Date: October 2024
Program manager: Director, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics
Director General, Health, Justice, Diversity, and Population
Original Supplement to the Generic Privacy Impact Assessment:
This addendum covers only the new and modified personal information being collected for the survey. For all other privacy concerns on the survey, please refer to the Supplement to Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS) (statcan.gc.ca)
Reference to Personal Information Bank (PIB):
In accordance with the Privacy Act, the collection of personal information by Statistics Canada for the addendum to the Canadian Correctional Services Survey is described in the CCSS PIB (StatCan PPU 023).
Description of changes to the statistical activity:
Under the authority of the Statistics ActFootnote1, Statistics Canada's Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) conducts the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS), an administrative data survey that collects microdata on adults and youth electronically from correctional services programs in Canada. The objective of the survey is to be a source of national information on corrections, which is directly related to the mandate of the CCJCSS of providing information to the justice community and the public on the nature and extent of crime and victimization and the administration of criminal and civil justice in Canada.
To achieve the survey's objective, Statistics Canada collects information on individuals under correctional supervision across the country according to a set of national data requirements (i.e., survey variables). The CCSS national data requirements were developed in consultation with the National Justice Statistics Initiative (NJSI), the federal-provincial-territorial partnership for the collection of information on the nature and extent of crime and the administration of civil and criminal justice in Canada.
Four new data elements are now being added to the national data requirements, namely sex at birth and gender, multiple identities for racialized groups, homelessness indicator and Intensive Rehabilitation Custody and Supervision (IRCS) program number. The new data elements will help meet data gaps, keep pace with and align with Statistics Canada standards, collect information in a consistent manner, allow enhanced analytical capacity to meet research needs and produce information at a disaggregated level. These new measures will help inform and contribute to the creation of evidence-based policy and program development which will benefit correctional services programs and justice partners, as well as the Canadian public.
Sex at birth and gender. These two new variables will be developed to replace the sex variable currently collected by the CCSS. The additions of gender identity and gender expression in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code, as well as some sources of administrative data changing from sex to gender, necessitated distinguishing the concepts of gender and sex within the National Statistical System.Footnote2 Collecting sex at birth and gender will allow the CCSS to capture data as per the Statistics Canada standards and fill current data gaps. It will also allow the CCSS to keep pace with information available from correctional services programs and support programs to collect these data in a consistent manner.
Multiple identities for racialized groups. Currently, the CCSS includes a variable to collect information on racialized group and allows a single response for an individual. The CCSS will redevelop this variable to allow the collection of multiple racialized group responses for an individual. Redeveloping this variable will allow the CCSS to capture any updated categories in the Statistics Canada standard classifications and keep pace with the way some correctional services programs are beginning to collect this information.
Homelessness indicator. Correctional services programs across Canada have started developing consensus around collecting data on homelessness. The CCSS will develop a new variable to collect an indicator of homelessness on the intake and discharge of persons from correctional supervision. Given the correlation between housing instability and correctional involvement, data on the residential stability of persons supervised by corrections are useful for research purposes.
Intensive Rehabilitation Custody Supervision (IRCS) program number. The federal Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) Program is a contribution program with all provinces and territories for the delivery of specialized therapeutic programs and services for youth with mental health needs who are convicted of a serious violent offence. The scope of the CCSS includes IRCS programs and the CCSS currently collects information from youth correctional service programs. However, the IRCS population is not currently identifiable in the dataset because the IRCS program number is not provided to the CCSS. The CCSS will develop a new variable to collect the IRCS program number for the youth population in custody under the supervision of these programs.
Reason for addendum:
While the Generic Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and the Supplement to the Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS) addresses most of the privacy and security risks related to statistical activities conducted by Statistics Canada, and for the initial data collection of the CCSS, this addendum addresses the collection of additional sensitive personal information. As is the case with all PIAs, Statistics Canada's privacy framework ensures that elements of privacy protection and privacy controls are documented and applied.
Necessity and Proportionality
The collection and use of the additional personal information for the CCSS can be justified against Statistics Canada's Necessity and Proportionality Framework:
1. Necessity: Statistics Canada requires the information to produce accurate information on the correctional population in Canada and specifically to produce valuable demographic information at a disaggregated level on the federal, provincial, and territorial populations supervised under correctional services.
The additional sociodemographic data collected for sex at birth, gender, and multiple identities for racialized groups is needed for disaggregated analysis of subgroups of the affected population. The Government of Canada's Federal Framework to Reduce Recidivism aims to include measures to develop standardized and evidence-based programs aimed at reducing recidivism and to evaluate and improve risk assessment instruments and procedures to address racial and cultural biases and ensure that all people who are incarcerated have access to appropriate programs that will help reduce recidivism. Correctional services programs and justice partners, as well as the Canadian public, will benefit from the additional data as the information contributes to the creation of evidence-based policy and program development, and thereby contributes to the public interest.
Sex at birth and gender. Information on sex at birth and gender helps fill current data gaps and inform the justice community on the unique needs and considerations of women and gender-diverse populations under correctional supervision. Understanding these needs and challenges provides stakeholders the context to develop evidence-based approaches and programs to support the complex challenges faced by these individuals. The availability of appropriate and culturally sensitive supports, such as access to healthcare, protocol related to staff interactions (e.g., health monitoring and security searches) and accessible programming, will help improve the safety and dignity of gender-diverse individuals under correctional supervision and improve successful reintegration into society after incarceration.
Multiple identities for racialized groups. Information on ethnicity aims to better understand the experiences of racialized groups in terms of their interactions and involvement with correctional systems and with the criminal justice system more generally. Acquiring information on ethnicity is critical to developing population-based indicators and re-contact indicators to measure representation of sub-populations in the correctional systems. These measures will inform policy and program development aimed at addressing overrepresentation of otherwise unreported racialized groups within the correctional system. As some correctional services programs are now beginning to capture multiple racialized groups, the redevelopment of this variable allows the CCSS to collect the added detail and provides the opportunity for disaggregated analysis of diverse sub-populations.
Homelessness indicator. Evidence in the correctional literature has shown that incarceration and homelessness are closely related. Being homeless increases the risk of offending and being released without stable and secure housing leads to a greater risk of recidivism.Footnote3 Development of a homelessness indicator will allow the CCSS to collect this information on both the intake and discharge of persons from correctional supervision. This new indicator will help meet data gaps and provide information on a vulnerable population that is difficult to track due to its transient nature and social circumstances. Data on the residential stability of persons supervised by corrections will improve the understanding of this population and help support the development of programming, such as reintegration support programs, aimed at addressing housing and community integration after release.
Intensive Rehabilitation Custody Supervision (IRCS) program number. The federal IRCS Program is a contribution program with all provinces and territories for the delivery of specialized therapeutic programs and services for youth with mental health needs who are convicted of a serious violent offence. The IRCS program is funded by the Department of Justice Canada and has been available since 2003. Only youth justice service programs operated by provincial and territorial governments receive funding. The main objectives of IRCS programs are to reduce recidivism and support the rehabilitation and reintegration of these high-risk youth back into society. Summarized information describing outcomes of youth after participating in IRCS programs, and where appropriate, contrasting with outcomes for non-participant cohorts, has been a critical data gap in terms of evaluating the success of IRCS programs for many years. This update will allow linkage opportunities using Statistics Canada's Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE)Footnote4 to identify criminal justice system re-contacts and perform outcome studies for the IRCS population. Understanding the impact of the IRCS program is crucial for developing and altering stakeholder programs to reduce recidivism and support youth rehabilitation and re-integration of at-risk youth back into society. These data will help fill the need to inform evidence-driven approaches to crime prevention and programs aimed at reducing recidivism, as well as programs designed for rehabilitation, community integration, and public safety. This research has the potential to lead to positive changes in the lives of individual youth who experience these programs, as well as benefitting society at a broader level.
2. Effectiveness - Working assumptions: The addition of variables to the CCSS helps meet data gaps and will improve alignment with Statistics Canada standards and reporting consistency. In addition, the new and modified variables being collected will allow enhanced analytical capacity to meet research needs and disaggregated data analysis. Given that the CCSS is currently in collection, Statistics Canada has validated the effectiveness of collecting this information directly from institutions to generate statistics on the correctional services population. The current expansion of the collection increases the content of the dataset, and thus the effectiveness of the insights being derived from it.
Disaggregating results by sex at birth and gender and racialized group, as well as information on the incarcerated homeless population and IRCS participants, can provide new basis for analysis on the experiences of specific groups and subgroups. Results can yield new insights and provide more nuanced information on vulnerable population groups, specifically indicators of re-contact with the justice system and overrepresentation, for policymakers to use.
Federal and provincial/territorial justice partners were consulted to ensure that these new and modified data elements meet identified data gaps related to socio-demographics and provide valuable information for research priorities. Furthermore, discussions with correctional services programs and current CCSS data providers have indicated that some jurisdictions have all or some of the new variables available in their information systems. Collection using the current CCSS methodology is feasible.
3. Proportionality:
The research findings are expected to inform policies and lead to positive changes within correctional services and IRCS programs in Canada.
While the new variables on sex at birth, gender, racialized group, IRCS program and homelessness are sensitive, these data will improve knowledge and understanding of experiences of gender-diverse populations, racialized groups, at-risk youth, and homeless offenders within the correctional system. The new data will allow the development of population-based indicators and re-contact indicators using disaggregated data to measure representation of these sub-populations in correctional systems and therefore allow for targeting policy recommendations that are specific to the groups being represented that aren't otherwise differentiated from groups identified in the current collection variables. Findings will help inform evidence-driven approaches to public safety, crime prevention and programs aimed at reducing recidivism, as well as programs designed for rehabilitation and community integration for these vulnerable populations. Improving these approaches for otherwise unknown or undetectable groups is considered to be of utmost importance to federal justice partners and stakeholders.
The potential benefits and positive changes to social and justice-related programs and services are considered proportional to the overall risks to privacy.
4. Alternatives: Administrative data from the federal, provincial and territorial correctional services programs in Canada represent the only practical and accurate source of information to collect these data. Statistics Canada's existing CCSS is the only high-quality source of information on individuals under supervision within the correctional system at a national level. Given that the new variables were not previously collected by the CCSS, they are not currently available elsewhere. Further, the CCSS is the only reliable data source at this level that can be combined with information on the general population to provide re-contact and overrepresentation indicators and allow analysis of these critical justice issues. The CCSS methodology is well established and integration of the new variables within the current process would be the most efficient approach to collection.
Mitigation factors:
The new variables can be considered sensitive as they relate to personal information on sex at birth, gender, racialized group, homelessness, and participation in an IRCS program. As with the initial iteration of the CCSS, and all surveys at Statistics Canada, all directives and policies with respect to administrative data collection and publication will be followed to ensure the confidentiality of the data. Personal identifiers will be removed from the analytical file as soon as operationally feasible and in keeping with Statistics Canada's practices, as outlined in the agency's Generic PIA.Footnote5 Only non-confidential aggregate statistics and analyses conforming to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act will be released outside of Statistics Canada. As with all Statistics Canada statistical programs, strict disclosure controls will apply, ensuring that individual responses and results for small groups will not be published. This approach reduces any potential impact on vulnerable populations or subsets of populations, as the grouping of results will protect the confidentiality of individuals within a particular subset of the population.
The overall risk of harm to individuals under correctional supervision is deemed manageable with existing Statistics Canada safeguards that are described in Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment and in the original Supplement to Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS).
Conclusion:
This assessment concludes that, with the existing Statistics Canada safeguards, any remaining risks are such that Statistics Canada is prepared to accept and manage the risk.