After many years of sustained advocacy by the Union of Safety and Justice Employees, the Correctional Service of Canada has agreed to restructure, provide additional staff resources, and strengthen systems to ensure that the complex work of Sentence Management within CSC can be undertaken without compromising the well-being staff or public safety outcomes.
This comes after raising the issues of Sentence Management Officers directly with the Commissioner of CSC at the National Labour Management table and at Senior Executive Meetings over several years and within the Regions at Regional Labour Management Meetings.
In April 2025, USJE made an open plea to CSC to address the issues of Sentence Management Officers and to improve working conditions that had become unbearable. USJE has been actively advocating for the following actions on behalf of all Sentence Management Officers:
- hire more SMOs;
- provide paid overtime to SMOs, as necessary;
- allow for hybrid work which, having proved effective, will diminish the stress on SMOs;
- reduce caseloads to 275 cases per SMO’
- provide 1 CR-4 per SMO;
- Provide sufficient time for SMOs to undertake effective training, and revert to institutionally based SMO caseloads.
As early as 2014-2015, USJE’s National Office was receiving a substantial number of emails and calls from Regional Vice Presidents (RVPs) and members concerned about the workloads of Sentence Management teams owing to developments under the former Harper Government’s Deficit Reduction Action Plan. At that time, certain employee groups within Sentence Management teams were deemed vulnerable and impacted, while at the same time CSC moved to centralize Sentence Management services.
In 2019 – 2020, CSC contracted an external consultant to review current existing organizational structure, work distribution and alignment of priorities to identify work and staff challenges, to validate effective practices in place and to identify areas of improvement. The results of this identified that the current structure did need to be changed.
In 2021-2022, an internal audit of Sentence Management was conducted, that resulted in a number of recommendations that have since been implemented or completed. One of the recommendations surrounded the commitment to review the organizational structure and propose options for consideration to senior management.
It should be noted that, in 2023, a compelling letter was sent by over 90 percent of Sentence Management Officers to CSC identifying that their caseloads were impossible to complete in their regular hours, that they are frequently worked unpaid overtime, and that stress levels had reached a harmful level. Subsequently, USJE undertook its own survey to gain additional insights which were utilized by the National Executive to insist that CSC revisit the current model. Around the same time, CSC was undergoing its internal audit and evaluation to identify specific changes that would make a meaningful difference. This audit was released in March of 2023. USJE’s concerns combined with the audit formed the basis of a productive dialogue between the employer and management.
While USJE would like to see CSC invest more into the work of Sentence Management, it is recognized that the investments that CSC is now planning are a crucial step in the right direction.
USJE has been formally advised that CSC is planning to:
- Increase in the number of Sentence Management Officers (AS-02) from 75 to 90;
- Create a National Team responsible for policies and audits, which will complement the existing national teams dedicated to training and data quality. This will have a significant positive impact on the workload in the regions.
- Review of the positions and job descriptions of the Regional Managers to align the structure with other regional positions.
- Create Administrative Assistant (CR-04) positions.
Once fully approved by CSC, the Director of the Reintegration Operations Division will be working closely with the national and regional managers in order to review work practices and work distribution model to optimize efficiency, develop formal mentoring program for new Sentence Management Officers and Chiefs of Sentence Management, and reconfigure of the Sentence Management training program.
Further, CSC will undertake a comprehensive review of the internal audit program in connection with the creation of the national audit team.
This information was shared with Sentence Management staff in a townhall on February 18th, 2026.
USJE would like to thank all of the Sentence Management Officers that came forward to share their concerns, participated in the USJE survey, and worked with their Regional Vice Presidents to ensure they were well equipped to advocate on their behalf.
USJE will be closely monitoring the impacts of these developments, particularly at a time when the caseloads of Sentence Management Officers have been extremely high. The addition of just 15 SMOs may not be sufficient, but USJE looks forward to getting feedback from the frontline as things evolve.