REGINA -- An increase in the number of people on remand in Saskatchewan is problematic, not only for the prisoners themselves but also for the correctional facilities that house them.

On Tuesday, Statistics Canada released a report looking at adult and youth incarceration rates, noting the overall national rate was up two per cent year over year, accounting for those in both pre- and post-sentence custody.

Saskatchewan’s adult incarceration rate is the highest among Canadian provinces at 181 per 100,000, even though that is a one-per-cent decline from the previous year. Likewise, Saskatchewan’s youth incarceration rate is the highest among provinces, coming in at 26 per 10,000, a six-per-cent increase.

Meanwhile, remand numbers are increasing across the country. Nationally, the number of adults on remand went up eight per cent while Saskatchewan doubled that figure to 16 per cent. Saskatchewan had 553 inmates on remand versus 810 in sentenced custody (which saw an eight-per-cent year-over-year drop).

Although national figures show more youths are now on remand than in sentenced custody, Saskatchewan did not follow that pattern, with 96 on remand versus 134 in sentenced custody (which saw a three-per-cent decline). Even so, that is a 16-per-cent increase in the number of prisoners on remand.

That increase in remanded prisoners could be due to a number of things, explained criminal lawyer Jeff Deagle.

“Part of it could be systemic and that is there’s a longer wait time for courts and court dates,” he said. “Of course just recently in the provincial court here, we were setting out-of-custody docket for almost 12 months in advance and in-custody months in advance.”

He said there are also more disclosure problems, meaning bail hearings, preliminary hearings and trials may have to be set further down the road until all the needed information is gathered. He added changing policy making it harder to get release on certain offences may mean Crown prosecutors are not as likely to negotiate on pre-sentence release.

He agreed there are cases where some offenders use the remand system to their benefit, knowing most judges grant two-for-one credit on remand time -- meaning less jail time following sentencing -- but Deagle said he believes that type of attitude is likely more the exception than the rule.

“I think there’s definitely a strategic part to it from an offender’s perspective,” he said. “In fairness, the ones that are probably doing that are likely the ones that if they were to run a bail hearing would probably lose anyway … And it’s certainly within the discretion of the court that if that’s what is visibly going on, they don’t have to give you two-for-one credit.”

Meanwhile, provincial correctional facilities are having to cope with the larger number of prisoners.

“Generally we know that inmate counts are rising, so in terms of just generally having to have available space for them and the crowding that we’ve been experiencing in the Saskatchewan corrections system relates both to remanded offenders and to the sentenced population,” said Judy Orthner, spokeswoman for Corrections, Public Safety and Policing.

“But there are some aspects of managing our remanded population that do create specific challenges, one of them being that the correctional centres as they were built previously didn’t take into account large numbers of remanded offenders.”

The new Regina Correctional Centre contains a remand unit specifically designed for that population.

hpolischuk@leaderpost.canwest.com