Remand inmate numbers rising, but at lower rate

Province seeing an improving trend under new strategy: Corrections official

The number of inmates on remand in Saskatchewan is growing at a slower pace than in years prior, but continues to rise year over year.

During the 2014-15 fiscal year, there was an average of 664 inmates on remand.

In 2017-18, after the province had introduced a strategy to reduce the numbers, there was an average of 890 remanded inmates — a 26-per-cent increase over that time period. But the Ministry of Corrections and Policing contends the annual growth in the number of inmates is beginning to slow.

“An important aspect of looking at remand is, what does the overall trend look like?” said Brian Rector, executive director of research and evidence-based excellence for the ministry.

He contends the overall trend is a significant decrease in the rate of growth of people on remand.

After seeing years where the increase in the average remand numbers would increase by around 15 per cent, the latest numbers made available by the province — from 2016-17 to 2017-18 — show there was a less than one-per-cent increase in remand numbers.

About half of the province’s 1,800 inmates are on remand.

The province currently has a remand strategy aimed at continuing to decrease remand numbers.

Rector explained this strategy looks at maintaining community safety while improving efficiencies to decrease the length of time people spend on remand.

According to him, about 70 per cent of people staying on remand do so for less than 30 days, with the majority of those inmates staying on remand for less than one week.

But the average number of days spent on remand for inmates has steadily increased, from 36 in 2014-15 to 45 in 2017-18.

(The average number is skewed in part by a smaller number of inmates who are on remand for an extended period of time. The record for the longest stay on remand in Saskatchewan is six years).

At the heart of the challenge for the province is determining, in a court process, who should stay in custody awaiting trial and who, in the opinion of a judge, can be released into the community while awaiting trial.

An early case resolution program, which brings in staff to identify arrestees who may be manageable in the community with extra supports, was started in Saskatoon in early 2017, operating only on weekends. It was expanded to Prince Albert in August 2017.

New funding in the 2018-19 budget is being used to expand the program to Regina and add more dedicated staff in Saskatoon to focus on short-term remand during weekdays.

But the province did not provide numbers on how many people were taken off of remand as a result of this program.

In October 2017 an Enhanced Bail Supervision project was launched in Regina. It gave money to the Salvation Army, which provided short-term residential beds to male arrestees who, according to the province, “would otherwise go to remand due to a lack of supervised residential and mental health services.”

Similar agreements are being developed in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

Rector described the effort to reduce remand numbers as a “progression, we learn from what we implemented.”

“We have to really work hard to build on the momentum,” he said.

NDP Justice critic Nicole Sarauer said these efforts “might be a start, but it’s not sufficient.”

“It’s not enough and it can’t be the be-all-and-end-all solution to this problem,” she said, noting high remand numbers are “continuing to create massive problems in our jails” and that the province is “not providing the supports needed to address this problem.”

We have to really work hard to build on the momentum.