Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question, asked by Mrs. Marie-Jewell on March 18, 1993, regarding temporary release policies for inmates.

Sections 115 to 118 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (Canada), section 33 of the Corrections Act (NWT), and regulations made pursuant to that act govern temporary absences. The granting of a temporary absence follows the principle that the least amount of restriction necessary to protect the public and to maintain control of the correctional centre should be imposed on offenders. Temporary absences may be granted for humanitarian reasons, for release planning, for educational or work related reasons.

Corrections service division's adult operations manual directive 11.02 defines how temporary absence shall be employed in the Northwest Territories. Provision 4.1 states that a warden can approve temporary absences after appointment as a warden, and upon designation as a signing authority by the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. Provision 4.3 states that the warden may waive eligibility requirements if, in the opinion of the warden, the temporary absence is in the rehabilitative interest of the offender.

The factors considered in granting a temporary absence include review of the offender's criminal history, the length of time between offenses, the nature of the offenses, the objective of temporary absence, the offender's performance in the correction centre programs, a community assessment if required, and any other information considered to be of importance by the warden, classification officer or program coordinator.

An offender may appeal a decision made by a warden not to grant temporary absence to the director of the corrections service division. This is a rare occurrence and no offender is known to have appealed the granting or refusal to grant a temporary absence.

The responsibilities of wardens are such that they routinely make important decisions regarding the daily operations of the correction centre and the handling of critical situations. Judgment calls by line managers are scrutinized as required but pre-clearance of those judgement calls are not made is all cases. The wardens have the experience, knowledge of the offenders and familiarity with situations as they occur operationally to have the responsibility for those decisions vested in them.

The actions and conduct of wardens are reviewed as part of performance appraisals which are completed by the director of the corrections service division. Wardens meet with the director of the corrections service division a number of times each year. Thank you.