Social Innovation In the
Criminal Justice System
CCJA 2013
Shawn Tupper
Assistant Deputy Minister
Community Safety and Partnerships Branch
October 4, 2013
Overview
●
The Economics of Public Safety
o The Costs of the Criminal Justice System
o The Story of Tyler
o The Cost - Benefit of Rehabilitation and Treatment
●
●
Addressing Social Issues through Partnerships and Innovation
An Exciting Approach - Social Innovation:
o The End Goal of Sustainability and Our roles
o Challenges And Opportunities
o A Criminal Justice Lens
o Activities at Public Safety Canada
●
The Path Ahead
1
The Economics of Public Safety : The Costs of
the Criminal Justice System
● Canadian CJS: $11B+ annually
● Penitentiary system: $2.2B annually
● $100M in community (5%)
● High-risk offenders in Canada cost society upwards of $1.4M
per case.
2
The Story of Tyler:
Who is Tyler?
A fictional character based on the
prototypical chronic young offender
in Canada. The story of Tyler’s career
is intended to illustrate the risk
factors associated with a criminal
career, the high costs* associated
with chronic offending and how
those costs can be avoided if the
proper interventions are in place.
The High Costs of an Offending Pathway
NO INTERVENTION
INTERVENTION
Age 15
Eg. MST (cost = $4,500)
• 25 to 70% reductions in long-term
rates of arrest
The numbers:
• 125,000 youth were accused of a
Criminal Code offence in 2012
• 55,000 youth were formally charged
(or recommended for charging)
• 5,500 CJS involved youth become
serious, chronic offenders
At a cost of $1.5 million each,
collectively these serious, chronic
offenders would cost Canada over
$8.3 billion.
* Cost estimates in this scenario only
include the tangible costs of crime for the
criminal justice system, health care system,
and social services. Therefore, the estimate
of the total cost of Tyler’s criminal career is
likely undervalued.
INTERVENTION
Age 11
Eg. YIP (cost = $5,500)
• 65% reduction in arrests for youth
at greatest risk
INTERVENTION
Age 6
Eg. SNAP® (cost = $5,800)
• 60% of high-risk participants did
not have a criminal record by the
age of 18
3
The Cost – Benefit of Rehabilitation and
Treatment
●
Rehabilitation Programs produce a NET gain of $10,524 per participant.
●
On average, rehabilitation programs reduced recidivism rates by 6%.
●
Cognitive-Behavioural therapy (CBT; in groups), costs $217 per participant;
benefits of reduced recidivism total $2,588 to taxpayers (lower criminal justice
costs) and $8,153 to crime victims (reduced victimization).
●
Risk: approximately 1% of Programs such as electronic monitoring and
surveillance-oriented programs show the lowest impact on recidivism and costbenefits and even lose money:
-
Analysis based on 36 outcome evaluations from the United States, Canada
and UK
Source: Aos, S. (October, 2011). Reduce Crime & Save Money: Switching from Lower to Higher Return-on-Investment Programs
and Policies. Presentation at the Roundtable on Economic Analysis of Crime Prevention, Ottawa, ON.
4
Addressing Social Issues through Partnerships
and Innovation
● Being aware of the costs to the Criminal Justice System and how we
can address them through a variety of facets is a solid starting point.
● It has become increasingly clear that the Government's role can be
enhanced through newly framed partnerships.
● Government, Non-Government Organizations, and Private Enterprises
are now more than ever, engaged in addressing social issues and a
collaborative approach could increase the effectiveness of all our
efforts.
● The different facets and players are woven together nicely in the
exciting new concept of social innovation.
5
An Exciting approach : Social Innovation
● Social innovations are ideas (products, services and models)
that simultaneously meet social needs (more effectively than
alternatives) and create new social relationships or
collaborations (2010).
● Social innovation is not just about economics but an effective
use of fiscal resources that play a role in contributing to the
social good.
● The Government of Canada is keen on elevating social
innovation as an effective tool to address social issues.
Source : (Open Book of Social Innovation, Murray, Calulier-Grice and Mulgan, 2010).
6
Social Innovation : The End Goal of
Sustainability and Our roles
● Our aim is to implement effective and efficient social innovation
programs that can become sustainable.
● The Federal Government’s role in this area is to encourage and
facilitate synergies and work across all levels, Federal, Provincial,
Municipal, NGO’s, and private sector to develop best practices.
● There is growing interest of the private sector in financing approaches
that create positive social outcomes.
● The innovative expertise of NGO’s can be instrumental in improving
outcomes.
7
Social Innovation : Challenges And
Opportunities
● As Social Innovation is a relatively untested concept at the national
level, it can be quite challenging to get all partners involved.
● Governments are not the experts in this area.
● While there are challenges, the Government encourages increased
consultation that will benefit all involved.
● There needs to be a high degree of trust between all partners if we
want to think innovatively and ensure that we can all benefit.
8
Social Innovation : A Criminal Justice Lens
● Our mission in the Community Safety and Partnerships Branch is
enhancing public safety, in partnership with communities through
effective corrections, crime prevention, and Aboriginal Policing.
● The areas to target when implementing Social Innovation models
in the Criminal Justice Domain are:

Crime Prevention

Reintegration for offenders

Aboriginal Community Safety
9
Social Innovation : Reducing pathways to offending and
victimization, especially among vulnerable youth
Current Activities : Crime Prevention
● Crime prevention is a key component of efforts to address growing
pressures on the criminal justice system.
● Addressing the needs of vulnerable populations, such as youth at risk
including aboriginals, is key to success.
● The National Crime Prevention Strategy which is in many ways a social
innovation program is considering ways to:
 Enhance the vertical and horizontal integration of preventive
interventions
 Scale up and sustain effective prevention efforts
10
Social Innovation : Supporting Successful
Offender Reintegration
Current Activities: Offender Reintegration
●
The recently renewed MOU between Public Safety (PS), Correctional Service
Canada (CSC), and Habitat 4 Humanity Canada (H4HC) sets out the roles and
responsibilities of each partner towards the goal of ensuring, where feasible, the
participation of offenders on parole or work release at each HFH Canada build
site and in each HFH Canada ReStore across Canada.

CSC organizes and provides support and supervision to the
parolee/work release on each build project and in the ReStore position;

HFH Canada trains offenders to work in their operations, and consider
longer-term employment of offenders; and

PS provides overall oversight of the MOU and monitors it to ensure it
remains current and reflective of the roles and responsibilities of the
three partners.
11
Social Innovation : Supporting Successful
Offender Reintegration
Current Activities: Offender Reintegration
● We are supporting the Mennonite Central Committee as they develop a
project which engages inmates of the Stony Mountain Institution in the
production of jewellery which is sold to support a safe-house for victims
of crime. This initiative will test how a prison-based social enterprise of
this nature serves reintegration and reconciliation processes.
● In partnership with Correctional Service Canada, Employment and
Social Development Canada, and the Elizabeth Fry Society we
coordinated a project that provides women ex-offenders in Vancouver
with hands-on roofing-materials recycling training.
12
Social Innovation : Enhancing the safety of
Aboriginal communities
Current Activities : Aboriginal Communities
● We will be hosting two regional workshops in the fall of 2013 on
innovation and policing in Aboriginal communities for community
representatives and police service providers under the First Nations
Policing Program.
● The workshops will build on the Government of Canada’s commitment
to improve public safety in First Nation communities by providing an
opportunity for community leaders, representatives, and police service
providers to learn about, and consider possible uses for innovative
approaches to policing and public safety in FN and Inuit communities.
13
Social Innovation : Future Endeavors
Future Endeavors
•
In partnership with John Howard Canada, we are examining offender
cooperatives as a correctional social innovation model. The model
would provide work programs in prisons that help offenders be
accountable, prepare for release and provide revenues for
restitution, reintegration or other legal obligations.
•
Through partnerships we are examining the area of social enterprise
where a company’s goal is to provide goods and services while also
addressing a social agenda (i.e. coffee shops and catering
businesses operated by offenders). This model could be applied to
offenders within institutions, on conditional release, or post Warrant
Expiry Date.
14
Social Innovation : Future Endeavors
Future Endeavors
•
We are exploring with Correctional Service Canada options that seek
innovative ways to involve offenders in work and skill building activities that
will lead to marketable employment upon offender release.
•
We are exploring the potential of a pilot project that would use community
college mobile trades training centres to deliver certificate programs in areas
of high employment demand to offenders at institutions..
•
We will continue to explore and promote innovative initiatives, such as the
Prince Albert Police Service Community Mobilization project (HUB Model),
within policing models offered under the FNPP. The HUB model takes a
collaborative approach to identifying and responding to problems involving
numerous service providers, including: law enforcement, social services,
health care and the education system.
15
Social Innovation : The Path Ahead
The Path Ahead
•
While some of our work is in the early stages, we will continue
reaching out to our partners through the vast array of programs in
the branch.
•
We are all at different starting points and that is understandable as
the concept of social innovation is quite new. However, we need to
embrace the challenges and opportunities ahead.
16