Reports and Publications

Summary

A review of criminal court rates and trends and the federal offender population was undertaken to obtain a profile of the current population as well as to determine how the profile has changed since 1998/99.

A review of the Adult Criminal Court Survey (ACCS) revealed that the number of cases heard in provincial/territorial courts decreased between 1998/99 and 2000/01 and subsequently increased in 2001/02. In 2001/02, Ontario was responsible for 44.3% of the cases heard, followed by Quebec at 15.5%.

While the province of Quebec has had one of the highest conviction rates in Canada since 1998/99, it has had some of the lowest incarceration rates. Ontario, on the other hand, had some of the lowest conviction rates, while it had some of the highest incarceration rates.

While the total number of federal admissions has fluctuated since 1998/99, it was down 2.1% in 2002/03 from five years ago. Since 1998/99, the Quebec region has seen the biggest decrease (14.8%) in federal admissions, while the Pacific region has seen the biggest increase (12.5%).

While the number of federal releases from institutions increased slightly in 2002/03, overall federal releases have decreased 5.5% since 1998/99. The Quebec region saw the biggest decrease (15.4%), while the Prairie region was the only one to see an increase (5.2%).

Note: The changes in the federal offender population are obtained by subtracting the number of offenders who reached WED each year from the number of warrants of committal during the same year.

As total warrants of committal, since 1998/99, have been less than the number of offenders who have reached WED, the federal offender population has decreased by 957 offenders. As the Quebec region has had the biggest difference between the number of its warrants of committal and the number of offenders who reached WED since 1998/99, it has seen the biggest decrease in its federal offender population (598). The decrease in Quebec represents 62.5% of the total decrease in the Canadian federal offender population.

Since 1998/99, the greatest proportion of federal offenders, in all regions, have been serving sentences for schedule I-non-sex offences. The Pacific region has had, since that time, the highest percentage of offenders serving sentences for murder, the Prairie region has had the highest percentage serving sentences for schedule I-sex offences and the Quebec region has had the highest percentage serving sentences for schedule II offences.

The percentage of federal offenders serving APR sentences has decreased 4.4% since 1998/99 to 10.2% in 2002/03, while the percentage of offenders serving indeterminate sentences increased 2.6% to 20.7% last year.

Since 1999/00, the Board's workload (federal and provincial) has decreased 8.8%. The Quebec region has seen the biggest decrease in its workload (16.0%), while the Pacific region was the only one to see an increase (1.7%).