Mental health and drug and alcohol addiction in the federal correctional system : Santé mentale et la toxicomanie dans le système correctionnel fédéral

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (hereafter the Committee) is concerned however about the scope of this phenomenon within Canada’s federal correctional system, and the lack of resources to enable Correctional Service Canada (CSC), which is responsible for the custody of offenders sentenced to two years or more, to meet the growing mental health and add [...] The Committee also noted the excellent work done by the MHCC since it was established in the spring of 2007 to diminish the stigma and discrimination faced by Canadians living with mental illness and addictions.7 4 A list of witnesses will be found in Appendix A. 5 The Committee visited Dorchester Penitentiary and the Shepody Healing Centre in the Atlantic Region, the Regional Reception Centre and [...] Chapter 4 discusses the prevalence of mental disorders and addictions in the federal correctional system, the vulnerability of offenders affected by such problems and the challenges faced by CSC in the management of its inmate population. [...] The CCRA determines the respective responsibilities of the three agencies that constitute the federal correctional system: the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the National Parole Board (NPB) and the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI), as well as the principles that must guide their actions, and also sets out the definitions and regulations of all types of conditional release. [...] According to the definition of mental illness used by the authors, James Livingston, researcher and author of the report Mental Health and Substance Use Services in Correctional Settings: A Review of Minimum Standards and Best Practices, notes that the incidence reported in the documentation varies from 10% to 80%.