Policy bulletin 560

Policy Bulletin

CD 703 has been revised to reflect the changes to sentence management as a result of the Regional Headquarters Governance (effective April 1, 2015) and service delivery requirements. This revision was necessary to update procedures and to streamline and standardize service delivery. As well, changes to other policies are necessary so that roles and responsibilities for sentence management are consistent. These latter consequential changes, while in effect with the promulgation of this Policy Bulletin, will be reflected in the actual policy documents when they will be updated in the future.

GL 005-1 – Institutional Management Structure: Roles and Responsibilities

• Given the new organizational structure, Annex A no longer indicates that the Manager, Assessment and Interventions, is responsible for the administration of sentence management duties.

CD 703 – Sentence Management

Significant changes have been made to CD 703, and the following provides an overview of the various areas that have been amended. Given the breadth of changes and expansion of policy framework, all those impacted will need to fully familiarize themselves with the details contained in the updated CD.

• The CD introduces a revised framework which includes activity completion timeframes associated with sentence management service delivery.
• Areas of responsibility associated to offender admission and discharge have been removed from the policy.
• The Application section was updated to include the administration of long-term supervision orders.
• The responsibilities now reflect the reporting structure, duties, positions not previously identified and title changes due to the transition from functional supervision to operational management authority.
• Procedures have been amended to further enhance existing case management timeframes requiring the established sentence structure at the earliest point in the offender sentence and to streamline activities.
• A section on Judge’s Orders/Appeal Court Notices has been added to ensure appropriate departments are notified when the attendance of an offender in court is required.
• In the section on Sentence Information Sharing, a new paragraph indicates what information will be shared with the Parole Board of Canada.
• The section on Escape/Unlawfully at Large has been expanded to clearly identify the responsibilities in relation to recommitment to custody warrants (section 11.1 of the CCRA).
• The section on Canadian Police Information Centre checks has been amended to coordinate timeframes for procedural amendments and to ensure that outstanding charges are entered in the Offender Management System.
• Offender release procedures have been expanded to denote specific dates relative to the type of release and to indicate that the Chief, Sentence Management, will authorize all releases. The reference to coordinating the issuance of release/discharge documents has been removed.
• A section on Offender Death has been added to clearly define the process to be followed by Sentence Management.

This policy was also revised as a result of the Commissioner’s Directives Standardization Project, which includes:

• a new look, resulting in stand-alone English and French versions;
• a clearer context for the policy document by including its relation to the Program Alignment Architecture, the Office of Primary Interest as well as information on dates of past reviews and future ones;
• the purpose, which replaces the “policy objective”, is more practical in nature.

CD 705-7 – Security Classification and Penitentiary Placement

• In paragraph 9 of Annex F – Interregional Movements for Offender Intake Assessments and Interregional Penitentiary Placement, the position title “Regional Advisor, Sentence Management” has been replaced by “Regional Manager, Sentence Management”.

CD 712-2 – Detention

• Paragraph 6 has been modified so that the responsibilities listed for the Chief, Sentence Management, are assigned to the “Sentence Management Officer”.
• In paragraph 44, “Sentence Management” has been replaced by “the Sentence Management Officer” to clarify who is responsible for immediately implementing the detention order upon receipt of the PBC decision.

CD 712-4 – Release Process

• Paragraph 6 has been deleted as the responsibility for authorizing releases was incorrectly assigned to the Parole Officer. As indicated in CD 703, the Chief, Sentence Management, is responsible for authorizing all releases.
• In paragraph 8, “the Chief, Sentence Management, or the Associate” has been replaced by “the Chief, Sentence Management, or the Sentence Management Officer” to reflect the change in responsibility with respect to checking for outstanding arrest warrants prior to release and advising the Parole Officer if any exist.

CD 715-2 – Post-Release Decision Process

• In paragraph 34, the person that will be informed if an offender incurs a new conviction and remains in the community is “the assigned Sentence Management Officer” instead of “the Sentence Manager of the releasing institution”.
• In paragraph 51, “Sentence Management at the institution” has been replaced by “the assigned Sentence Management Officer” with respect to loss of jurisdiction.

CD 703 – Sentence Management was developed by National Headquarters Sentence Management in collaboration with Strategic Policy. Consultation occurred with internal and external stakeholders. Amendments to other CDs result from the Regional Headquarters Governance (effective April 1, 2015) and from discussions held with the Community Operations Division.

Roles and responsibilities are detailed in the policy document.

All staff responsible for the administration of offender sentences and long-term supervision orders.