The stated capacity of our institutions ranges from 78 to 501 inmates, with an average of 259. In terms of the actual numbers of inmates housed in our institutions at any one time, the headcount sometimes exceeds the capacity of the institution. In any one institution, the number of inmates who were double-bunked ranged from two to 160. The Correctional Service of Canada offers a variety of educational, vocational, occupational and personal development programs in most of its institutions. The average number of programs offered is quite close across the three institutional security levels.
Most programs focus on the personal development of offenders.
The Regional Psychiatric Centres in the Pacific and Prairie regions and the Regional Treatment Centre in Ontario provide the greatest number of personal development programs for inmates. The institutional profile also contains information on the age of inmates and the length of sentences. Almost half the inmates in minimum-security institutions are 35 years of age or older. As shown in Figure 3, approximately one third of inmates in minimum-security institutions are serving sentences of less than three years. A similar proportion of inmates in minimum-security institutions also serve sentences of three to five years on average.