The National Parole Board
50 Years of Public Service and Public Safety

The National Parole Board celebrates its 50th anniversary in February 2009—fifty years of change and development at the Board that have shaped and transformed the everyday work of employees and Board members since 1959.

The Board is an independent administrative tribunal that, in accordance with the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA), has the exclusive power to grant, deny or revoke parole. The Board also makes decisions with regard to offenders serving sentences in provincial or territorial institutions that do not have their own parole board. At present, only Ontario and Quebec have their own parole boards.

Additionally, the Board has the authority to grant, deny or revoke a pardon under the Criminal Records Act . The Board also makes recommendations for the exercise of clemency through the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.

Historically speaking, parole was first introduced in Europe, more specifically in England, at the beginning of the 19 th century, when the government was looking for a way to recruit the labour force it needed to develop colonies overseas. Through their "tickets of leave," hundreds of offenders were released from the overpopulated prisons in England to be sent to Bermuda and Tasmania .

The concept of parole has existed in Canada since 1899, when the Act to Provide for the Conditional Liberation of Convicts—the Ticket of Leave Act, was passed under Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier's administration. Although a far cry from the rules and principles of our present-day legislation, the Act did have the commendable aim of mitigating the disparities between prison sentences. Release was granted at the discretion of the Minister of Justice.

It was not until the late 1950s and the tabling of the Fauteux Report's recommendations that Parliament repealed the old Ticket of Leave Act and replaced it with the Parole Act , which enshrined the principle of rehabilitation.

The new National Parole Board, founded in 1959, comprised a chairman and five members. All of the decisions were made from headquarters in Ottawa and Board members had absolute discretionary authority and the freedom to make decisions on the merits of each case.

The right to a hearing and a written record of the reasons for a decision coincided with the opening of regional offices in Montreal and Kingston in the early 1970s. At the same time, the abolition of corporal punishment for inmates relieved Board members of the weighty task of making decisions in this regard.

In 1976 the death penalty was abolished in Canada . By creating the categories of first- and second-degree murder, the Criminal Code of Canada ushered in a new generation of inmates for whom the NPB would be making parole decisions after prison sentences of 15, 20 and even 25 years.

The 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms profoundly influenced the work of the Board, as it did that of all Canadian institutions. "The duty to act fairly," led to significant administrative changes. From that time on, the Board provided offenders with all the information used in making its decisions and established a series of measures to ensure fairness of the decision-making process. For instance, before 1982, one part of the hearing was held in the absence of the offender, a practice that would be considered contrary to the rules of fairness today.

In 1986, detention legislation was introduced to address concerns about offenders who posed an imminent danger to the community upon release. The legislation provided the Board with the authority, following the referral of a case by the Correctional Service, to order that some offenders continue to be detained beyond their mandatory release date to the expiration of sentence. The cases targeted by this new measure were those for which the Board had reasonable grounds to believe that offenders would commit an offence causing death or serious harm, or a sexual offence involving a child, before the expiration of the offender's sentence according to law.

An internal structuring and reorganization process took shape at the end of the 1980s. A mission statement in 1986 and the first decision-oriented policies in 1988 began to guide the work of Board members and mobilized resources to achieve common goals and adopt more uniform methods throughout the country. The focus began to shift very specifically to training for Board members. Various programs were established to assist them in doing their job in an increasingly complex environment.

The enactment of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act in 1992 put Canada at the leading edge of corrections legislation. Research in the field of corrections had advanced to the point that provision was made in the Act for elements of risk assessment and risk management. The new legislation contained many measures that put public safety first. The emphasis placed on compiling reliable intelligence on an offender, ensuring the flow of information, setting the goal of day parole, and making provision for a timely review procedure, eligibility to serve half sentences in some cases, a mandatory residency requirement as a special condition at two-thirds of a sentence, and a list of violent or drug-related offences used as criterion in referrals for detention epitomized the new measures to protect public safety.

Many elements conducive to the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders into the community weighed significantly in balancing the objectives of the new law. Provisions regarding programs, women and Aboriginal peoples also came to the fore.

Transparency was another new concept of this legislation and transformed the Board's work. Today, observers can attend hearings. Victims, journalists, students and interest groups now sit in on many hearings. In the same spirit of transparency, the new legislation requires the Board to keep a record of its decisions and to make them available to anyone who submits a written request.

The CCRA also brought to the fore the roles and rights of victims. Victims can now be officially recognized through the CCRA and obtain information on an offender. This measure opened the door to a change in policy in 2001, allowing victims to present an impact statement in person or through a recording during a parole hearing. Increasing numbers of victims are now present and their voices are being heard.

Fifty years of transformations and developments. There are approximately 70 Board members and 350 employees in five regional offices across Canada and at our headquarters in Ottawa who share an abiding commitment to the Canadian public and to public safety. These men and women have the challenging task of assessing the risk presented by other men and women who have led lives more difficult than their own.

Our aging population, the development of technology, Canadian diversity, increased representation of Aboriginal peoples and changes in offender profiles are all factors that will add a more complex dimension to the Board's work in the years ahead.

Making parole decisions is not an exact science. This process is part of the realm of human behaviour and risk prediction. The most substantial and fundamental progress has been our use of correctional research findings to develop risk prediction tools, to improve training for Board members, and to develop programs adapted to the needs of offenders.

As a result, today, fifty years later, the National Parole Board is held up as a model on the international stage.