Reflections from a New CAC Member- Tonia Robinson

CAC Annual General Meeting – Ontario Region – August 24, 2012

Reflections from a New CAC Member- Tonia Robinson

It was a distinct honor to attend our Citizen’s Advisory Committee Annual General Meeting- Ontario Region August 24^th, 2012.  The day commenced promptly at 8:30am and ended at 4:00pm. Former CAC Regional Chair, Sharon Mitchel welcomed us and announced her resignation -we celebrated her leadership and years of dedication. At 12:30 we voted our new Regional Chair CAC, Murray Lincoln- who a fortunate coincidence for us- happens to be related to one of America’s most distinguished President’s Abraham Lincoln. We had the honor of having Assistant Deputy Commissioner-Corporate Services Bruce Somers present. Stephen Hogan gave us our Regional update and we ended the afternoon with a round table discussion and closing remarks by Murray Lincoln.

Just as a quick snippet of our meeting- there were three significant aspects highlighted in our AGM:-

1.            Training provided by the CSC for the CAC on that day (24/08/12)

2.            Membership growth and retention

3.            Advocacy for more funding of programs that work

Training provided by the CSC for the CAC (24/08/12)

-                      Detector Dog Program (Rolland Lapierre, NHQ Security, Don Thompson, RHQ Security, Michel Coderre, Manager CBSA, Craig Farrish, Dog Handler and his dog ‘Charlie’ presented how the program works to us. There was a video presentation and a live presentation.

-                      Craig Farrish and his dog ‘Charlie’ were definitely the crowds favorites as ‘Charlie’ successfully located the pseudo narcotics and we observed his behaviour change when he approached the “cone of scent”- the detection of the pseudo narcotics.

Membership Growth and retention

-                      More information sharing about what we do as a Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) to the public.

-                      More pooling of our resources and referring our professional and personal networks to join our CAC.

-                      Finding ways to show our members appreciation

-                      Creating projects and team building exercises

-                      Monitoring the outcomes of our CAC and sharing these testimonials.

Advocacy for funding programs that work

-                      Whilst we face lean budgetary times within the Corrections Services Canada and the CAC we advocate for appropriation of the budget to funding our programs that benefit our community. Particularly those that assist with successful reintegration of parolees to our communities and also support the well-being of our parole/institution staff. We will ensure that we document our community activities that impact our action plan- stakeholders, training, awareness, partnerships, employment and recruitment.

In conclusion, this was my first AGM and it was a very informative and beneficial meeting. Special thanks to Dianne Anthony,  who not only organized a social for us the night before at her home but also organized our meeting and worked with Sharon Mitchell to ensure we had all our information packages and were fully aware of the necessary changes and approaches to positively addressing these changes. I look forward to working with our newly appointed Regional Chair for our CAC Murray Lincoln and our CAC team and stakeholders. Murray has vast leadership experience and a successful track record volunteering within Corrections Services Canada. Please consider joining our CAC today! Contact Murray Lincoln at Ontario.cac@gmail.com for further information.

Recycling Program that has been launched in Millhaven - Reported by Tess Kot

Tess Kot is involved as a CAC Member at Millhaven Institution in Ontario.  At our recent CAC AGM Tess reported on the new Recycling Program that has been launched in Millhaven – and the J Unit in particular.

Hi Murray,

I love the website- way to go with getting it organized so quickly.

I would love to share Millhaven's wonderful recycling story.

I approached the Warden Curtis Jackson in January 2011 about a recycling program to include J unit offenders. He was very supportive and told me that would be my pet project and to 'run with it', so I did.

I called all the different institutions in Ontario and the Maximum Institutions in Canada to get information, insight, and any help they could offer. Many gave me contact information in the Federal Government to find out about any possible financial assistance.

From there I contacted our Environmental Safety Officer (they have changed a few times over the past 19 months).  I have been now working with Suzanne Ronan to get this going.

We met several times with the Head of Maintenance, Larry Leeder, to get information concerning bins etc.

Suzanne has been instrumental by working with the Unions concerning any safety or security issues. I have to honestly say that Suzanne has been phenomenal in getting this program actually up and running in the J unit.

There are signs displayed around J unit with recycling as well as on the Teledon- the internal information channel available on offender televisions.

There are now recycling bins for aluminum pop cans in every range and an inmate has been hired on a part time basis. That is the norm for new employment so inmates can participate in school and programs. 

He collects and disposes of the cans in the appropriate recycling bins. The program has been actively running for only a couple of months during which time we have only hit a few minor bumps.

The J unit offenders are very happy about the recycling program as they too have been asking for one for quite a while. The offenders are quite pleased that Habitat for Humanity is benefiting from this program as many offenders want to give back to the community and this is one very concrete way to accomplish that.

We have pop can collection at all inmate functions with the staff being very supportive in our recycling project. We are hoping to include plastic bottles sometime next year but with all the changes in Corrections only time will tell what happens with this project.

I cannot express my appreciation enough to the wonderful staff and especially to Suzanne Ronan for finally getting this recycling program up and running. Without her assistance and persistence this never could have happened. I have always believed that the CAC and CSC are a team and together we can accomplish anything.

Thanks Murray and I hope you enjoyed our story.

Take care

Tess

BTW I am not sure how many pop cans makes 26 pounds but it must be quite a few and that is 26 pounds less garbage!

Welcome to Our New CAC Ontario Blog

Today, August 25, 2012, is the Launch Date for the Ontario CAC Blog http://cac-ontario.blogspot.ca/

We hope this Blog will become an encouragement to each of CAC members across our Province of Ontario. Their work is very much appreciated as they work as volunteers within the various Correctional Facilities and in the communities across the Province.

You will be able to read the accounts of the work that the CACs across Ontario are doing – as we celebrate with the local CAC Group the results of the work that they are doing. 

You may also read of some of the difficult issues that the volunteers face.

If you are not yet part of a CAC group and would be interested to get involved in your area, please email me and I will try my best to help you make the connections. We appreciate so much the great volunteers that we have and would love to have more join our “Team CAC”.

Thank you for all that you do.

Murray Lincoln

Chair of the Ontario Region CAC

Email – ontario.cac@gmail.com

705-760-9389

A Message from Commissioner Don Head

On behalf of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) members, for your work in helping us advance our correctional agenda and deliver public safety results for Canadians.

Every day across Canada, as CAC volunteer members, you help guide us in our efforts to create safer institutions and contribute to public safety.

As informed participants in the correctional process, you are charged with not only representing the views of the communities in which we operate, but also in representing CSC’s mandate and values to the community. By actively engaging community support, you help bridge the gap between offenders in correctional facilities and the community.

As such, CSC benefits two-fold from the participation of CACs in our daily work. We benefit from your objective and impartial advice about our work with offenders, and we benefit from your work as ambassadors for the organization in the community.

We sincerely appreciate the value of your contributions, and see the real results of your efforts reflected in the improvements you make to the lives of offenders, and in communities across the country.

Don Head
Commissioner