Episode 12: The National Monitoring Centre

Daniel: “And so you've got all these things coming in and you've got to do it all on your shift. That immediacy of being on the front lines of public safety and reintegration was just so exciting and rewarding.”

Kirstan: Public safety isn't just a nine to five job, it's a 24/7 responsibility and is a top priority for the Correctional Service of Canada every single day.

Doing this type of work not only requires vigilance, but it also needs quick decision making and seamless coordination and a team willing to do the work no matter the time of day. This is where Correctional Service of Canada's National Monitoring Centre comes in.

The National Monitoring Centre is a centralized operational unit located at the Correctional Service of Canada's national headquarters in Ottawa. They are the eyes and ears of public safety for CSC, especially during the critical after hours when most of the world has gone home for the night.

Whether it's incidents inside a correctional facility, like an assault or escape that needs to be reported, or a concern involving an offender under community supervision, or even an urgent request coming in from local law enforcement, the National Monitoring Centre is always on alert, ready to act when it matters most.

On today's episode, we'll hear from Daniel Kletke, a supervisor with the National Monitoring Centre. Over the course of our interview, Daniel explains the National Monitoring Centre, exact role within the Correctional Service of Canada and why it's so important to public safety.

Kirstan: Well, welcome, Daniel.

Daniel: Hello.

Kirstan: Thanks for joining me today to talk about the National Monitoring Centre. Tell me a bit about yourself.

Daniel: OK, Well, my name is Daniel Kletke. I started my career with CSC back in 2014 with the NMC from the start. Started there as a junior officer, then a duty officer, and now I'm a supervisor with the NMC.

Kirstan: I want to learn a bit about this monitoring centre. Is it a way that the Correctional Service supervises the country, if you will, for public safety?

Daniel: Indeed, the National Monitoring Centre is a 24/7 operational unit within national headquarters. Our two most visible programs, the two most visible ways we help out would be the electronic monitoring program where our agents respond to alerts generated by those ankle bracelets worn by offenders. And secondly, we run the national duty officer program. So in the evenings, the weekends, holidays, if there's ever any questions regarding an offender unconditional release, they can pick up the phone, call the NMC, and we can figure out what needs to be done, whether it's assessed risk or figure out something else or just document the information.

But there's a handful of other really critical programs that don't command quite as much attention but are still really important. After hours, victim notification, the CSC tip line and other things as well, like the fact that we draft the situation report daily, the sitrep.

Kirstan: So, talk to me a bit about a typical day in the life of yourself or your team.

Daniel: Typical day. Um, it's, there's certainly a different flow day and night, business hours, non business hours. So, during the days our, our duty officers would be focused on programs like drafting the sit Rep, the situation report for national distribution. They'll be taking alerts from the community staff safety alert system where PO's can enter their supervision visits in an app on their phones. And if they fail to sign out, that alert will go to the NMC store.

Agents are on that. But of course, because they're the on call POS, they need to be ready for those calls nationally. So as soon as the Atlantic Coast starts closing down, they're the on call PO for that region. And of course, as it goes through, so even up to, you know, relatively late in the morning here Eastern Time, they're still taking calls from the West Coast to take care of that. So, PO's parole officers.

Kirstan: So you would be responsible, for example, to issue a warrant after hours, correct?

Daniel: Yes. And like any parole officer there, they would be the decision makers after hours. But that's on both sides of the coin. I mean, we've got the public safety side where if we're getting calls from halfway houses, correctional facilities, police, the offenders themselves about potential breaches and we're reassessing the risk. Yes, our officer is in consultation with the NMC supervisor, can certainly decide that the best way to manage that risk is to issue warrant. But we're going to do our best to manage it in the most reasonable way. So, if there is no immediate risk, it may be worthwhile to take something less severe, maybe a house confinement or something, and give the opportunity to the parole officers the next business day to make that decision. But on the other side of the coin, of course, CSC needs to be worried about reintegration. So, there could be some unforeseen circumstances where an offender calls in and needs an urgent exemption.

They just got a new job, there's a family emergency, something where they might need an exemption to their curfews or their travel, their boundaries. And the NMC can step in, determine if it's reasonable to grant that exception exemption and give it to them when it's appropriate. So, we can certainly help the offenders in their quest to reintegrate successfully.

Kirstan: And tell me how public safety comes into the mix. Like for example, if somebody needs an exemption, but there's victim considerations, how do you deal with that for victims?

Daniel: The NMC does or is responsible for after hours of victim notifications in a limited capacity. So it really has to be something that's affecting the after hours component of it. So yes, if we do grant a travel permit and there are registered victims on file, and they've quoted or registered their preferences to be advised. If there is a travel permit, the NMC supervisor will pick up the phone and give them a call and let them know what's going on. Similarly, if they've selected in their preferences to be notified of, of warrants or warrant status, if warrants issued, executed or if there's any change in status, we'll give them a call.

Kirstan: So when this is going on, are you the point of contact for the police? If, for example, there's an incident in the community and you need to issue a warrant, are you the point of contact with the police to give them information to help them out?

Daniel: Correct. Yeah. The NMC is the point of contact after hours for pretty much anything to do with offenders in the community. So that police officer who pulls over an offender or is called regarding an offender who's maybe doing something not supposed to be doing, that police officer will see right on their police system that that individual they've stopped, if they have the right identity is or is a federal offender. They'll have our contact information, they'll give us a call. And often they do this even as a routine if they have any interactions with offenders, even for non urgent things, just to cover the bases, you know, they might want to confirm conditions.

So, most officers are really, really diligent that way. So, we do field a lot of questions from police officers just asking that additional question saying, you know, I gave him a parking ticket but saw that he's an offender. Is there anything else going on here? So, we often have an opportunity to do that extra bit of diligence to make sure that there's no other concerns going on. So yeah, it's best to be proactive, honestly.

Kirstan: So, let's talk a bit about electronic monitoring. How many notifications do you get on your system on average per day?

Daniel: OK, that's variable, certainly, and depends by the mix of offenders. Offenders with more conditions, we'll generate more alerts. Currently, on average, we're generating 400 to 500 alerts per day. That's quite a bit alliance serve. Those are technical alerts, you know, a low battery and no GPS. But each and every alert is actioned. So we document everything that's coming in, we document why we're concerned, why we're not concerned. And our officers will typically go through a three-step process where they'll take a look, is this technical or is this potentially behavioral? Then they'll move into gathering additional information to support that finding, whether it's looking on the file to see if there's an exemption, why they might be breaching their curfew, or if there's, you know, known issues where maybe their charge is broken and they got to get a new one, something like that. And lastly, of course, all that documentation in sharing of information, which could just be a quick e-mail to the PO or EM team, but certainly might also involve saving information to the offenders file.

Kirstan: So, if the parole officer is off because it's after hours, for example, would you call the offender directly?

Daniel: Depends on the situation, but yes, absolutely. If that's a reasonable step in gathering information, we'll be calling even for something as severe as, you know, a tamper alert. Pick up the phone and say what's going on and you find that they're pretty forthcoming and in their communication.

By and large, yes, they don't want to be called by us anymore than, you know, we want to, to make unnecessary calls to them. So, it's usually very, very efficient phone calls and you know, let's get to business. What information can I provide? And no, by and large, it's all polite and professional interactions. In fact, it's probably worth mentioning though that although the NMC's usually focused in all of our programs, whether it's DO or EM on the public safety, the risk assessment side of stuff, those phone interactions do offer our officers this little window of opportunity where we can help model the behavior that we want. In other words, meeting that other half of CSC mission for reintegration. So, if there are offenders that are particularly rude or inappropriate, that's something our officers will certainly address. And so, I think we've talked a lot about alerts and different ways of ensuring community safety.

Kirstan: I know that Canadians sometimes wonder what an ankle bracelet does and whether an offender can just cut it off.

Daniel: Well, yes, they can. And for certain safety reasons, we don't want it to be, you know, a steel shackle that cannot be removed. So, there are safety considerations there, but there are all kinds of anti tamper features, let's call them built into the devices. So as soon as there's a problem with the strap that's holding it on, we'll get an alert for that. If it has any suspicion that the strap's been pulled, stretched, cut, we get an alert and we've got methods within that software to figure out to help tease out those details. Is it really just something a minor infiltration of debris that's maybe making it a bit looser or is it a clean cut? We'll usually be able to have a pretty solid indication of, of which it was and also the device behavior that's giving us the, how the GPS points are, are, are falling, whether or not we can reach the offender.

Kirstan: And I think there's a bit of a misconception out there because people might think, oh, there's an ankle bracelet. Well, that's the solution for that offender. But I know that there is probably a layered approach to community supervision where the ankle bracelet isn't the only thing that we're using.

Daniel: No, no, the, the ankle bracelet is part of the global supervision strategy for an offender. And it's up to the parole officer to figure out if it's a good tool.

Kirstan: How do they determine it's a good tool?

Daniel: Usually there there's like you were talking about that layered approach. And CSC is a bit different than other jurisdictions. Some jurisdictions will be using a lot of EM at the start of sentences for lower risk offenders, bail situations, CSC, we use it at the other end, we use it for our high risk offenders or for sex offenders that score in a certain range on certain of our actual or you'll tools. And of course, we can't use EM if they don't have a geographic restriction. I mean it's GPS technology, it's location technology. So there needs to be something geographic that can be monitored.

Three of those most common conditions would be to want to avoid children's areas. Another common one is to avoid drinking establishments and of course curfews. That's a geographic limitation with the timer on it. So the PO might have someone coming on their caseloads at sex offender who has a special condition imposed on them by the parole board not to go to children's areas or areas where children might gather, pools, schools, parks.

People might say, you know what, this is a great tool or a great candidate for you. And it also gives the opportunity for some of these high risk offenders to build that credibility to show that they are trustworthy in respecting their conditions.

Kirstan: And if you get a call from a staff member or from others, how do you do you work to help with their safety? For example, if you need to send backups or if you need to call partners like how does that work?

Daniel: Community safety is, is so important at CSC and the NMC is, is privileged to be part of something called the Community Staff Safety Alert System, which is technology based and centralized, which is why the NMC has a role to play.

But that's very much a legacy of, of the tragedy around Louise Pargeter, a PO that was killed in the community performing her duties during a supervision meeting, I think back in 2004, not to get into that one, but that certainly, you know, triggered a whole bunch of modifications in a new way of thinking and CSC. And one of those, fast forward 20 years later, is this technology.

And right now, the technology we're using allows any community staff safety member that's using this app to put in the details of any supervision meeting they're doing, the location, the amount of time. And if they fail to sign out of that, the NMC will get an alert immediately. We'll try and contact and if we can't contact them next you call 911.

So, if those community staff members, you know, don't confirm with us that they were able to get out safely from their supervision meetings, we are engaging authorities very, very quickly to make sure that, you know, our, our staff get out safely. And the technology also sinks with a push button, fob pendant type PPA.

Kirstan: OK, So that at anytime during their supervision meetings, if they ever feel unsafe, they can press the button, press the button and same thing. We'll try contacting them if we get in touch, we can figure something out. If we can't reach them again, we're engaging with authorities as quickly as possible. And does that happen often?

Daniel: Thank goodness, no. But like any insurance policy, it's one of those things that you're really glad it's there when you need it. And you hope you never do.

Kirstan: And how do you support your team? Some of this can be heavy. It's difficult, challenging work at times, I'm sure. Um, how do you ensure that when they do go home that they're OK?

Daniel: Our supervisors do check in with staff regularly for that. We do have one supervisor in particular that's made mental health their focus. So that is front and centre with our staff. We let them know of all the resources, whether it's AP or anything else they might need, but also to keep their own health in mind and to get the help they need. And any training, maybe even outside of CSC that they think might help, whether it's training on emotional intelligence or training on mindfulness, we'll try and support those endeavors as well to help them build whatever skill set they feel they need to come in. Exactly.

Kirstan: Community supervision seems like such a science in a way. Like there's so many, you know, such good practice that goes into risk assessment and how you're monitoring and psychology and all these different components. What do you love about your job?

Daniel: Oh my goodness, while the NMC is such a fascinating place and I've, I've grown up there with my career in CCO as a duty officer, as an EM officer, I loved the immediacy of it, the fact that every shift is different. I mean, one call, it's a it's correctional manager calling in a drone sighting or an assault. And you need to get that documented and distributed as quickly as possible. In other time, it's a halfway house, someone's come home late, there's signs of intoxication. Let's you know, figure this out, do the file review as their staff safety is there, you know, increased risk to public safety.

What are we doing with this? How are we managing it? Next, you see on your monitor that there's a tip line coming in, and you got to get to that pretty quickly. And so you've got all these things coming in and you've got to do it all on your shift. That immediacy of being on the front lines of public safety and reintegration was just so exciting and rewarding.

Kirstan: That's good. And I'm assuming public safety is always at the forefront.

Daniel: Absolutely, yeah. And I think that that's another thing I should say I love about the NMC is that mission of ensuring public safety and helping one we can the reintegration of offenders and a safe, secure, humane manner. We actually measure our work against that on a daily basis because, yes, we've got policies and procedures and standard operating protocols for all kinds of things. But when you're 24/7, 365, stuff's gonna come in that you've never seen before, or that's a little bit different. Yeah. And you may not have a procedure for it. So, you're taking your intervention, what you want to do and measuring it directly against, you know, the mission and the values of the organization, which is really exciting.

Kirstan: That Resonates with me because I recall working on the Port Cartier evacuation last summer. And there are some things that we were able to repurpose and rely on from, you know, our emergency plans. But you're always also, you know, looking at the situation at hand and what some what tactic or what measures are most appropriate.

Daniel: You know, when, when folks go home at the end of their day, whether it's the evenings, overnight, middle of the night, weekend, holidays, the NMC's there, we've got your back. We're working for public safety, are working to help when we can for those unforeseen moments, help the offenders in their path to reintegration as well.

Kirstan: Thank you very much for your time today and for that insight on the National Monitoring Centre at the Correctional Service of Canada.

Daniel: You’re very welcome. Thank you.

Kirstan: That's all for today's episode of Prisons Inside Out. A big thank you again to Daniel for his time and helping to make this episode possible. If you'd like to learn more about the National Monitoring Centre, we'll leave some resources in the description below. This has been a production of the Correctional Service of Canada and I've been your host, Kirstan Gagnon. Thanks for joining and we'll see you next time.