Fact sheet for offenders: Structured Intervention Units

Structured intervention units (SIUs) are used when inmates cannot be managed safely within a mainstream inmate population. In SIUs, inmates receive targeted interventions, programs and healthcare with the goal of returning to a mainstream inmate population as soon as possible. Inmates in SIUs have the opportunity for a minimum of four hours a day for time outside their cell, including two hours a day of interaction time with others. Inmates in SIUs are subject to independent external oversight, under specific circumstances.

When you are transferred to an SIU, you will:

• have the opportunity to spend a minimum of four hours a day outside your cell;
• have the opportunity for interaction time with others for a minimum of two hours a day as part of your daily minimum of four hours outside your cell;
• receive opportunities in a safe and secure environment for structured interventions and programming tailored to address your specific needs in relation to the behaviours that led to your transfer;
• have a parole officer to help address the factors or behaviours that lead to your transfer and assist in facilitating your return to a mainstream inmate population;
• have daily shower time;
• be visited daily by a registered health care professional without a barrier, have access to essential health services and reasonable access to non-essential health services;
• have access to an Elder/Spiritual Advisor and Chaplain, as well as to cultural or spiritual practices, where reasonably possible;
• have access to legal your counsel;
• have the right to engage legal counsel or assistant, to attend the Structured Intervention Unit Review Committee (SIURC);
• have access to organizations, including but not limited to the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI), Citizen Advisory Committees, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and John Howard Society;
• receive inmate pay for participating in your assigned programs, have leisure time and visits; and
• have access to your personal property.

SIUs are multi-level security units within an institution, which means that inmates with different security levels can be accommodated in the same SIU. There are SIUs at ten men’s institutions as well as at all five women’s institutions.

• Kent Institution
• Fraser Valley Institution for Women

• Bowden Institution
• Edmonton Institution
• Saskatchewan Penitentiary
• Stony Mountain Institution
• Edmonton Institution for Women

• Millhaven Institution
• Grand Valley Institution for Women

• Donnacona Institution
• Port-Cartier Institution
• Regional Reception Centre (Special Handling Unit)

• Atlantic Region
• Atlantic Institution
• Nova Institution for Women

A designated staff member, other than the Institutional Head, may authorize the transfer of an inmate to the SIU if:

• you have acted, have attempted to act or intend to act in a manner that jeopardizes the safety of any person or the security of a penitentiary and allowing you to be in the mainstream inmate population would jeopardize the safety of any person or the security of the penitentiary;
• allowing you to be in the mainstream inmate population would jeopardize your safety; or
• allowing you to be in a mainstream inmate population would interfere with an investigation that could lead to criminal charges or serious disciplinary charges under section 41(2) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

You will be notified of a scheduled Structured Intervention Unit Review Committee (SIURC) review no later than three (3) working days prior to the review and will be provided with the opportunity to submit written representations or attend in person, where reasonably possible.

You may request to have your legal counsel or an assistant attend the SIURC in person. If they can’t attend in person, other reasonable means will be accommodated.

Additionally, you can submit written representations to the Institutional Head (IH) and the IH must meet with you before they make decisions related to your transfer to an SIU. You can also meet with the IH upon request.

Before authorizing a transfer to an SIU, a good deal of effort goes into working with you, including interventions and finding alternatives to the transfer. SIUs are meant as a temporary measure to help you adopt more positive behaviours to keep you, and the institution as a whole, safe and secure.

If there are no alternatives, your transfer to an SIU will be authorized by:

• the Assistant Warden of Interventions (AWI), during regular business hours;
• in the absence of the AWI, the Assistant Warden of Operations (AWO), during regular business hours; or
• the Correctional Manager outside regular business hours.

Where the correctional manager authorizes your transfer, the AWI (or AWO in absence of the AWI), must either confirm or cancel your transfer authorization on the next working day.

The AWI will continue to review your case, in consultation with your case management team, to determine if a reasonable alternative exists. If an alternative is identified prior to the Institutional Head review, the transfer authorization will be cancelled.

The Institutional Head will either approve or not approve your transfer to an SIU no later than five working days from the day the SIU transfer authorization was given.

Any decision to transfer you to an SIU will include an assessment of your health needs. If you are an inmate at a non-SIU men’s institution and you are authorized for a transfer to an SIU, you will be transferred to a designated restricted movement cell until the transfer to an institution with an SIU can be facilitated. This transfer will be completed no later than five working days after the day on which the transfer was authorized. Until the transfer is completed, there may be restrictions imposed on your movement.

If you are on restricted movement status, you will have the same opportunity to be out of your cell for a minimum of four hours a day. This includes also having the opportunity to engage in interaction time with others for two hours a day, if circumstances permit.

If you are transferred to an SIU or subject to Restricted Movement status, you will be immediately provided with your personal property items related to hygiene, religion and spirituality, medical care, your television, radio and other non-electronic personal items (e.g., photographs, phone cards, phone book), subject to safety and security concerns.

Your remaining property will be provided:

• within one working day of the approval for your transfer when you are incarcerated at the same institution as the SIU; and,
• in accordance with CD 566-12 – Personal Property of Offenders if you are transferred to an SIU from a non-SIU site.

CSC will continue to notify registered victims when you are transferred to a different institution. If you are at a non-SIU institution and are transferred to an institution with an SIU, CSC will disclose to your registered victims the new name and location of the institution where you are serving your sentence (after the transfer has occurred). Registered victims will not be notified that you are transferred for the purpose of a transfer to an SIU.

If you are transferred to an SIU located at the same institution, no victim notification will occur.

CSC has an obligation to make multiple genuine offers of opportunities to leave your cell. When you are transferred to an SIU, you will be offered opportunities to leave your cell to:

• interact with correctional officers, primary workers and correctional managers;
• meet with a parole officer;
• engage with health care staff;
• participate in correctional programs/interventions;
• attend individual counselling sessions with Elders/Spiritual Advisors or a Chaplain;
• work with an Indigenous liaison officer or volunteers;
• engage in indoor/outdoor exercise;
• participate in activities as arranged by social program officers;
• engage with health care staff;
• interact with other inmates; and
• shower.

Specific routines will vary site-by-site, which is based on, or in part, on the number of inmates in the SIU. For your well-being and progress, it is important that you take the opportunity to leave your cell. Please speak to CSC staff to learn about all the options available to you at your SIU site.

You will continue to have access to essential health services and reasonable access to non-essential health services. You will receive daily health care visits by a registered health professional without a barrier who will speak to you directly to discuss your physical and mental health. Health professionals will monitor and address your health care concerns and administer medication as required.

CSC supports the professional autonomy and the clinical independence of registered health care professionals, including their ability to exercise, without undue influence, their professional judgement in your care and treatment.

Consistent with the requirements of professional health regulatory colleges, the role of health care professionals includes a patient advocacy function for the provision of care that advances health and well-being. CSC fully supports health care professionals meeting their obligation to provide patient centred care.

CSC has enhanced health services for inmates. These enhancements direct inmates with mental illnesses to the right pathway of care so that they can receive appropriate and timely treatment.

Health services are also responsible for directly responding to your complaints and grievances on health care matters.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, CSC has implemented infection prevention and control measures at all its sites, including in SIUs, to protect inmates, staff and visitors. Prevention measures include:

• masks and other personal protective equipment;
• physical distancing;
• frequent hand washing;
• offering the vaccine to all inmates;
• active screening of all individuals entering the site, including staff and visitors;
• testing of inmates and staff; and
• enhanced cleaning and disinfection.

Outbreak control measures due to positive cases include:

• medical isolation of inmates who test positive or who have a high risk exposure;
• mass testing for inmates and staff;
• modified institutional routine to minimize close contacts;
• suspended in-person visits; and
• use of additional personal protective equipment.

CSC implements control measures according to an established risk-management framework when there is an active COVID-19 outbreak at your institution or based on the impacts of COVID-19 in the surrounding community. CSC is continuously working to provide you with as many opportunities as possible to spend at least four hours outside of your cell and have at least two hours of interaction time. Activities include working with volunteers and community organizations and providing workshops, art, and social activities. CSC has also encouraged our Citizen Advisory Committee members, volunteers, and other support personnel to connect with you through phone and video visitation.

To ensure you can stay in touch with your family and community, CSC has significantly increased access to video visitation during the pandemic.

Please speak to CSC staff to learn about all the options available to you at your SIU site.

Any decision to transfer you to an SIU will first include consideration of your health needs. Your health will be assessed within 24 hours of being authorized for a transfer to an SIU and every 14 days thereafter. A mental health assessment will also be completed within 28 days of your transfer.

If, at any time, a health care professional believes that, for health reasons, you should not remain in the SIU or that your conditions of confinement should be altered, the health care professional will make a recommendation to the Institutional Head (IH). The Institutional Head must make a decision if you should remain in an SIU or to change your conditions of confinement as soon as practicable. If the Institutional Head does not implement the recommendation, the Health Committee, which is chaired by the Assistant Commissioner of Health Services, will review your case and if the health care recommendation is again not implemented, an Independent External Decisions Maker (IEDM) will review your case and make a decision.

If you are transferred to an SIU, several levels of reviews will take place during your stay.

First, a Structured Intervention Unit Review Committee (SIURC) will review your case no later than 20 calendar days from the date of your transfer authorization to the SIU. SIURC’s are at every SIU site and make recommendations to the IH or ADC (as applicable) if you should remain in or be removed from an SIU and/or if conditions of confinement should be altered.

The SIURC will continue to review your case every subsequent 20 calendar days from the date of a designated authority’s decision until you are transferred out of the SIU and before each duration-based IEDM’s decision.

Following an SIURC’s recommendation, the IH must make a decision no later than 30-days following your transfer authorization to an SIU if you will remain in an SIU. If the IH determines that all legal requirements are met and you must remain in the SIU, the SDC will review your case within 30- calendar days and then within every 60-days thereafter for as long as you remain in an SIU.

In addition to the IH and SDC reviews of your case, the Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Correctional Operations (ADCCO), will also review your case within 45 calendar days of the SIU authorization to transfer and within 30 calendar days of each of their previous review. The ADCCO review of your case can only make recommendations as only an IH, the SDC or an IEDM can order your removal from an SIU.

In addition to the above, the IH can complete an ad-hoc review at any time during your stay in an SIU to make a decision that you should not remain in an SIU any longer and transfer you to a mainstream inmate population.

Finally, in addition to all these internal reviews, an IEDM will review your case if:

• you have not been provided or have not availed yourself of the opportunity to be out of your cell for a minimum four hours daily for five consecutive days or for 15 out of 30 calendar days or you are not interacting with others for the minimum two hours daily for five consecutive days or 15 out of 30 calendar days;
• following a review of the above where the IEDM has determined that CSC has taken all reasonable steps to provide you with opportunities to be out of your cell for four hours daily and to interact with others for a minimum of two hours daily, but for 10-consecutive days after this finding, you have not met the minimum time out of cell or are not engaging in interaction time; and
• within 30 days of the decision made after the SDC.

An IEDM will also review your case if you were authorized for a transfer to an SIU four times in the last 180 days. Note that IEDM’s decisions are binding.

If any of the reviews determine that you should not remain in an SIU, an alternative to an SIU will be identified. Alternatives may include a transfer to the mainstream inmate population at the same institution or a transfer to another institution at the same or a different security level.

The Minister of Public Safety has established an external SIU Implementation Advisory Panel (SIU IAP) and appointed Independent External Decisions Makers (IEDMs).

The renewed SIU IAP monitors, assesses and reports on issues related to the ongoing implementation of the SIUs. The renewed Panel will reflect a diverse spectrum of perspectives, knowledge and experience related to federal corrections and the unique needs of federal inmates.

IEDMs have been appointed to provide external oversight of decisions to maintain inmates in SIUs as well as their conditions of confinement. In addition to reviews conducted by CSC at regular intervals, IEDMs will review your case in specific circumstances should you be transferred to an SIU. IEDMs can determine that you should not be in an SIU or that your conditions of confinement should be altered in accordance with the recommendation of a registered health care professional. These decisions are binding.

There are twelve IEDMs and they are independent of CSC. CSC must adhere to the decision of the IEDM, however decisions are also subject to judicial review. IEDMs are located in each of CSC’s five regions and do site visits as required to complete their work.

Yes, all five women’s institutions have an SIU and follow the same policy as those in men’s institutions. If it is decided that you will be transferred to an SIU at a women’s institution, you receive the same opportunities for interaction time, interventions and programming and are subject to the same review requirements as men’s institutions.

In addition to the SIU, there are Enhanced Support Houses (ESHs) at each women’s institution. The goal of the ESH is to provide a short-term living environment if you require more direct support, interventions and programming. It can be used as an alternative to an SIU if your risk is deemed manageable, with additional interventions within the mainstream inmate population.

If you move to the ESH, you will continue to attend programs and work as part of the mainstream inmate population, and there is no change to your conditions of confinement. You will receive additional staff support and greater access to individualized interventions in a supportive environment.

If at any time, your presence in the ESH no longer presents an assumable level of risk, all other alternatives will be explored which may include a transfer to the SIU.

Do inmates in SIU get access to time out of cell every day? If you are in an SIU, you will be provided with the opportunity for your daily four hours of time out of cell including two hours of interaction timewith others between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., unless:

• You refuse to avail yourself of the opportunity;
• If you, at the time that the opportunity is provided, do not comply with reasonable instructions to ensure your own safety, or that of any other person or the security of the institution; or
• Circumstances such as natural disasters, fires, riots, and work refusals under section 128 of the Canada Labour Code occur, and your time out of cell must be limited to what is reasonably required for security purposes.

If you refuse the opportunity for daily time out of cell, we will continue to encourage you to take the opportunity, and will not consider one refusal as a refusal for the entire day.

Interaction time with others is the opportunity for human contact that is conducive to building rapport, social networks, or strengthening bonds with family or other supports. CSC supports interaction time with others through the provision of programs, services, interventions, cultural, religious and spiritual practices, community partners such as volunteers, and family contact, including through video visitation.

You will be provided with opportunities each day to engage with others through the activities identified above.

If you are transferred to an SIU, you will be provided with the opportunity to continue or start correctional programming, interventions and services that will address your specific risks or behaviours that have led to the transfer.

The following correctional interventions are available for delivery to all inmates who are transferred to men’s SIUs:

• Motivational Module - Structured Intervention Unit (MM-SIU); and,
• Motivational Module - Structured Intervention Unit-Indigenous (MM-SIU-I).

The objectives of these interventions are to help you safely reintegrate into the mainstream inmate population, at the earliest possible time, as well as to provide skills that you can use to help you remain in the mainstream inmate population.

Teachers are in SIUs to deliver education programs based on your education assessments, needs, and objectives.

Social programs for the SIUs help reinforce the skills acquired in correctional programs, promote the positive use of leisure time, and assist you in reintegrating into the mainstream inmate population as early as safely possible.

Social program activities and programs include: recreational activities, arts and crafts, cultural and developmental activities, social events, parenting skills training, and the community integration program.

The SIU and ESH focus on the provision of women-centred interventions to address individualized risks and needs.

For inmates in an SIU or ESH in a women’s institution the focus is on interventions, which include:

• Daily living skills
• Anger management
• Boundary setting
• Stress management
• Nutrition and health
• Fitness and recreation activities
• Effective communication
• Positive relationships
• Balancing thoughts and emotions
• Peer support
• Continuation of social and correctional programs, education, cultural, and spiritual interventions

If you are an Indigenous inmate, a thorough Indigenous Social History review is completed and identified social history factors are considered in all decision-making processes related to your needs.

While in an SIU, you will continue to have access to Elders/Spiritual Advisors, Indigenous liaison officers and traditional and spiritual practices. You will also continue to receive opportunities to engage in spiritual and cultural activities and ceremonies including smudging- and, as permitted, attending sweat lodges.

When you are transferred to an SIU, your time there will end as soon as you can safely reintegrate into a mainstream inmate population.

You will be expected to address the reasons that led to your transfer and be engaged in your SIU correctional plan. Your behavioural and personal progress will be assessed and management will be kept informed of your case.

There will be ongoing reviews to ensure that you are returned to the mainstream inmate population at the earliest possible time as long as it does not jeopardize the safety of any individual or the security of the institution.

For Indigenous inmates in men’s SIUs, there is a correctional program module which is culturally specific. This includes ceremonies and teachings adapted to Indigenous culture. All modules represent an aspect of the Medicine Wheel and Elder/Spiritual Advisor participation is mandatory in sessions.

For Indigenous inmates in women’s SIUs, you will be provided with individualized and culturally appropriate interventions through your interdisciplinary team, which includes Elders/Spiritual Advisors and Indigenous liaison officers.

If it is decided that you are no longer required to be in an SIU, you will be transferred to the mainstream inmate population at the most appropriate institution that meets your needs. This could include going back to your original institution or a different institution.

While looking at alternatives to the SIU, your parole officer (PO) or the SIU PO will reassess the appropriateness of your security level. Be sure to talk with your PO if you have any questions.

If you disagree with or have complaints about the decision for transfer, the reviews and recommendations, the conditions of confinement, access to interventions and programming, daily visits from health services professionals and being provided with time out of your cell, you have the following options:

• discuss with your case management team;
• contact the OCI;
• file a grievance ; and,
• submit written or verbal considerations to the IEDM for one of their reviews (CSC must provide these to the IEDM).

You may also request access to your legal counsel and will be given the opportunity to contact counsel, without delay, in a private area outside of your cell in the SIU.