{"id":1438,"date":"2023-02-20T11:48:55","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T11:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prisonbeat.com\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2023-02-20T11:48:55","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T11:48:55","slug":"the-correctional-investigator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/uncategorized\/the-correctional-investigator\/","title":{"rendered":"The Correctional Investigator?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Correctional Investigator!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who is the Correctional Investigator and what does he\/she do?<\/strong>
\nThe Office of the Correctional Investigator is an independent agency established to address offender complaints (acts as an Ombudsman for federal offenders). The Correctional Investigator conducts investigations into the problems of offenders related to decisions, recommendations, acts or omissions of Corrections Service Canada (CSC) that negatively affect offenders either individually or as a group.<\/p>\n

The Correctional Investigator is interested in ensuring that offender complaints are fairly addressed in a timely fashion. Another role of the Office of the Correctional Investigator is to review and make recommendations on the Correctional Service\u2019s policies to ensure that areas of concern are properly addressed.<\/p>\n

The Office of the Correctional Investigator responds to approximately 5,000 to 6,000 offender complaints each year and will meet with inmate committees, offender and organizations upon request.<\/p>\n

Who Can Make a Complaint<\/strong>
\n1) Federal offenders (incarcerated or in the community).
\n2) An offender on behalf of another offender.
\n3) Family and friends on behalf of an offender.<\/p>\n

How to Make a Complaint?<\/strong>
\na. By Mail:
\nOffice of the Correctional Investigator
\nP.O. Box 3421, Station \u201cD\u201d
\nOttawa ON K1P 6L4<\/p>\n

b. By Telephone:
\n1-877-885-8848 (Toll Free)
\nMonday-Friday: 8:30 \u2013 16:30 EST
\nOutside of regular office hours (evenings, weekends, holidays), you can leave a message on the answering machine.<\/p>\n

c. In Person:
\nDuring scheduled institutional visits by staff of the Office of the Correctional Investigator<\/p>\n

The complaint should include the following information:
\nYour Name
\nFPS Number
\nInstitution or telephone and mailing address
\nA short description of the issue
\nSteps that have been taken to resolve the matter at your institution or within the community
\nAll communications between offenders and the Office of the Correctional Investigator are confidential (including phone conversations). Mail to and from the Office of the Correctional Investigator must be delivered unopened, by law.<\/p>\n

Response Procedure:<\/strong>
\nOnce a complaint is made the office usually takes the following steps:<\/p>\n

Intake and Assessment: Staff at the Office of the Correctional Investigator will prioritize your complaint and may provide you with information about any law and\/or policy which relates to your issue or ask you to try and resolve the matter in other ways.
\nInquiry: Once reviewed the complaint is assigned an investigative staff member, contact may be made with CSC officials try and resolve the complaint quickly. This inquiry will help the investigative staff determine whether or not the CSC\u2019s actions or decisions were fair, appropriate and in compliance with policy and law. If it is determined that the CSC\u2019s actions were appropriate, you will be advised in writing and no further action will be taken.
\nInvestigation: Where it appears that CSC actions or decisions may have been unfair, inappropriate or not in compliance with policy and law, then we will investigate. The investigation may require many steps including:
\nContacting you directly to discuss your complaint;
\nRequesting access to relevant CSC case records, files and decisions;
\nInterviewing involved staff or witnesses;
\nConducting a site visit; and
\nReviewing relevant laws, policies, procedures and guidelines.
\nResponse: If the complaint does not involve an Inquiry, you can expect a response within 15 business days via phone, mail or visitation. If the complaint passes the Inquiry stage, you will receive written notification within approximately 30 business days about whether an investigation will be made. If an investigation is conducted notification may vary but you can expect to receive written notification of the findings within 45 business days.
\nThe Correctional Investigator is committed to resolving offender complaints as quickly as possible. The timelines shown above are the upper limits, and problems may be resolved more quickly. The OCI also ensures that emergency matters are dealt with on a priority basis.<\/p>\n

NOTE: An inmate or their loved one, cannot be disciplined or punished for contacting the Office of the Correctional Investigator. The Correctional Investigator has full freedom of choice in deciding whether to conduct an investigation of an inmate\u2019s complaint.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Correctional Investigator is an independent agency within CSC that has the authority to investigates complaints by inmates. They can investigate make recommendations and resolve the complaints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonpulse.ca\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}