Remand custody heading up, sentenced custody down.

Over the past decade, the cases in Canada's adult criminal courts have become more complex and take more time to resolve. The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics reports that this has resulted in an increase in the length of time adults spend in remand while they await trial and/or sentencing.

"Unfortunately, this is now a longstanding trend," Graham Stewart, Executive Director of the John Howard Society, told Community Action. He added, "The implication is that more people are serving time in our prisons before their trial, when they are still 'presumed innocent,' than afterwards. I think this is the reverse to what most would think is proper and fair. Provincial governments have not responded to this growing problem."

Just over 9,900 were being held on remand or another form of temporary detention on an average day in 2004/2005. Remand counts in 2004/2005 were 30% higher than they were five years earlier, and 83% higher than in 1995/1996.

More than 152,600 adults per day were under the supervision of federal, provincial and territorial correctional service agencies, a 1% decline from the previous year. Four out of five of these adults, about 120,500, were being supervised in the community. Of these, the vast majority (82%) were on probation, 12% were on conditional sentences and 6% were on parole or statutory release.

In contrast, 10 years earlier, the number on remand accounted for only 28% of the total in custody. The remaining 72% were serving a custodial sentence.

Graham Stewart proposes solutions that would likely include:

* better access to legal aid to reduce the number of unrepresented accused in court,

* sufficient court personnel to ensure timely trials,

* better guidelines for release on recognizance of individuals awaiting trial, and

* bail supervision programs for those cases where supervision or support is needed.

The report points out that one-third of offenders return to correctional services within two years. The rate being closer to 50% for aboriginal offenders.

Spending on correctional services totalled $2.8 billion in 2004/2005, up 2% from the previous year. The federal system accounted for just over half (54%) of expenditures, with the remaining 46% going to provincial/territorial systems.

Custodial services cost over $2 billion, or 71% of total spending on correctiions, while close to $382 million, or 14% of the total, went to community supervision. The remaining expenditures were for headquarters and central services and for provincial and federal parole boards.

The average daily cost of housing an inmate in a federal penitentiary in 2004/2005 was $259.05, compared with an average of $141.78 per inmate at the provincial/territorial level.

www.statcan.ca