Canada’s federal prison system is fundamentally incapable of delivering long-term mental-health treatment to the people who need it most, according to a sweeping new report from Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger. Weak policies, inadequate staff training, ineffective screening, and a lack of specialized treatment options have created a system in which incarcerated individuals with severe psychiatric needs are left without proper care — and often in situations that violate human rights, the watchdog warns.
In his latest annual report, Zinger says the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) remains “abundantly clear[ly]” ill-equipped to manage inmates experiencing acute psychiatric distress, ongoing suicidal ideation, or chronic self-harm. While prisoners with complex physical health needs — such as heart surgery or chemotherapy — are routinely transferred to external hospitals, those with equally complex psychiatric needs are often forced to rely on under-resourced in-house treatment centres that cannot provide the level of care required.
“It would be unthinkable to attempt such [medical] procedures in-house,” Zinger writes. “Yet, when it comes to mental health, CSC continues to operate under the misguided belief that it can provide specialized psychiatric care internally.”
The report is based on six national investigations, 425 interviews with inmates and individuals on conditional release, institutional visits, and consultations with CSC staff, Indigenous organizations, community stakeholders and provincial correctional authorities. Across the board, Zinger’s office found outdated or missing policies, unclear procedures, poor training, and systemic failures in screening and assessment that prevent people from accessing needed services.
Programming and long-term treatment options were also found to be severely lacking, undermining rehabilitation and making successful reintegration far more difficult.
One of the most troubling findings concerns CSC’s five Regional Treatment Centres, hybrid facilities that straddle the line between federal penitentiaries and provincial psychiatric hospitals. Except for the Prairie region’s dedicated psychiatric centre, all are located inside larger prisons. Zinger says these centres function more like intermediate or geriatric care wards, lacking the emergency mental-health capacity needed for people in crisis. They should be reprofiled accordingly, he argues.
At a news conference, Zinger — who plans to retire at the end of January — said Canada’s prison system was never designed for individuals living with serious mental illness. “Simply put, these facilities are outdated, ill-equipped and increasingly resemble warehouses for the mentally ill and for aging and medically vulnerable individuals,” he said.
He calls for federal inmates with acute or long-term psychiatric needs to be transferred under Section 29 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to secure, external psychiatric hospitals — not kept in CSC-run treatment centres that cannot meet clinical standards.
Zinger also criticizes the federal government’s plan to build a $1.3-billion health-care facility in Dorchester, N.B., calling it a “profound misallocation of resources.” He argues that instead of expanding in-house infrastructure, Ottawa should direct CSC to partner with provinces to increase access to secure psychiatric beds in community hospitals.
CSC, in its response, says its system is designed to match services to individual needs and notes that its Regional Treatment Centres are accredited by Accreditation Canada, the same body that accredits community hospitals. It also highlights an existing partnership with Montreal’s Institut Philippe-Pinel for inpatient psychiatric care and says it is conducting a “comprehensive review” of its treatment centres to standardize services.
Still, Zinger warns that untreated mental-health conditions not only violate prisoners’ rights — they also jeopardize public safety by releasing people back into the community without adequate support. Advocacy groups, including the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, say the report underscores how marginalized and vulnerable individuals are often criminalized instead of given the help they need.
In a climate where “tough on crime” rhetoric dominates, executive director Emilie Coyle says society too often forgets that those behind bars are frequently the ones most in need of mental-health and addictions care.
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