Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Results — Continued

Goal 1: Citizens and communities are protected from crime through:
• adequate, accountable and effective policing;
• community-based crime prevention programs;
• the safe management, supervision and rehabilitation of adult offenders; and,
• support for victims of crime.

Core Business Area:

Policing and Community Safety

Objective 1:

Police efforts are supported by effective technology, policy and governance

Strategies:

1. Enhance integration and consolidation of police services across and within regions while maintaining a commitment to the principles and values of community-based policing, focusing on operations and reducing administrative tasks.

2. Restructure police financing to reduce inequities and support integrated services.

3. Strengthen the policing infrastructure (technology) across the province to improve officer safety, address the changing nature of crime and support local community-based policing.

4. Support the RCMP in its efforts to expand current initiatives aimed at addressing violent, organized and cross-jurisdictional crime.

5. Provide the police with information systems to support quick response and problem-solving.

Implementation of critical policy and technology projects results in policing operations that are more efficient and effective, thereby contributing to achievement of the objective and goal identified above. Through initiatives such as integration, more police resources will be directed towards operations, and activities will be coordinated across broad regions. Through technological innovations like PRIME, police will be able to have information for quick response and problem-solving.³ Greater accountability and effectiveness will also be achieved through improved policing governance.

Projects underway or completed in 2003/04 include: integrating policing on the lower island and the lower mainland; developing PRIME and the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC); assuming responsibility for the management of enhanced road safety programs, developing the province's Amber Alert program; and developing policy for refinancing policing of rural areas and small communities.

Projects planned for 2004/05 and beyond include: supporting security arrangements for the 2010 Olympics; further rolling-out of PRIME; developing legislation to enhance the police complaint process and introduce civil forfeiture of proceeds of crime; and implementing a range of enhanced road safety law enforcement programs to be delivered by an integrated police unit.

Objective 2: Communities have crime prevention and restorative justice programs

Strategy: Fund crime prevention and restorative justice programs for communities.

Communities have opportunities to become safer if they are actively engaged in programs to reduce crime and repair the harm caused by crime. Such programs can involve community groups, schools, youth groups, businesses, service organizations, police and all levels of government.

Community Programs promotes applied research and identification of best practices to assist communities in addressing local problems. Based on these parameters, Community Programs supports and funds the development of crime prevention and restorative justice programs, especially with regard to youth.

Objective 3:

Victims of crime are provided with timely information, assistance and support to reduce the impact of crime

Strategies:

1. Offer support to victims of crime through victim service programs.

2. Provide financial benefits and assistance to victims of crime.

3. Provide training and support to victim service workers.

4. Provide education for first responders, justice system personnel and community partners regarding the needs of victims of crime.

5. Increase public awareness of the services available to victims of crime.

Public demands for coordinated and comprehensive victim services are increasing. Victims continue to seek more acknowledgment of their needs from the criminal justice system and greater protection for the vulnerable. Victims require a range of supports and services as they participate in the justice system.

Through partnerships with organizations and communities, Victims Services provides leadership, advice, training and expertise on victim issues to victim service workers, justice system personnel and community partners.

By administering the Crime Victim Assistance Act, Victim Services also ensures that victims have access to financial assistance and other benefits in a timely manner.

Core Business Area:

Corrections Branch

Objective 4:

Offenders are supervised and managed based on their risk to re-offend

Strategy:

Conduct offender risk/needs assessments to determine appropriate supervision.

To effectively and efficiently supervise offenders while they are under court orders, and to achieve reductions in re-offending behaviour over the long term, it is critical to understand the risk an offender poses to society and how that risk can be best addressed. More than twenty years of correctional research have resulted in the development of standardized assessment tools that can reliably provide this information. By undertaking risk/needs assessments, the Corrections Branch effectively targets its resources towards supervision of offenders that present the highest risk to re-offend.

The following measure provides information on the percentage of offenders for whom risk/needs assessments have been completed. Note that because the Corrections Branch policy allows a sixty-day period for risk/needs assessments to be completed, at any time approximately 10 to 15 per cent of offenders will be new intakes in the process of being assessed.

Objective 5:

Programs are provided designed to reduce the likelihood of re-offending

Strategies:

1. Provide the following core programs to offenders according to their case management plans: Cognitive Skills; Educational Upgrading; Respectful Relationships; Relapse Prevention for Sex Offenders; Substance Abuse Management; and Violence Prevention.

2. Develop Living Skills core program.

Risk/needs assessments are also used to establish case management plans to address the factors known to influence re-offending (e.g., substance abuse, cognitive skills). Correctional research has confirmed that providing programs that target these factors among higher risk offenders can reduce re-offending behaviour. The Corrections Branch has developed and is implementing a number of core programs to address the rehabilitative needs of offenders. The following measure provides information on the short-term outcomes of offender programs designed to reduce the likelihood of re-offending.