As poverty deepens and inequality increases, the Conservatives respond by
building more prisons! - dr

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Tories hint at more prisons
`If you do a serious crime,' you'll pay price, Harper warns
Apr. 4, 2006. 05:18 AM
TONDA MACCHARLES
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA—The Conservative government says it is prepared to build more jails
if necessary to contain all the offenders caught by Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's tougher-on-crime agenda.

The acknowledgement came from Justice Minister Vic Toews after a speech by
Harper to the Canadian Professional Police Association yesterday in which
the Prime Minister pledged more cops on the street, more prisoners serving
their full sentences, and no more "house arrest" for serious offenders.

"This government will send a strong message to criminals. If you do a
serious crime you're going to start doing serious time," said Harper.

Harper said his plans to bring in longer mandatory jail terms for drug, gun
and gang-related crime, and to repeal the legal right to early release for
prisoners who serve two-thirds of their sentences are among the
government's first law-and-order legislative priorities.

His promises — including a pledge to kill the "faint hope" clause that
allows prison lifers to make a bid for parole — prompted big applause and a
standing ovation from the roomful of cops representing more than 50,000
police officers across the country.

"I thought we might find a receptive audience here," Harper smiled.

In a speech that followed Harper's, Toews said it will be an "important
public safety issue to ensure we have effective correctional services."

He conceded the get-tough approach "might involve providing new facilities"
across the country.

Toews did not elaborate on how many more jail beds might be required, or
how much it would cost.

The last federal jail built was Fenbrook Institution, a medium-security
prison north of Gravenhurst, Ont. It cost $62 million to build in 1998 and
has the capacity to house 400 inmates.

A spokesperson for the federal department responsible for correctional
policy, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, said any analyses of the
impact the Tories' promises would have are considered advice to the
minister and not available to the public, as no legislative proposals have
been tabled.

But a quick look at the numbers involved suggests the cost of all the
measures — not to mention the Tories' vow to put 1,000 more RCMP constables
in the field, and some 2,500 more officers on municipal and provincial
forces through a new cost-shared program — will be in the millions.

It costs $87,000 a year per offender to house an inmate in a federal jail,
versus $20,000 a year to supervise an offender released into the community.

There are 12,600 offenders now in federal prisons (where sentences of two
years or more are served). Another 8,300 offenders are on some form of
conditional release in the community — more than 2,800 on automatic or
"statutory release" after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob says in 2003-2004, the
last year for which complete statistics are available, about 5,000 inmates
exited federal prisons under "statutory release" provisions.

Doob suggests it would cost about $438 million to continue to house those
inmates, not counting any new building costs. When they finally do get out
after serving their full sentence, Doob says, there will be no form of
controls on them or support to them.

"So they all will be in effect like Karla Homolka. Everybody got upset with
Karla Homolka because at the end of 12 years she was released on the street
with no conditions. We're going to create a policy that that's going to
happen, for better or worse.

"That doesn't sound to me like good correctional policy or good justice
policy."

Doob argues there's no evidence to show crime rates drop with increased
imprisonment rates. Rather, he says, the two are independent of each other.
In Britain, he says, when the Labour government decided to increase
imprisonment rates, apparent crime rates continued to rise.

"The size of the prison population is a political decision. Countries make
political decisions on how many people they want in prison," he said.
"Crime is going to go its own way, independent of that."

Toews also suggested there will be fewer transfers of violent offenders to
minimum security jails.

"I applaud the efforts that have been made to put an end to what has been
referred to as `Club Fed,'" said Toews, using a moniker the police lobby
and Tories in opposition favoured.

Harper made passing references to new federal money for programs for youth
at risk, and Toews said his government will look at ways to tackle the
"root causes of crime" through "effective social programs and sound
economic policies."

But the larger message was the newly elected Conservatives will press ahead
with their law-and-order mandate, despite anticipated opposition from the
other parties in Parliament.


Already, Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe is calling the package "a
dangerous and indigestible stew."

Toews also said he will study a police association proposal that all those
convicted of indictable offences (which carry jail terms of two years or
more) should be registered in the national DNA databank, not just sexual
and dangerous offenders.