OTTAWA—Correctional Service Canada officials (CSC) are failing to prepare offenders for parole in a timely fashion, driving up prison costs by nearly $100 million a year and undermining efforts to prepare offenders to re-enter society without committing more crimes, auditor general Michael Ferguson reported Tuesday.

In a troubling assessment of the handling of non-aboriginal male convicts, Ferguson found 80 per cent of offenders are incarcerated beyond the time that they first become eligible for parole even though many are considered to be a low risk to break the law again.

Offenders in many cases are not being engaged by CSC in rehabilitation programs soon enough so the programs could be completed before the person in custody is first eligible for conditional release.

About 65 per cent of offenders do not complete their rehabilitation programs before they become eligible for parole, the audit concluded.

Ferguson also said CSC is making fewer recommendations to the Parole Board of Canada for the early release of offenders. As a result, lower-risk offenders are being let out into the community on a conditional basis later in their sentences and have less time under supervision in the community before their sentences end.

This trend undermines CSC’s mission to protect public safety and prepare offenders to reintegrate into the community, Ferguson said, because statistics show convicts who spend more time in the community in a supervised program are less likely to commit crimes once fully released.

The slowing rate of offender releases is contributing to overcrowding in prisons and rising custody costs, the audit found.

“Although the crime rate has decreased, and new admissions to federal custody have not increased, the total male (non-aboriginal) offender population grew by 6 per cent” between 2010 and 2013, the report said. This increase is mainly due to convicts being in custody for longer portions of their sentences.

As a result, CSC’s custody costs have risen by $91 million a year. This includes an estimated $26 million that could have been saved if low-risk offenders in minimum-security institutions had been prepared for, and released by, their first parole eligibility date, according to the report.

The audit noted that legislation passed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government in 2011 and 2012 had increased the time that offenders spend in custody before being released on parole.

The 2011 legislation eliminated Accelerated Parole Review, a form of early release available to non-violent, first-time offenders. The 2012 legislation extended the waiting period — to 12 months from six months — for a parole eligibility hearing after an offender had been denied parole.

Ferguson also found offenders are increasingly waiving or postponing their full parole hearings in front of the Parole Board. In 2013, 65 per cent of male offenders did so.

The audit indicated that it was unclear whether convicts were postponing the hearings for personal reasons or because of CSC’s inability to complete the offender’s casework in time. CSC agreed with Ferguson’s recommendation that it should conduct a study to find out why parole hearings are being put off.

The auditor also found that CSC has not developed guidelines to determine which prisoners have the highest need to be engaged in correctional interventions such as employment training and education.

The CSC told Ferguson it has created such guidelines and is working on ways to measure the effectiveness of the correctional programs.

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CSC also agreed with the auditor’s recommendation that it study the risks associated with releasing offenders directly into the community from medium-security and maximum-security institutions without the benefit of a gradual release into the community under controlled supervision.

Clarification – April 30, 2015: This article was edited from a previous version to clarify that the study found Correctional Service Canada officials are failing to prepare offenders, not corrections officers.

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