A September report from the U.S. federal Government Accountability Office cited a 400 per cent increase in the population of federal prisons in the U.S. since the late 1980s and a jump of 50 per cent from 2000 to 2012 that was primarily attributed to longer offender sentencing lengths.
The report noted that U.S. state governments facing the same massive overcrowding due to so-called tough-on-crime laws have begun shortening sentences and increasing time served in communities. It cited a list of overcrowding problems that increase violence in prisons and undermine drug treatment and rehabilitation programs, including time for family visits.
Canada’s federal correctional investigator told The Hill Times that the effects of a Conservative government law that sharply limited the ability of judges to accord credit to offenders for time served in jail before conviction and sentencing has itself been the main drive for an eight-per-cent increase in the federal prison population since it received royal assent in October 2010.
Correctional investigator Howard Sapers said the federal prison population rose from an average daily count of 13,530 in March 2010, to 14,420 offenders last March, and is now hovering at about 15,100 offenders.
“That’s higher than the average predicted growth would be, if all policy had been equal, if policy had stayed the same, that’s a much higher rate of growth than you would have seen,” Mr. Sapers said.
Mr. Sapers said the growth was lower than an anticipated increase of 3,000 new inmates from the new law, but noted the Correctional Service of Canada still had to increase double-bunking in prison cells meant for individuals as parts of its response to the surge.
“There was that increase. It wasn’t as significant as it could have been, but I think it’s also fair to say that we have yet to see the full impact of not just [the Truth in Sentencing Act], but there has been a number of legislative changes and policy changes,” Mr. Sapers said.
“Taken all together there is a cumulative effect,” he said
“I wouldn’t say that there is a straight line relationship between that increase of 1,000 over two years just to [the Truth in Sentencing Act]. I would say that we’re beginning to see an interaction effect—new mandatory minimum penalties, the abolition of accelerated parole review, limiting use of conditional sentences—you have a whole series of legislative reforms and policy reforms that all happened in very close proximity to one another, very close in time sequence,” Mr. Sapers said.
The federal government’s Criminal Code amendments expected to put most pressure on federal and provincial prisons—the introduction of a range of minimum sentences for drug offences, including the production of small amounts of marijuana for trafficking—are only beginning to take effect, Mr. Sapers pointed out.
He said the results of the U.S. Government Accountability Office report could apply as well to the situation facing Canada’s federal and provincial correctional institutions.
“We’re just now beginning to see how the system is responding,” Mr. Sapers said.
The U.S. report to Congress said while 2,400 inmates in male medium security institutions in the U.S., received drug treatment and education programs in 2011, nearly 3,000 more inmates were on waiting lists to get treatment, and the average wait for enrolment exceeded three months.
The report said crowded visiting rooms in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons institutions delay family visits, even though family connections improve inmate behaviour and increase the chances of success after release.
“At one older facility we visited, officials said that the number of visitors was so great and the visiting room was so small that visitors had to wait hours to get into the visiting room,” the report said.
Mr. Sapers said the report’s account of U.S. prison overcrowding—with double-bunking at 25 per cent in high security institutions, 50 per cent in medium security and 100 per cent in low and minimum security institutions—could apply to the situation facing Canadian federal and provincial correctional institutions.
“You could read that report and it wouldn’t be unfair to say you could apply those findings to the Canadian federal penitentiary system as well,” he said.
“Our double bunking rate is now 18 per cent across the country, but it’s over 25 per cent in the Prairie region, we’re seeing some very, very crowded institutions. We’re seeing double bunking in places that we’ve never seen it before,” Mr. Sapers said.
“Double bunking is like the canary in the mine shaft,” he added, explaining that the crowding is a signal of other problems that surface because of inability to access drug treatment programs, counselling and other prison programs.
Ottawa defence lawyer Mark Ertel, a former president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa and a frequent commentator on the criminal justice system, told The Hill TimesConservative government bills that have led to later paroles, the reduction of credit for time served before sentencing and other changes, are behind growing problems due to crowded provincial jails and remand centres as well as court backlogs.
“I think that accounts for most of it,” he said.
“We’ve got eight years of Conservative appointments on the parole board,” Mr. Ertel said. “I think everyone who deals with federal parole would say it’s a lot harder to get parole now then it was five or 10 years ago.”
NDP MP Randall Garrison (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C.) told The Hill Times a provincial correctional institution in his Vancouver Island riding is already housing offenders in triple-bunk cells because of overcrowding.
“The situation is quite dire in a lot of provincial institutions,” Mr. Garrison said. “I met with representatives of provincial correctional officers, and they’re extremely worried about increasing violence in provincial institutions because of the overcrowding that is taking place.”
“We tend to focus on the double bunking and the triple bunking, but they haven’t had an increase [in budgets] of any kind, and so that means there are long delays in the entire system to get addiction treatment or any kind of treatment, any kind of real vocation, everything gets delayed because there are no increases in those budgets,” he said.
Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac Saint Louis, Que.) argued that with the union that represents Correctional Service Canada officers also raising alarm bells about overcrowding and escalating prison violence, the government should realize a storm is gathering.
“If they’re raising the issue, it must mean there is a problem,” Mr. Scarpaleggia said. “They’re on the ground, they know what’s going on in correctional facilities probably more than the commissioner of the correctional service does.”
A spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (Provencher, Man.) pointed out the government has plans to build new federal correctional service cells in preparation for the influx from its new laws. But she also noted that the government is closing two older federal prisons—one in Kingston, Ont., and one in Laval, Que.
Mr. Sapers said the net gain will be fewer than 1,700 new cells, 2,700 planned for expansion but 1,000 cells expected to be closed by the closure of the two prisons.
The new cells are estimated to cost $630-million.
The Correctional Service of Canada reported that as of last December, the Truth in Sentencing Act resulted in a total of $458-million in additional operating and capital costs for the first nine months of the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
“The thrust of our tough on crime agenda is to ensure that dangerous and repeat offenders are kept behind bars where they belong,” said Julie Carmichael, Mr. Toews’ communications director.
“We are not creating new criminals, we are simply stopping the revolving door of the justice system,” she said in an email response to questions from The Hill Times.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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