Community Corrections and Social Control - The Case of Saskatchewan, Canada

• NCJ Number: 76770
• Journal: Contemporary Crisis Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1981) Pages: 193-215
• Author(s): J H Hylton
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 23 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands
• Note: Revised version of a paper presented at the Fourth Canadian Conference of Applied Criminology, Ottawa, Canada, March 12-14, 1980.

Annotation

Institutional and community correctional programs in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, are examined for the period from 1962 to 1979 in order to explore the impact of community programs on the Province's correctional system.

Abstract

The examination seeks to determine whether institutional programs are being replaced by community programs and the effect of community programs on the size of the correctional system. The Province currently maintains four correctional institutions. In 1962, the Province did not have noninstitutional correctional programs but since that time has opened five community residential centers. Proponents of community programs argued that such projects would be more effective, less costly, and more humane substitutes for correctional institutions. A linear trend analysis of institutional statistics shows that institutions are not being abandoned. The average daily institutional count per 100,000 population increased from 55.23 in 1962 to 84.87 in 1979, an increase of 54 percent in 18 years. The evidence from Saskatchewan thus supports the view that community correctional programs do not replace correctional institutions or reduce reliance on such segregative social control strategies. With regard to the second issue, i.e., constriction of the correctional system due to increased availability of community programs, there can be little question that the expanded use of community programs resulted in a larger correctional system. This conclusion is reached from analysis of the daily institutional population count, the probation caseload, and the population count of community centers. However, community programs are definitely less costly to operate than correctional institutions, and officials find them more palatable in terms of achieving correctional goals. While the correctional system in Saskatchewan has expanded, the reasons for expansion have not been determined. Future research efforts should be directed toward answering this question. Four figures, 1 table, and 69 reference notes are provided.