Correctional Service Canada (CSC), also referred to as the Correctional Service of Canada, is an agency of Public Safety Canada, headquartered in [Page 214]Ottawa. CSC operates under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and is responsible for the safe secure and human control of men and women sentenced to 2 or more years in prison or remanded to custody. In total, then, CSC is responsible for approximately 23,000 individuals, of whom 15,000 are in custody and 8,000 are under supervision within the community.

Although it is the CSC that generally garners most of the media attention, the majority (96%) of prisoners in Canada fall under the jurisdiction of provincial or territorial correctional authorities. Individuals sentenced to fewer than 2 years or remanded into custody are housed ...