Summary of the Evaluation of the Indigenous Community Corrections Initiative

About the Program

Close-up of a person's arm holding a native drum, with a nature background

Indigenous offenders continue to be disproportionately represented at all levels of the Canadian criminal justice system and the federal government is committed to addressing this over-representation of Indigenous people.

The Indigenous Community Corrections Initiative (ICCI) was created to help close the gaps in service for Indigenous Peoples in the criminal justice system and address the government commitment to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action, in particular actions 30 and 32 regarding the over-representation of Indigenous offenders in custody.

The objectives of the Initiative are to support the development of alternatives to custody and to provide reintegration support for Indigenous offenders. Public Safety was allocated $10M over 5 years in Budget 2017 for ICCI and funded 16 projects.

What We Examined

The purpose of the evaluation was to examine the relevance, design and implementation, and performance of the ICCI. The evaluation covered the three year period from fiscal year 2017-18 to 2019-20. The evaluation used multiple lines of evidence to ensure triangulation of findings.

Evaluation Findings

Recommendations

The Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Safety and Countering Crime Branch, should, as part of program renewal:

  1. Assess project selection criteria, with the goal of including projects aligned with GBA+ considerations.
  2. Engage with inter-departmental stakeholders to support projects in liaising with provincial and/or federal correctional systems to better support projects' activities.
  3. Assess performance measurement and reporting requirements at both the program and recipient level in line with an updated performance measurement strategy.
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