Supplement to Statistics Canada’s Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to the Intensive Rehabilitative Custody Supervision (IRCS) Project
Date: January 2024
Program manager: Director, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics
Director General, Health, Justice, Diversity, and Population
Reference to Personal Information Bank (PIB):
In accordance with the Privacy Act, Statistics Canada is submitting a new institutional personal information bank (PIB) to describe any personal information obtained from Intensive Rehabilitative Custody Supervision (IRCS) programs, for the purposes of the Statistics Act. The following PIB is proposed for review and registration.
Intensive Rehabilitative Custody Supervision (IRCS)
Description: This bank describes information that is obtained from provincial/territorial correctional services programs in Canada on youth who participate in Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) programs. Personal information may include name, date of birth, sex, Municipality/Postal code, Social Insurance Number, Driving License Number, Fingerprint section ID number/CPIC and IRCS program number.
Class of Individuals: Youth under provincial/territorial IRCS programs in: New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Purpose: The personal information is used to produce statistical data and analyses at a disaggregated level on the provincial/territorial youth populations participating in IRCS programs to understand the impact of the IRCS programs and develop programming to reduce recidivism and support the rehabilitation and reintegration of at-risk youth. Personal information is collected pursuant to the Statistics Act (Sections 3, 7, 13, 22 (d)).
Consistent Uses: The information may be used in record linkage projects with other justice datasets carried out by Statistics Canada's Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS), as well as with other data holdings. Linkage projects may be developed between CCJCSS and other Statistics Canada databases to post release outcomes of IRCS clients, including the Census of Population, Vital Statistics databases, the Discharge Abstract Database and the TI Family File.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Information is retained until it is no longer required for statistical purposes and then it is destroyed.
RDA Number: 2018/007
Related Record Number: StatCan CCJ 135
TBS Registration: To be assigned by TBS
Bank Number: StatCan PPU 022
Description of statistical activity:
Under the authority of the Statistics ActFootnote1, Statistics Canada will acquire information from provincial/territorial correctional services programs in Canada on youth who participate in Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) programs, and will perform record linkages using Statistics Canada's Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE)Footnote2 in order to identify criminal justice system recontacts and perform outcome studies for the IRCS population.
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 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.
Justice Canada does not have the legislative authority to collect identifying data of IRCS participants due to the privacy requirements set out in the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), Part 6Footnote3, and are therefore unable to collect participant names and other identifiers that are required to perform record linkages and conduct analyses. The information collected by Statistics Canada from the provincial IRCSs will not be shared with Justice Canada in any way. Only non-confidential outputs will be made available.
The information collected from the provincial/territorial correctional services programs will include IRCS program number, Person Identification Number for the correctional program, sex, date of birth, first name, middle name, last name, municipality or postal code, Social Insurance Number (SIN), Driving License Number and Fingerprint section ID number which is contained in the Canadian Police Identification Centre (CPIC), where applicable for IRCS participants. This information will allow linkage opportunities using Statistics Canada's Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE) to identify criminal justice system recontacts and perform outcome studies for the IRCS population. For example, recidivism and re-offending patterns including types of offences, frequency, and time to re-offend following the completion of youth sentences and intensive programming may be examined. With record linkage and integration with other social and justice data, statistics on socio-demographics and other information, such as mental health history and family history, can be produced for the IRCS population.
Understanding the impact of the IRCS programs is crucial for developing and altering programs to reduce recidivism and support youth rehabilitation. Analyzing program results and participant socio-demographic characteristics can evaluate program effectiveness, enabling the development of specialized therapeutic services to address mental health needs and improve recidivism rates and re-integration of high-risk youth back into society. Statistics Canada is working with federal partners, including the Department of Justice Canada and Public Safety Canada, to develop and publish articles on reconviction of offenders post correctional involvement and indicators of desistance from crime, and the analysis of recidivism and desistence of IRCS program participants fits in well with this initiative.
For studies using IRCS data,only the aggregate statistics and analyses will be released outside of Statistics Canada. Given the small number of IRCS participantsFootnote4, Statistics Canada's methodologists will review outputs to ensure there is no possibility of identifying or re-identifying individuals. In addition, all analysis will be completed at a national level, there will be no jurisdictional-level analysis which will also protect the privacy of participants.
For this project, Statistics Canada will collect a special extraction of IRCS program data from seven participating provincial correctional services programs, namely New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Information on all youth participants since inception of each provincial IRCS program will be requested. In addition, the information currently held by Justice Canada such as diagnosis of mental health conditions, disaggregated data on Indigenous identity and racialized group on IRCS participants will also be collected.
The only variables that will be linked within Statistics Canada's secure SDLE are those required to identify recontacts with the justice system, along with desistence indicators measuring re-integration post justice system involvement, such as educational attainment, employment history and adverse health outcomes (e.g., overdoses or premature death). Data holdings that could potentially be linked to IRCS include Census, Family, or Tax files. A comparative analysis may be done using a subset of non-IRCS participants in youth corrections drawn from the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS)Footnote5. Statistics Canada will perform all analysis and produce a report on the results. For record linkage purposes, at no point during or after the record linkage process are personal identifiers brought together with analytical data in one dataset. Access to the personal information data will be limited to only a small number of Statistics Canada employees with a need-to-know.
This is expected to be a one-time extraction from the participating provincial correctional services programs to collect historical data on IRCS participants. For future analysis, Statistics Canada anticipates integrating the collection of IRCS program participant identification numbers into the Canadian Correctional Services Survey. Thus, moving forward, the need for this special extraction will no longer be required for any future studies as the information would be integrated into the ongoing survey program at the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics.
Justice partners and stakeholders such as the Department of Justice Canada, Public Safety Canada and provincial/territorial correctional services programs, as well as the Canadian public will benefit from the results compiled as the information contributes to the creation of evidence-based policy and program development, and thereby contributes to the public interest. 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. Only non-confidential aggregate statistics and analyses conforming to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act will be released outside of Statistics Canada.
Reason for supplement:
While the Generic Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) addresses most of the privacy and security risks related to statistical activities conducted by Statistics Canada, this supplement was developed due to the overall sensitivity of the personal information being requested with relation to the affected individuals who represent a small population of at-risk youth. 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 use of personal information for the IRCS project can be justified against Statistics Canada's Necessity and Proportionality Framework:
- 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, including the youth population. The IRCS program is an important component of correction supervision of youth in Canada, as it has been developed for high-risk youth with mental health concerns who have committed serious criminal offences. The program was initiated in 2003 with the enactment of the Youth Criminal Justice Act and the program continues to operate 20 years later. Understanding the outcomes of IRCS participants post youth correctional supervision, and where appropriate contrasting with outcomes for non-participants, has been a critical data gap for a number of years. For example, to fully understand the benefits and limitations of the IRCS program, policy analysts and researchers need to know the rate of IRCS participants that return to the justice system after participating in the program, as well as the demand for health services and employment/un-employment rates of the population, amongst other indicators. Working with participating youth corrections programs and Justice Canada, Statistics Canada aims to address this gap in its statistical program on youth corrections by collecting additional information from youth correctional service programs. This new data collection will allow the agency to address this research priority for criminal justice policy makers and the public.
The personal information on the IRCS participants for this project will allow the record linkage needed to identify recontact with the criminal justice system, as well as determine outcomes of the youth involved in IRCS programs at a disaggregated level. This information is critical to understanding the impact of the IRCS programs and developing programming to reduce recidivism and support the rehabilitation and reintegration process of this vulnerable youth population. Analysis of the results of the IRCS program will support rehabilitation and reintegration. With information on the outcomes of these youth, specialized therapeutic programs and services can continue to be developed to address mental health needs, reduce the level of violence, improve recidivism rates and the rehabilitation of youth who are convicted of a serious violent offence. 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.
- Effectiveness - Working assumptions:
Statistics Canada's Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics currently conducts two surveys that collect personal identifiers of youth: the Integrated Criminal Courts Survey (ICCS) and the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS). The scope of the CCSS includes IRCS programs, however, IRCS participants are not currently identifiable in the dataset because the IRCS program number is not provided to the CCSS. Thus, Statistics Canada has validated the effectiveness of collecting this information directly from institutions to generate statistics on the youth correctional services population.
Given the small size of the IRCS population, the current project is considered a one-time data collection project to acquire the IRCS information from the participating provincial correctional services programs. For future analysis, Statistics Canada anticipates updating the Canadian Correctional Services Survey to include the IRCS program number assigned to participants. Thus, moving forward, the need for this special extraction will no longer be required for any future studies as the information would be integrated into the ongoing survey program at the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics.
As the annual production of the CCSS includes linkage to the Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE), this project would not need to be replicated in the future, as all necessary identifying information on IRCS participants required for data linkage would be obtained from the CCSS.
New insights derived from the analysis of the IRCS population will improve measures to identify re-contact with the criminal justice system and other indicators of re-integration, to meet the needs of justice stakeholders.
- Proportionality:
The direct identifiers collected for the IRCS population, such as name and date of birth, are critical to the proposed record linkage studies. These direct identifiers will be sent to the linkage team to establish linkages with other Statistics Canada datasets.
Only the variables required to achieve the statistical goals of the linkage will be requested in order to mitigate potential impacts to the privacy of the affected individuals under correctional supervision. All data collected for the IRCS project are considered the minimum data required to address the data needs identified specifically by Justice Canada to evaluate IRCS programs, as well as broader needs identified by the Department of Justice and Public Safety and other partners and stakeholders such as law enforcement officials and provincial/territorial correctional services programs, to inform recontact analysis.
The public benefits of the research findings are expected to inform policies and lead to positive changes within correctional services and programs in Canada.
The IRCS 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. These measures and analyses, as well as the capacity for data disaggregation, are only possible with the use of the personal information collected on the IRCS participants. The potential benefits and positive changes to social and justice-related programs and services for at-risk youth are believed to be proportional to the overall risks to privacy.
- Alternatives:
Administrative data from the provincial and territorial correctional services IRCS programs in Canada represent the only practical and accurate source of information to collect and meet the requirements of this project. New survey collection from individuals of this information would be extremely burdensome and likely of much lower quality than what currently exists in the correctional services management systems designed to accurately capture information on individuals under correctional supervision.
Justice Canada has collected operational data on youth participating in IRCS programs, however, outcome information and the personal identifiers that would allow IRCS data to be integrated and linked with other data sources (for example, police, courts and corrections data) are not collected. Administrative data collection and subsequent microdata linkage is the only method to identify criminal justice system recontacts and other outcomes of individuals, in terms of understanding social, economic, health, and demographic trends related to the IRCS population.
Mitigation factors:
The overall risk of harm to the survey respondents has been deemed manageable with existing Statistics Canada safeguards that are described in Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment, with particular emphasis on the following measures:
- All information collected under the Statistics Act is kept confidential and used only for statistical purposes. Statistics Canada ensures the privacy, confidentiality, and security of all its data holdings.
- Statistics Canada applies strict confidentiality practices and rigorous data quality processes, including the use of a separate personal information processing system, during all production and dissemination activities.
- Access to personal information is limited to a small number of Statistics Canada employees on a need-to-know basis (at any given point in time fewer than 10 persons can view these data).
- Analytical data files will contain only anonymized identification numbers and will not include any information that would directly identify an individual.
- For record linkage purposes, at no point during or after the record linkage process are personal identifiers brought together with analytical data in one dataset.
- Personal identifiers will be stored separately from other statistical information in keeping with Statistics Canada's practices, as outlined in the agency's Generic PIAFootnote6.
- Any potential outputs or products are vetted by Statistics Canada subject matter analysts and methodologists to ensure the identity of persons under correctional supervision is never disclosed directly or indirectly.
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.
Formal approval:
This Supplementary Privacy Impact Assessment has been reviewed and recommended for approval by Statistics Canada's Chief Privacy Officer, Director General for Modern Statistical Methods and Data Science, and Assistant Chief Statistician for Social, Health and Labour Statistics.
The Chief Statistician of Canada has the authority for section 10 of the Privacy Act for Statistics Canada, and is responsible for the Agency’s operations, including the program area mentioned in this Supplementary Privacy Impact Assessment.
This Privacy Impact Assessment has been approved by the Chief Statistician of Canada.