NCJ Number
130285
Journal
American Jails Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (May/June 1991) Pages: 78-80,82-83
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This review of correctional programs in British Columbia covers program development, initiatives which resulted in increases in incarceration, the emergence of attitudes which served as a countervailing force to the reliance on institutional sentences, the impact of policy initiatives and program developments, probation and community service orders, and the temporary absence program and provincial parole.
Abstract
Adult corrections has developed within a justice framework philosophically and within the Ministry of Attorney General organizationally. The Corrections Branch of the Attorney General's Ministry assumes responsibility for youth probation services and, since the mid-1970s, for youth correctional institutions. During the 1970s, numerous programmatic changes reinforced limiting the use of imprisonment. The closing of the young adult training institution provided a significant symbolic and real impetus to correctional authorities and the courts to develop noncarceral programs. The probation caseload increased 163 percent between 1969 and 1975. Community service was introduced during this period, and some 1,500 community service orders were made by the courts in its first year of operation. The control of correctional center populations has been realized in British Columbia by undertaking policy, legislative, and programmatic initiatives. 7 footnotes