Double-bunking in Canadian federal corrections

Research Highlights: Improved correctional results and increased capacity have dramatically reduced the double bunking of federal offenders.

According to some previous reports, the Canadian federal correctional system was facing a long-term overcrowding crisis and would thereby be forced into housing offenders in shared cells (“double-bunking”). However, sustained and focused efforts directed at improving correctional results (earlier releases and fewer returns) combined with expanded accommodation have reversed that projection.

Shared accommodation (“double-bunking”) rates reflected in the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) were extracted from the automated Corporate Reporting System-Modernized (CRS-M) Capacity module for Double Bunking Rates. The CRS-M system standardizes the historical reporting of a wide variety of metrics at the national and regional levels. Comparative data on double bunked offenders were drawn for six separate fiscal year-ends (2012-13 to 2017-18) for federal in-custody offenders.

By fiscal year-end of 2012-13 (March 26, 2013), there were more offenders in federal custody than the number of available single cells (15,225 actual count/14,807 rated capacity). This had resulted in capacity shortfalls at some institutions necessitating double-bunking at a national rate of 20.8%. Over the past five years, there has been a steady and significant reduction in the number of double- bunked offenders from 3,050 (or 20.8%) at year-end in 2012-13 to 748 (or 5.5%) in 2017-18; a decline of -2,302 (or -75%) double bunked offenders.

As reflected below in the double-bunking rates table, all five administrative regions of CSC have observed a significant drop in the number and percentage of offenders being held in a cell designed for one. Also noteworthy, in 2017-18 slightly more than a third of those double-bunked were also held in reception which is temporary.

The administration of population management strategies in CSC involves the use of single occupancy when feasible and ensuring that double bunking, which is the practice of holding two offenders in a cell designed for one, remains a temporary accommodation measure. Over recent years the practice has been substantially reduced, a trend it appears that will likely continue into the near future.

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Prepared by: Larry Motiuk