DCHP-2

mandatory supervision DCHP-2 (August 2016)

• n. — Law (obsolete), continued in news reporting

  the final period of a criminal sentence (usually the last third) when an inmate is released from prison to serve the remainder of the sentence under supervision.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — In Canada, the general sense of mandatory supervision took on a narrow legal sense. Early release from prison on mandatory supervision could not be denied (see the 1992 quotation) unless an offender breached release conditions or was deemed a dangerous offender. The term mandatory supervision was replaced by statutory release under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (1992). It applies to all prisoners who are not serving life or indefinite sentences. However, since all prisoners on conditional release are supervised, the term mandatory supervision in its general rather than legal sense still applies to their condition. Mandatory supervision differed from parole (as does statutory release) because the Parole Board does not determine the release date, although it can apply to detain a prisoner under certain conditions.
  In the US the term is more frequent, see Chart 1, but the legal sense of the term as applied in different jurisdictions is different from its Canadian legal sense. See also Parole Board of Canada reference, "History of Parole in Canada". In the legal system, mandatory release was replaced by statutory release in 1992. It is granted automatically to those serving non-life and non-indefinite sentences whose parole was denied or who did not apply, unless the risk for re-offending is considered high.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "mandatory supervision", which is labelled "Cdn". Not listed in Gage-5 and ITP Nelson.

  See also: dangerous offender  day release  gate ((v.))  day parole  

  • 1972  Parole refusal strengthened the argument for mandatory supervision on release as a protection to society. A man had nothing to fear from such supervision unless he intended to commit another crime. 
  • 1980  He was released on Jan. 3, on mandatory supervision under a law that allows convicts to earn as much as a third of their sentence in remission and serve that time outside of jail. 
  • 1992  Thornton was sentenced to two years and nine months and was released on mandatory supervision on Sept. 29. The parole board's Debra Kihara said mandatory supervision -- where a prisoner finishes the last third of his sentence in the community -- is a right: "It is an entitlement by law." 
  • 2005  Most federal inmates are paroled or released from prison on mandatory supervision partway through their sentences and must comply with certain conditions for the rest of the time. 
  • 2006  He also won prolonged applause for his campaign promises to crack down on parole and do away with mandatory supervision, the practice of releasing most convicts after two-thirds of their sentences. 
  • 2013  Bouvier, however, is concerned that Clifton will eventually receive an absolute discharge from the review board, meaning there will be no restrictions on his travel, nor mandatory supervision from a health authority. As a public safety measure, he'd like to see a law that would require random drug testing or the forced administration of medication on the NCR mentally ill who have demonstrated violent tendencies.