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Correctional Service Canada cuts put public safety at risk: union

Recent cuts at Correctional Service Canada will compromise public safety and put parole officers at risk, according to the union that represents parole officers.

Correctional Service Canada announced it would get rid of 17 community correctional liaison officers (CCLOs) across Canada.

The officers assist parole officers and facilitate information sharing between the department and local police forces.

CCLOs are based in community correctional centres. There are four facilities in Atlantic Canada: two in Halifax (The Carleton Centre Annex and Carleton Centre Community Correctional Centre), one in Parrtown, near Saint John, N.B., and one in St. John's, N.L.

The two Halifax facilities can house up to 26 offenders. These are men who have served time for a range of crimes, including property offences, manslaughter and murder.

All three CCLO positions in Atlantic Canada have now ended.

The CCLOs were police officers who were seconded to work in correctional services. They are not members of the Union of Solicitor General Employees, the group that represents parole officers.

Quick captures

Carol Jennings, regional vice-president for the Union of Solicitor General Employees, says the CCLOs were able to track down and apprehend offenders who were unlawfully at large relatively quickly, minimizing the time the offender was at large in the community, and therefore minimizing the time available to the offender to take part in additional crimes.

"CCLOs have the additional support with the police agencies. They're able to dedicate more time to that. That they're able to ensure that they are captured more quickly," she said.

Jennings says the officers had the resources available through the police agencies, and were able to go into communities to look for an offender who had become unlawfully at large​.

Without that CCLO, Jennings says an at large could be at gone longer than if there was a dedicated community officer to search for them.

"There's nobody dedicated to go out and look for them right then. There's nothing that says that [the police] would have to go out and search for them," she said.

Jennings also says community correctional liaison officers act as a deterrent.

"In Saint John for example, at Parrtown, we had offenders, that would actually be charged if they went unlawfully at large and that was completed by the CCLO. Now it's felt there's less of a consequence of going [unlawfully at large]," she said.

Jennings says CCLOs were also part of selection committee meetings, "where offenders are assessed for potential risk to the community, before the offender is released from a penitentiary.

Jennings says this is an important first point of contact with the police.

According to Const. Pierre Bourdages, "the loss of this position has a minimal effect on Halifax Regional Police."

Correctional Service Canada's media relations advisor Véronique Rioux says, "This decision was made in an effort to streamline the security functions within CSC while providing the most efficient service possible. CSC will continue to work closely with police agencies to maintain partnerships and ensure public safety."