Department Releases Terms of Reference

The Department of Justice today, April 16, announced the terms of reference for an independent external audit of the policies and procedures of correctional facilities in Nova Scotia.

The terms of reference are as follows:

The audit will assess, report on and make recommendations with respect to the adequacy of Nova Scotia Correctional Services safety and security policies and procedures and staffing in adult correctional facilities in areas related to the following:

• Prisoner escorts outside of the facility for hospital and other appointments.
• Admission and release procedures to ensure that errors are not made with respect to the either the acceptance or early release from custody.
• Use of restraints for offender control including type, training and application based on security level.
• Use of intermediate weapons such as pepper spray, batons and Tasers by staff conducting offender transfers outside of the facility.
• Adequacy of safety and security-related training procedures.
• Assessment of circumstances and response to mistaken releases and escapes since April 1, 2007.
• Review of the recent internal audit of Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility and the action steps in response.
• Review of Nova Scotia response to increased adult inmate count.
• Provide advice on any other matters around operations or public safety that emerge from the audit.

The audit will be conducted by Deloitte and led by Saad Rafi, a former deputy minister of Public Safety and Policing Services in Ontario. He will be obtaining best practices from across Canada. It is expected that the audit will completed by fall. Audit findings will be released publicly.