Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2008
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

NO PLANS FOR NEW PRISONS DESPITE ELECTION PROMISES

Government To Renovate, Upgrade The Existing Facilities

OTTAWA -- The Harper government has no long-term plans to build new 
prisons to house an anticipated influx of offenders convicted under 
the Conservatives' tough-on-crime initiatives, despite setting aside 
up to $245 million for at least one extra penitentiary immediately 
after coming to power two years ago.

According to a Correctional Service of Canada capital plan, existing 
prisons, which are aging and already full, would be renovated and 
expanded to meet increasing demands over the next decade if need be, 
but "at this time there are no major prisons envisaged."

The Correctional Service acknowledges, however, that "with the 
implementation for various government initiatives in tackling crime, 
an increase in the offender population may result."

The information was provided recently upon request to New Democrat MP 
Charlie Angus, who was seeking written details from Public Safety 
Minister Stockwell Day on the impact of federal anti-crime measures 
on Canada's penitentiaries.

The Conservatives ran on a platform of putting more criminals in 
prison and keeping them there longer.

Criminologist Neil Boyd said he does not think the government needs 
to build any new facilities because its new laws, to date, will not 
have much of an impact on the number of people sent to prison.

Canada's 54 federal penitentiaries, for prisoners serving sentences 
of two years or more, housed 13,200 offenders in 2006-2007, at a cost 
of about $82,000 each. Most facilities are more than 40 years old and 
already are operating near capacity.

The government's key initiative, which passed in February, would 
increase automatic prison terms for a variety of gun-related crimes, 
building on gun-control laws passed more than a decade ago by the 
former Liberal government.

Day estimated two years ago that the gun bill would put about 300-400 
more prisoners annually in federal penitentiaries.

Boyd thinks the real numbers will be less than that, given that the 
bill that eventually cleared the Commons was not as tough as the one 
the Conservatives originally proposed.

"I'm not sure it will have any impact," said Boyd, a criminologist at 
Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. "Nothing they have done to date 
is going to dramatically increase prison populations."

Boyd said the only initiative that will make a significant difference 
- -- a proposal to impose minimum mandatory sentences for drug-related 
crimes -- has still not passed in Parliament. The opposition parties 
have pledged to block the bill. Currently, anyone convicted of 
possessing, producing or trafficking illicit drugs receives a 
sentence chosen by a judge rather than a mandatory prison term.

"The key issue is the drug bill," said Boyd. "You're going to have a 
huge number of people caught up in that, in the tens of thousands, 
caught up in that."

In the U.S., for instance, a big increase in the prison population in 
the last 20 years is almost totally driven by people serving time for 
drug crimes, he said.

Two years ago, in their first federal budget, the Conservatives said 
that a new medium-security institution and additional 
maximum-security space could be needed to house extra prisoners 
captured by a host of tougher sentences proposed in the government's 
election platform. At the time, Day pegged the price at somewhere 
between $220- to $245-million over five years.

The Correctional Service has not ruled out the possibility of new 
prisons in the future. A panel of experts, who recently reviewed the 
federal prison system, recommended building new "regional complexes" 
instead of renovating and expanding outdated facilities.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom