Black men twice as likely to start at maximum security: CSC

Black men admitted to federal prison between 2015 and 2020 were assessed as maximum security at more than twice the rate of white men, 15 per cent compared with seven per cent, according to research by Correctional Service Canada. The agency told Canada News Media it does not dispute the findings, but said the study was not designed to explain them.

The study, CSC Research Report R-479, followed a group of 13,364 men admitted from April 2015 to March 2020, including 1,907 Black men, until April 1, 2023. It compared Black and white men only. At admission, 25 per cent of Black men were assessed as minimum security, compared with 38 per cent of white men. The medium-security shares were closer, at 60 per cent and 55 per cent.

A security level sets how much control and supervision a person lives under in prison. CSC said maximum security is for people it assesses as presenting the highest level of risk and needing the greatest degree of control and supervision. The report’s authors said more research is needed on how security placement may affect people’s reintegration after release.

The admission figures are not a finding of bias. The report’s published summary gives them without adjusting for other factors, and it says Black men in the study tended to be younger, less likely to be single, serving longer sentences, more likely to have committed a violent offence and more likely to have what CSC calls a Security Threat Group affiliation.

The researchers also looked at the first time a man’s security level was lowered, and the results run in both directions. Among men who had a reduction, a significantly larger share of Black men moved from maximum to medium, 49 per cent compared with 32 per cent of white men. A larger share of white men moved from medium to minimum, 68 per cent compared with 51 per cent of Black men.

On timing, the first reclassification decision came at an average of 515 days for Black men and 486 days for white men, about a month later. When the researchers controlled for factors such as risk and institutional behaviour, they found white men had a greater probability of a security reduction at a faster rate, a difference that became visible about seven months after the first classification. The report said the decisions still met CSC’s policy timelines, which require a review at least once every two years for people at medium or maximum security.

In a statement on Nov. 3, CSC said it “acknowledges the disparities identified in Research Report R-479 and does not dispute the findings.” It said it “recognizes the impacts of anti-Black racism, systemic racism and discrimination” and is committed to identifying and addressing barriers that may affect outcomes for Black people.

CSC said the two groups differed on factors including age, sentence length, offence profile and Security Threat Group affiliation, and that some differences in outcomes remained after the study accounted for factors including risk and institutional behaviour. “The study was not designed to identify the causes of these disparities,” the statement said. “As a result, the findings demonstrate that differences exist, but they do not establish why they occur.” CSC said it continues to examine the classification process, including how information is gathered and interpreted and how professional judgment is applied.

CSC said classification decisions are made individually and consider institutional adjustment, escape risk and public safety risk. Its Custody Rating Scale, a tool used to help set the first security level, informs that assessment but does not determine the final level on its own, the agency said. A separate 2023 CSC study found the scale has predictive validity for Black men at intake, meaning higher ratings were linked to more institutional incidents and charges. Its accuracy was lower for men returning to prison after a revoked release. That study’s published summary does not compare Black men with other groups.

The federal government gave CSC $7.9 million over two years for its Black Offender Strategy, announced Feb. 25, 2025, with the implementation plan for Canada’s Black Justice Strategy, a 10-year framework that followed an external steering group’s 114 recommendations.

CSC said the money supports culturally responsive interventions and services, community connections, reintegration supports, staff training, a National Black Health Strategy, research and evaluation. It said it expects to begin national implementation of Black Social History in the coming months, building on an Ontario pilot. The approach brings historical, social and systemic factors affecting Black people into case management and decision-making.

CSC did not say whether the funding is confirmed beyond the two years, or whether figures newer than the study exist. It did not provide the most recent figures by race that we requested on structured intervention units, use of force and parole grants. Its Oct. 26 statement on the correctional investigator’s annual report said it is advancing “targeted strategies for Black offenders” without describing them, and its reply to us did not address that phrase separately.

The government said in 2025 it “will continue to provide updates on progress and outcomes” on the strategy. Justice Canada’s strategy page, last modified May 22, 2026, and its publications page listed the plan, the steering group’s report and funding announcements, but no progress report, when we read them on Nov. 3. Its next-steps page lists reporting on outcomes as later phases of the plan and gives no dates. The absence of a report on those pages does not show that no work has been done.

Justice Canada did not respond by the Nov. 3 deadline to questions sent Oct. 28 about progress reporting, the 114 recommendations and funding after the first two years.

The Office of the Correctional Investigator, the federal prison watchdog, also did not respond by the deadline to questions sent Oct. 28 about its latest annual report and whether CSC has carried out its past recommendations on Black prisoners. R-479 says it was prompted by the watchdog’s 2020-21 annual report, which found Black people overrepresented in maximum security and underrepresented in minimum security. We have not been able to review how the 2025-26 report treats the issue.

Black people made up 11 per cent of people in federal custody as of Oct. 26, 2025, according to a CSC research brief that we reported on last month, compared with 4.3 per cent of Canada’s population in the 2021 Census. Among people serving indeterminate sentences, the same brief found 28 per cent of Black people were at maximum security, compared with 18 per cent of everyone else, while 38 per cent carried a first-degree murder flag, compared with 26 per cent. The brief reports those differences without saying what causes them.

For readers, the research establishes that the gaps exist in CSC’s own numbers and that the agency accepts them. It does not establish discrimination, and it does not rule it out. It covers men admitted up to March 2020, so it does not show whether the gaps have since changed.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.

How we did this. We read CSC’s published summaries of Research Report R-479 (2024) and R-474 (2023), not the full reports, along with CSC research brief 25-33 and Justice Canada’s strategy pages. The 2.1-times comparison is our division of CSC’s 15 per cent by seven per cent. In the R-479 summary, the two reduction percentages add to 100 within each group, and the counts behind them (154 and 161 Black men, 460 and 974 white men) indicate they are splits among men who had a reduction, not shares of all men who started at that level. The summary lists 11,727 white men, which does not add up with 1,907 Black men to the stated total of 13,364, so we do not rely on that count. R-479 compares Black and white men only, so its 14.3 per cent Black share cannot be compared with the 11 per cent custody figure. We sent questions to CSC, Justice Canada and the Office of the Correctional Investigator on Oct. 28, with a deadline of Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. ET. CSC replied by statement, and its acknowledgment of our request and its full statement are kept on file.

Sources: CSC R-479; CSC R-474; CSC research brief 25-33; Justice Canada news release, Feb. 25, 2025; Canada’s Black Justice Strategy.

Edited by Harry Miller