Conservative Prison Building

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11 March 2011

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Conservative Prison-building Plans

As the Canadian government moves forward with

building new prisons religious communities warn

locking up more prisoners is counterproductive

As part of the get-tough-on-crime agenda Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives passed the so-called Truth in Sentencing Act into law in February 2010. In essence, it means that those convicted of crimes will spend longer behind bars effectively increasing a prison population that is already exceeding the capacity to house them.

Building New Prisons

The government’s solution to the overcrowding problem is to build more jails. QMI Agency reports (January 13, 2011) that, “Eight prisons across the country will be expanded as part of the federal government’s five-year, $2.1-billion prison-building boom.”

Parliamentary Budget Chief Kevin Page questions to cost estimate put forward by the Harper government. Stephanie Levitz of Canadian Press (June 23, 2010) quotes Page as saying the tougher rules “could raise total prison costs to $9.5 billion a year in 2015-2016 from $4.4 billion this year. It could require the construction of as many as a dozen new prisons.”

Religious Leaders Say Incarceration not a Solution

The Church Council on Justice and Corrections (CCJC) is a group that represents 11 Christian denominations, including Anglicans, Mennonites, Lutherans, Quakers, the United Church, and the Salvation Army.

In December 2010, the CCJC, together with The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter to Prime Minister Harper strongly opposing the government’s justice policies.

In part the letter states: “Proposed new federal laws will ensure that more Canadians are sent to prison for longer periods, a strategy that has been repeatedly proven neither to reduce crime nor to assist victims.”

Most Inmates Need not be in Prison

The CCJC letter says that the majority of people behind bars (78%) are non-violent offenders who could be adequately supervised in the community. The group points out that it costs $101,666 a year to keep an inmate in prison versus $24,825 to have them living outside jail under supervision.

“These offenders,” writes the CCJC, “are disproportionately poor, ill-equipped to learn, from the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups. They require treatment, health services, educational, employment, and housing interventions, all less expensive and more humane than incarceration.”

Many Inmates Are Mentally Ill

According to Kirk Makin (Globe and Mail, January 22, 2011) “Recent figures indicate that nearly 35 percent of the 13,300 inmates in federal penitentiaries have a mental impairment requiring treatment.” He adds that this is three times higher than seven years earlier and that “the mentally impaired often go untreated, sometimes languishing in isolation 23 hours a day.”

In a report a few days later (Globe and Mail, January 27, 2010) Makin notes that “Female offenders are twice as likely as their male counterparts to be diagnosed with a mental-health condition when they’re admitted to prison, according to a recent report by the federal Correctional Investigator.”

Longer Sentences Increase Crime

In its letter to the Prime Minister the CCJC writes that “by increasing the number of people in jail for lengthier sentences you are decreasing their chance of success upon release into the community.”

The group points out that strategies other than imprisonment exist for dealing with convicted criminals, such as, supportive housing, counselling, employment training, mental health treatment, literacy programs, and supervised bail and release.

“Their outcomes,” writes the CCJC, “have proven to be the same or better in terms of re-offence rates, at a fraction of the cost and with much less human damage.”

This is a sentiment echoed by Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson (June 29, 2010) who says released inmates simply become more resentful and angrier the longer they are held behind bars.

Simpson is highly critical of the government’s approach, writing: “There’s a difference between being ‘tough on crime,’ as the federal Conservatives profess to be, and being stupid about crime, which is what they are.”

Image credits

AlisonD1975

Kevin Rosseel

Sources

“Truth in Sentencing Act Comes Into Effect.” CBC News, February 23, 2010.

“Ottawa Moving ahead with Prison Expansion.” QMI Agency, January 13, 2011.

“New Law to Send Prison Spending Soaring to $9.5B, Watchdog Says.” Stephanie Levitz, Canadian Press, June 23, 2010.

“Why Canada’s Prison’s can’t Cope with Flood of Mentally Ill Inmates.” Kirk Makin, Globe and Mail, January 22, 2011.

“Incarcerated, in Pain.” Kirk Makin, Globe and Mail, January 27, 2010.

“The True Costs of ‘Truth in Sentencing,’ ” Jeffrey Simpson, Globe and Mail, June 29, 2010.

CONTEMPT

OF PARLIAMENT

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Peter Milliken has ruled (March 2011) that the Harper government is in contempt of Parliament for withholding cost estimates over its prison-building program.

The Conservatives have refused to release details of the prison-building costs to a parliamentary committee. This, says Speaker Milliken goes to the core of the role of MPs which is to hold the executive branch of government – Cabinet and the Prime Minister – to account for its actions. By being denied relevant financial figures Parliament cannot fulfil its role as an overseer of government spending.

Mr. Milliken writes that, “This is a serious matter that goes to the heart of the House’s undoubted role in holding the government to account.”

An editorial in the Vancouver Sun (March 11, 2011) commented: “For any government to be found in contempt of Parliament would be an affront to all Canadians. For one led by a prime minister who ran on a platform of openness and accountability, as Harper did, doubly so.”

The Church Council on Justice and Corrections “is trying to convince its congregations that laws to end conditional sentencing, impose mandatory minimum prison terms for non-violent offences, and prevent early parole will actually make streets more dangerous while draining tax dollars.

Gloria Galloway

Globe and Mail

January 2011