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By Gerry Wickstead

COURT DECISIONS and ADMISSIONS TO PRISON

Cases by Decision in Canada, 2003/04

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 85-002, Volume 24, no.12 Page 16

Adult Criminal Court Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada

“Do to rounding, percentages may not add to 100.

Found Guilty decisions include absolute discharge and conditional discharges.

The calculation of “found guilty’ includes cases completed in superior courts in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon.

Stay/withdrawn includes cases stayed, withdrawn. Dismissed and discharged at preliminary inquiry.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the terms ‘acquittal’ and ‘dismissed’ are used interchangeably.

Other decisions includes final decisions of found not criminally responsible, waived in provincial/ territory, or waived out of province/territory.  This category also includes decisions where a guilty finding was not recorded, the court accepted a special plea, cases which raised Charter arguments or cases where the accused was found unfit to stand trial.  In jurisdictions not providing superior court data  (ie. Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan), the other decision category includes charges having a committal for trial in superior court as the decision on the final appearance in provincial court (<2% of cases).

Information from Quebec’s municipal courts (which account for approximately one quarter of Criminal Code charges in that province) are not available.

Adult Criminal Court Survey data are not reported by Manitoba, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and superior courts in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.”

Cases by Decision in Canada, 2002/03

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 85-002, Volume 24, no.12 Page 16

Adult Criminal Court Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada

Average count of Persons in Provincial sentenced Custody 

and held in Remand  between 1993/94 and 2002/03

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 85-002, Volume 24, no. 10 page 5

In British Columbia, on average each day in 2002/03 there were 454 less persons in provincial custody then in 1993/94.   

There were 349 more people in Remand custody in 2002/03 compared to 1993/94

Please note that in Quebec, the sentenced custody count for 1993/94 includes offenders serving intermittent sentences, while the count for 2001/02 and 2002/03 does not, and therefore comparisons between 1993/94 and 2001/02 or 2002/03 should not be performed.

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Adult Correctional Services Survey

Admissions to Provincial Custody 1998/99 to 2002/03

Source: Statistics Canada, Catalogue no 85-002, Volume 24, no. 10 Pages 24 and 25

Between 2001/02 and 2002/03 there were 523 less offenders sentenced to Provincial prisons.

In 2002/03 British Columbia sentenced 888 less offenders to provincial prison than in 1998/99.

‘Other temporary detention’ denotes pre-court lock-ups in a correctional facility, which is a new category beginning in 1999/00. (Includes people arrested and held for a few hours in a provincial correctional facility before attending court and being released by the Courts.)

Note: the method of calculation of admission to custody can be different from one province to another.  

Thus, interjurisdictional comparisons should be made with caution.

Average Daily Count of Offenders in Provincial Custody

On-Register and Actual-In, by Inmate Status, 1999/00 to 2001/02

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 85-211 Page 18

In 2001/02 on average there were 352 less prisoners a day in BC provincial prisons compared to 1999/00. (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nfld. all had increases)

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