■ AUDITOR’S OTHER CONCERNS
Saskatchewan’s auditor is again criticizing the province’s corrections system and how it rehabilitates prisoners.
Judy Ferguson’s latest report shows prisoners continue to wait too long or do not receive rehabilitation programming. It also shows staff at the province’s correctional facilities are not doing prisoner risk and needs assessments in a timely fashion.
According to the Ministry of Corrections and Policing, the assessments should be done within 28 days of someone entering a facility.
Seven of 30 files reviewed by Ferguson’s office showed inmates did not get required programming at all, while nine of the 30 showed staff completing assessments 15 to 120 days late.
Ferguson said the province has made “little progress” when it comes to rehabilitating prisoners at correctional centres. Her office first made recommendations on the subject in 2008.
She said the ministry does not have effective procedures to ensure assessments are done on time and that sentenced prisoners “are not receiving rehabilitation consistent with their assessed risks” prior to being released.
Ministry of Corrections and Policing spokesman Drew Wilby told reporters Tuesday the province is “working hard to address that, obviously not as quickly as we’d like.”
He added rehabilitation is a “core focus” so people can be integrated back into their communities or societies.
“It’s something we’ll continue to work through, and we’ll work with the auditor’s office to ensure those recommendations are checked off as we go along.”
Roughly half of Saskatchewan’s prisoners are on remand.
NDP leader Ryan Meili said the province needs to be taking a more “evidence-based approach” to the issue, saying if there aren’t effective strategies in place, “The likelihood of them winding back in jail is much, much higher.”
Ferguson’s report also took some issue with the Ministry of Social Services.
Of the roughly 15,000 reports of child abuse and neglect received in the last fiscal year, only about 40 per cent were investigated.
While the auditor said there are “good policies” on how ministry staff determine if an allegation should be investigated or not, she found staff weren’t always following them.
An independent second review of a decision regarding whether or not an investigation is warranted is required, but does not always happen — particularly when the decision is made not to investigate.
The auditor also confirmed her office would be reviewing vendor-sponsored travel at ehealth.
Three employees of ehealth, which handles information technology and vital statistics for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, were fired earlier this year after it was discovered they had taken trips to luxurious locations and events paid for by companies receiving government contracts.
Those firings, and criticism from the NDP, prompted the provincial government to begin its own review of vendor-sponsored travel in Saskatchewan, and to refer the matter to Ferguson’s office.
“We’re at the stage where we have looked at their investigation, and we have decided that we are going to do a bit more work. We’re at the planning stages of doing that work,” she said, adding her findings will be made public in her next report.