Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview – 2007

Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview – 2007 (PDF 788KB)

This document was produced by the Public Safety Canada Portfolio Corrections Statistics Committee which is composed of representatives of the Department of Public Safety Canada, the Correctional Service of Canada, the National Parole Board, the Office of the Correctional Investigator and the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (Statistics Canada).

This document provides a statistical overview of corrections and conditional release within a context of trends in crime and criminal justice. A primary consideration in producing this overview was to present general statistical information in a "user friendly" way that will facilitate understanding by a broad audience. Accordingly, there are a number of features of this document that make it different from typical statistical reports.

• First, the visual representation of the statistics is simple and uncluttered, and under each chart there are a few key points that will assist the reader in extracting the information from the chart.
• Second, for each chart there is a table of numbers corresponding to the visual representation. In some instances, the table includes additional numbers, e.g., a five-year series, even though the chart depicts the data for the most recent year (e.g., Figure A2).
• Third, rather than using the conventional headings for statistics (e.g., "police-reported crime rate by year by type of crime") the titles for each chart and table inform the reader about the matter at hand (e.g., "Police-reported crime rate has decreased since 1991").
• Fourth, notes have been kept to a minimum, that is, only where they were judged to be essential for the reader to understand the statistics.
• Finally, the source of the statistics is indicated under each chart so that the interested reader can easily access more information if desired.

This is the tenth issue of the Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview. Readers are advised that in some instances figures have been revised from earlier publications. Also, the total number of offenders will vary a little depending on characteristics of the data set.

It is hoped that this document will serve as a useful source of statistical information on corrections and conditional release and assist the public in gaining a better understanding of these important components of the criminal justice system.