Weekend remand admissions and case review in Saskatoon

In 2017, the Saskatchewan Government implemented a new early case resolution program whereby weekend remand admissions cases for those remanded to the Saskatoon Correctional Centre were reviewed on Sunday by a Crown Prosecutor and Legal Aid weekend duty counsel. This early case resolution program, the Weekend Project, aimed to improve the number of meaningful first court appearances in Saskatoon on Mondays. The examination of short-term remand admissions and discharges at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre revealed that the average Monday discharge rate for those admitted on the previous Friday, Saturday, and Sunday increased to 31% during the treatment period of January 6 to May 31, 2017, from 18% during the control period of January 8 to May 31, 2016. In comparison, there were no statistically significant changes in the average Monday discharge rate for the Regina Correctional Centre, for which there was no weekend case review program. The results also suggest that up to 73 remand person-days were saved over the 18-week treatment period in early 2017.