Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice.
What are the incarceration rates of inmates who are sentenced with alcohol and/or drug-related crimes in the NWT for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to the present?
Can the Minister provide incarceration numbers of inmates for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to the present on a month-to-month basis for all NWT correctional facilities?
Can the Minister provide the number of inmates participating or who have participated in an alcohol and/or drug-related prevention program for all NWT correctional facilities for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to the present?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Minister of Transportation’s Report to the Legislative Assembly for 2012 on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act 1990. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Members, I wish to table a report of the Auditor General of Canada, 2013: Northwest Territories Income Security Programs, Department of Education, Culture and Employment.
Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014; and Bill 1, Tlicho Statutes Amendment Act; Justice, Executive, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Finance, Legislative Assembly.
By the authority given to me as Speaker, by Motion 1-17(4), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider business before the House, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.
Okay, I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee today? Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-14, and we’d like to consider Justice, Executive, Aboriginal and Intergovernmental Relations, Finance and the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
Okay. Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed, thank you. We will proceed with that after a brief break.
---SHORT RECESS
I will call Committee of the Whole to order. Committee, we are dealing with the Department of Justice. Mr. Abernethy, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?
I do, Madam Chair.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Mr. Abernethy, if you would introduce your witnesses for us, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is the deputy minister of Justice, Sylvia Haener, and on my left is the director of finance, Kim Schofield.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Page 9-31, Justice, activity summary, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.169 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask, really, what kind of mental health services we provide within our corrections system.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a number of things available, different programs available. As I’ve indicated previously, when an inmate comes in, we do a classification or assessment with the individual where we identify their individual needs and focus them in on programs that will suit their individual needs. At the Fort Smith centre – River Ridge, right? At River Ridge we have some additional programming available for individuals with cognitive or other challenges specifically for those individuals who have those types of needs. I can’t remember the names of the specific programs but they’re tailored to suit individuals who do have cognitive or other mental health issues.
Thanks to the Minister. What are these? Are they in-house services or are they accessing Health and Social Services' services? We just heard, I don’t know if you had the opportunity, but many of us attended the Early Childhood Development Conference and we learned that in 50 percent or more of FASD-assumed people, actually it’s trauma from early life experiences rather than FASD. Obviously, the assessment side is very important, especially when we have people that are returning to the corrections repeatedly. What sort of resources do we have to help deal with those sorts of things and are they in-house?
We have in-house psychologists and other professionals that can help individuals. We have programming available to all of our staff, which is the Mental Health First Aid, which the Department of Health is doing some work on right now to customize to suit or be more specific to northern realities. We are going to have a bunch of our staff trained to be providers of that first aid training, so it’s going to be available to all of our staff within the facilities. But we don’t rely just in-house. We do access services outside of the facility, be it psychiatrist or other professionals as deemed appropriate based on the individual needs.
I’m happy to hear the information that the Member is providing me on FASD, and I’d certainly look in to that myself a little bit more to get a better understanding. But we don’t assess whether people have FASD within our facilities. We assess their challenges and their limitations, and what resources they need in order to lead more productive lives and help them rehabilitate. Rather than assessing them and assigning them a label, we’re working with them to identify limitations and help them address those limitations. We don’t diagnose or prescribe or identify someone as FASD. We identify that they have challenges and these are the programs that will help them overcome those challenges to help them rehabilitate.
Thanks for that information. I know the Minister’s interest in the sorts of things we were hearing at the early childhood conference as opposed to what we heard in some of our reviews of the Child and Family Services Act, so I know he’ll follow up on that. How do these resources compare to what we think should be in place, or will need to be in place if we had a wellness court or a mental health court? Are we at a position yet? I know the feasibility study is not completed but the Minister has looked at a draft. Is there a sense on how this would compare to what would be needed?
I can’t say specifically. I need to do a little bit more research myself and talk to the department to figure out what they’ve come to as far as a correlation between what we have in-house and what we would require outside by way of mental health court. I will commit to getting the Member and committee some additional information on that.
Thank you to the Minister for that. Just in terms of cultural programming, I know that’s important in our system. Do we provide that in all our corrections facilities? Is the Minister comfortable with the degree of cultural programming that we’re offering?
I listed off a number of programs during question period today, and I think I’ve left my actual list with all those programming by facility at my desk. But I have it printed out with a list of every facility and the different types of cultural programming we have. It’s comprehensive, and I’d be happy to share that with committee, I just can’t quote it to the Member right now.
Thank you, Minister. Next on my list is Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As I mentioned during question period, I was looking at the 10-year strategic plan that you guys have in place here. Under one of the headings there’s “provide integrated programs and services to offenders,” and it mentions that the department will be working on doing individual needs assessments and strategies related to the mental health or cognitive disabilities. It talks about intensive therapeutic interventions for addictions or violent behaviours. Where is the department on this and what type of programs are actually addressing the addictions and the violent behaviours?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Abernethy.
By way of an example, Madam Chair, the North Slave Correctional Centre provides programming to assist with anger management, including moderate intensity family violence prevention and violence prevention programs. One-on-one counselling is offered through a contract psychologist, the traditional counsellor and liaison officer, the chaplain, and through informal sessions with case managers. As I have indicated, every inmate has a case manager assigned specifically to them. North Slave Correction Centre mental health supports are available through the medical department through referrals to a psychiatrist as well.
Additionally, staff are trained in the Mental Health First Aid, as I have indicated previously, which enables our staff to assist the offenders. At one of our other facilities, the Fort Smith Correctional Centre, they provide anger management programming, when available. In essence, he has an institutional psychologist to assist offenders as well. The psychologist also provides an anger management program for offenders. Anger management is also a preventative healing program that is provided by a traditional councillor and liaison officers. As I have mentioned before, it’s some in-house as well as access to health facilities and programs outside of the facilities as well.
Madam Chair, and further, in one section here it also talks about reintegrated strategies will be provided to assist offenders to effectively return to their home communities and families. What types of strategies are put in place for the individual so that they can become a good citizen, a good member of their communities again?
As you see in some of the news reports, we do get a lot of repeat offenders. A lot of them aren’t getting the types of services that they do need in terms of their mental capabilities, literacy, which will be another question that I will have later on is with literacy and work skills. How is the offender or the inmate getting the reintegrated strategy put in place for them, especially when we have small communities? If they do come from the small communities, and they don’t have those follow-up resources to give them the assistance or the probation officer might have a high caseload to give that individual the right amount of treatment and care that they do need. What are these reintegrated strategies and how effective are they? What is the follow-up from the department or the corrections with this individual after he’s released? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair, a plan is a cooperative plan put in place with the inmate and the case worker within the facility who has had a history with that particular inmate, as well as probation, whether it be regional or local. They develop a plan together to reintegrate the person back into their home community or whichever community they will end up in, based on their individual needs and programming that they need, where programming is available.
The probation officers have a requirement to meet and discuss case plans with their clients on a regular basis. Every one of them would be different, based on the individual themselves and the level of monitoring that they would need. Every reintegration plan would look different. It’s based on individual needs, risk, and risk of reoffending and what supports they need outside.
Just one other question in regard to these reintegrated strategies or the plan for when individuals are released and go back to their communities. Is this plan part of the application process for an individual’s request for parole? So would an inmate who developed a plan have a better chance of getting parole than one that didn’t have a plan? Thank you.
Parole is more of a federal inmate reality. Regardless, we still have individuals that are on probation and the length of their probation would be dependent on their initial charge and how long they were sentenced and they would vary from one individual to another. Regardless, every inmate that’s exiting the facility will have gone through the process of having a reintegration plan. Some of them can be very, very simple and others can be far more complex, and they can range in duration from very short to very long, but, once again, it’s tied to the sentence and what kinds of treatments or supports that they need to help them to not repeat again.
Just one last question in regard to this and it’s dealing with the integrated programs again, and services for offenders that are outlined in the strategic plan by the department. They do mention literacy and workplace skills development. Can the Minister elaborate on what type of literacy programs are in place for the correctional facilities around the Northwest Territories and how is he working with the workplace skill development? I think in one of his Member’s statements he talked about a possible program for offenders to get a pardon or something. But if you’re developing workplace skills, how is that working to get the individual into a paid job position with a record when they get out of institutions? So just in regard to those two programs. Thank you.
Thank you. Within our youth facility we actually have some teachers in there that are providing basic education to the inmates that happen to be in those facilities. Within our adult facilities we have adult educators that come in on a regular basis and provide training and education supports to individuals who have had it identified within their individual case plans. We also, within the facilities, have work teams. We have people working in kitchens, we have people doing cleaning, we have people doing other things where they can gain some work experience and get familiar with different types of jobs. Now, they are limited because they are within the facility, but we do those types of things and we do provide education as outlined within individual case plans.
Thanks Minister. Mr. Moses is done, I have nobody else on my list. We’re on page 9-31, committee.
Agreed.
Justice, activity summary, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.169 million.
Agreed.
Thanks, committee. We move to page 9-32, Justice, activity summary, corrections, grants and contributions, contributions, $179,000.
Agreed.
Thanks, committee. Page 9-33, Justice, information item, corrections, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Okay, move to page 9-35, Justice, activity summary, services to the public, operations expenditure summary, $5.028 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just interested in the progress report on the offices of the children’s lawyer and how this is working out. I believe it’s a new position. Maybe the Minister could refresh my memory on when we implemented this and how that program is working out. Thank you.
Thanks, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the position is in place, it is a new position. It’s been in for just over a year. Anecdotally, we’re getting positive statements on that position and what it is able to accomplish. I will say that there was a blip. Unfortunately, the original person that we had in the position left the Northwest Territories and we had to refill the position, which took a little bit of time. So we don’t truly have a year’s worth of data on the effectiveness of this. Although, we are hearing positive responses and a lot of anecdotal statements that it’s positive and there are good results.
