HIGH-RISK OFFENDERS

The issue of high-risk violent offenders is of ongoing concern to the federal government and to Canadians generally. As many in the "high-risk" offender group suffer from sexual and personality disorders, dealing with them does not fall exclusively within one jurisdiction, but rather has implications for justice, corrections and mental health at both the federal and provincial levels.

The federal government, together with the provinces and territories, has undertaken several measures to improve the management of high-risk violent offenders in the criminal justice system.

A significant step forward was taken in January, 1995 when Ministers responsible for Justice endorsed the Report of the Federal Provincial/Territorial Task Force on High-Risk Violent Offenders and agreed to take immediate action on a number of its recommendations. At that time, Ministers agreed that priority should be given to identifying and prosecuting high-risk violent offenders at the front end of the criminal justice system, through the vigorous use of the Dangerous Offender provisions, which allow for indeterminate detention of inmates.

Among the changes agreed to by Ministers are:

• improving the information that is available for Crown Attorneys to assist them in bringing a Dangerous Offender application before the Court at the time of prosecution;

• the creation of a category of long-term offender with the Courts having a new sentencing option for this group of long-term supervision of up to 10 years following the end of the penitentiary term; and

• strengthening the relationship between corrections and mental health systems through the establishment of protocols with regard to the exchange of information, services and inmate/patients between the two systems.

Key to the management of high-risk violent offenders is the proper identification, assessment and treatment of these offenders. Research in these areas continues to be pursued by the Department of the Solicitor General and the Correctional Service of Canada.

In March, 1995, the Solicitor General announced the implementation of a flagging system using the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) that will greatly aid in the early identification of chronically violent offenders. Offenders showing signs of becoming dangerous offenders will be flagged on the CPIC databank. Crown prosecutors will be made aware of all relevant background should such offenders be subject to prosecution in the future.

In addition, the Crown Files Research Project, now under way, will determine what information is most useful to Crown Attorney's in deciding to bring a Dangerous Offender application, including what information is normally available that is highly correlated with violent reoffending.

As well, an implementation working group, composed of representatives from three levels of government continues its work to implement the recommendations of the Report of the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Task Force on High-Risk Violent Offenders. Ongoing cooperation will be key to improving the way these offenders are dealt with in our criminal justice and mental health systems and, most importantly, to improving public protection from high-risk violent offenders.