B.C. custody programs

There are many programs and services available to you while you are serving your sentence in a provincial correctional centre.

Correctional officers in BC Corrections’ Adult Custody Division facilitate behavioural, educational and work programs to help change individuals’ thinking and behaviour. Some are programs specifically created to meet the needs of Indigenous individuals.

Some of the behavioural programs available to sentenced individuals in provincial custody include

• Substance Abuse Management - Uses practical strategies to reduce the negative consequences of substance abuse, ranging from safer use, to managed use to abstinence
• Relationship Violence Prevention - Helps individuals identify abusive behaviour, understand its harmful impact and learn how to avoid it in relationships
• Forensics Sexual Offence Program - Delivered by Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission to teach self-management skills that reduce risk factors
• Thinking Leads 2 Change - A program for medium and high-risk women to explore the roots of their thoughts, beliefs and emotions that led to their anti-social or criminal behaviours
• Educational upgrading - Provides adult basic education to high school graduation
• Essential Skills to Success -  A series of interactive modules that help remanded and sentenced individuals develop the essential life skills people need to succeed at work and in learning, such as communications skills, goal setting and resume writing

Depending on the centre, the programs and services available in custody may also include:

• Chaplaincy - Provides spiritual support through multi-faith services and counselling
• Indigenous programs - Indigenous cultural liaisons and Elders help Indigenous individuals connect or reconnect with their culture and community through one-on-one and group activities, spiritual ceremonies and other traditional activities like singing and drumming, and arts and crafts. They also deliver cultural awareness programming to individuals from other ethnicities to help foster peace and understanding
• Work programs - There are many opportunities for work skills training in provincial correctional centres