Group watching criminals serving sentences in the community says it can’t fix caseload, staffing issues
Posted May 31, 2016 11:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The BC government group that’s supposed to watch offenders serving part of their sentences in the community still hasn’t made enough changes to make sure criminals aren’t re-offending.
Auditor General Carol Bellringer came out with eight recommendations for the Community Corrections Division back in 2011. In her report, she says only one — which called on the division to publicly report its performance in reducing the rate of re-offending — has been brought in.
Three of the recommendations have been partially brought in, but the ones involving staffing and caseload have not.
Bellringer says it was the corrections division which originally said it was understaffed.
“In the end, we recommended that the division complete a comprehensive impact assessment to see if there are gaps between its staff capacity and caseload level. While the division has done some work in this area, it doesn’t feel it can do more at this time.”
Bellringer says without bringing these in, the division won’t know how well its programs are performing, even though 90 per cent of people in the system are serving sentences out of jail.
She also says the ministry has made it quite clear it has no plans to change.
The Auditor General argues supervision outside of jail can enhance rehabilitation and reduce the rate of re-offending, and it costs less than keeping someone behind bars.
