making
- Reduce bias
- Improve the placement of offenders for treatment and
- public safety
- Manage offenders in a more effective manner
- Respond to legal challenges
- Utilize resources more effectively
What are the classification standards?
Instruments need to be testing prior to implementation
- Reliability
- Validity
- Sample representativeness
What are the implications of over classification (e.g., More offenders at higher security)?
- Fails to meet CCRA least restrictive.
- Subject to appeal
- More costly.
- Reduces parole grant rates.
What are the implications of under classification (e.g., More offenders at lower security)?
- More security incidents within prison.
- Possibly higher escape rates resulting in greater public concern.
- Saves money.
How do we deal with over-classification?
- Change cut-offs?
- Change scoring for subgroups (e.g., Aboriginals, Women)
- Validate using retrospective data
- How might over-rides (e.g., professional discretion) apply?
What are the 6 criteria of an objective classification model?
1) Use of both reliable and valid factors to assess a prisoner’s custody level.
2) Centralized classification unit that is adequately staffed with well-trained professional personnel who have control over inter-agency transfers.
3) Clear policies and procedures relating to offender classification.
4) Initial classification process and annual reclassification process.
5) A fully automated classification system to permit decisions to be recorded and evaluated.
6) Use of over-rides to allow staff to depart from scored classification level for reasons approved by the agency.
What is reclassification?
-Typically includes dynamic factors (Program participation, Current adjustment)
-Weights different than initial classification
(Current offense may be weighted less for reclassification (0-7 upon admission, 0-5 upon reclassification)
What factors are predictive of prison misconduct?
- Current age (Older offenders less involved in misconducts)
- Gender (Females less involved in misconducts)
- History of violence (Recent history predictive of continuation)
- History of mental illness (More likely to be involved in misconducts (definition?)
- Gang membership (Gang members more likely to be involved in misconducts)
- Program participation (Offenders not involved in or not completed programs more likely to commit misconducts)
- Recent disciplinary actions (Offenders with recent misconducts are more likely to continue)
What are the common factors that are used without predictive validity?
-Drug and alcohol use
-History of escape
-Sentence length
-Severity of offense
-Time left to serve
Note: Reflect zero tolerance for error
What are some issues with classification?
- Agencies must ensure policies are not overly restrictive
- Distinguish between female and male offender classification systems
- Desirable to have dynamic factors to permit reductions in security placement over time
What is the difference between prison classification and risk assessment?
- Classification focuses on prison custody levels, prison adjustment, escapes
- Traditional risk assessment focuses primarily on public safety/community recidivism
- Some factors overlap, many do not
What is the approach and criterion for each step of the approach?
Classification: Custody level & Prison adjustment
Risk assessment: Risk, new crime
Release/Parole: Risk, Severity if a failure
What placement issues have to be considered when deciding security level?
Minimum Security: Not an escape risk and if escaped not a risk to the public
Medium Security: Not a considerable escape risk, but would leave if presented the opportunity and if escaped would be of concern to the public
Maximum Security: A considerable escape risk and if escaped would be a significant concern to the public
What is a common factor considered by the parole board when making release decisions?
- Misconduct
- Must also consider degree of security required within a prison
- Legal requirement to protect staff and inmates
- Misconducts typically distinguished as minor or major
What are the ABC’s of risk-needs classification?
- Objective (structured administration and scoring)
- Reliable (internal & inter-rater)
- Meaningful (items make sense)
- Predictive validity (predict relevant outcomes)
- Dynamic validity (changes predict outcome)
- Socially unbiased (don’t violate charter - ethnicity & gender)
- Generalization (applies to other groups and settings beyond construction sample)
What is the prison rape elimination act?
Screening for vulnerability and predation within a prison (use a measure to assess vulnerability to predation and likelihood to be a predator)
What do structured classification methods provide for?
- Cost savings (costs more to have offenders over-incarcerated)
- Reduces escape rates
- Meets legal requirements of least restrictive
- Population-specific (gender)
