Correctional Service of Canada Responds to Correctional Investigator’s Annual Report for 2025 to 2026

Today, Talal Dakalbab, the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), issued the following statement:

OTTAWA, October 26, 2026 – Today, Talal Dakalbab, the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), issued the following statement:

“I welcome the Office of the Correctional Investigator’s (OCI) 53rd Annual Report. Its 10-year review gives us an important opportunity to look honestly at where federal corrections has made progress, and where we still have work to do. The report examines several important areas, including conditions of confinement, health care, Indigenous corrections, women’s corrections, and rehabilitation and reintegration.

CSC values the OCI’s independent oversight. External reviews help us see where changes are working, and where the experience on the ground may not yet match what our policies are intended to achieve.  We will carefully review the report’s findings and continue to work openly and constructively with the OCI.

Over the past decade, CSC has made changes in several important areas.  These reforms include Structured Intervention Units, stronger oversight of dry cell placements, body scanner technology, a dedicated policy on sexual coercion and violence, and improvements to complaints and grievance processes. CSC has also strengthened health and mental health services, expanded substance-use treatment and harm reduction, and developed new ways of responding to the needs of an aging population in federal custody. The OCI review also notes progress in areas such as digital education, Indigenous leadership and Pathways initiatives, harm reduction measures, modernization of health services, and stronger responses to sexual coercion and violence.