Summary
The effective functioning of Alberta’s criminal justice system has been impacted by a number of recent internal and external factors. These include:
- as of 2017, Crown prosecutors conduct all first-appearance bail hearings of in-custody accused
- precedent-setting court rulings, such as the fixed time limits for criminal trials to be concluded as a result of the Supreme Court of Canada 2016 R vs Jordan decision
- changes to the Criminal Code of Canada
Objective and Scope
This audit examines two important processes within Alberta’s adult prosecution system: bail hearings and case management related to the Jordan ruling and its related triage protocol process.
Conclusion
While the department has adequately designed systems and processes to manage bail hearings and case management of adult criminal prosecutions, we made three recommendations where improvement is needed.