Canada Should Learn From Measures Implemented Elsewhere

Canada’s federal government’s “tough-on-crime” package is headed in the wrong direction.

Researchers Alana Cook and Ronald Roesch of Simon Fraser University’s psychology department reviewed data from other jurisdictions that have already implemented some of the policies that Canada’s federal government is now pursuing relevant to cost, effect on crime rates, and impact on vulnerable populations. The results show that key elements have proven costly and ineffective in other countries.

Many changes to the Criminal Code that have been either enacted or proposed have the effect of increasing prison terms. However, analyses of studies conducted in Canada indicate that longer prison terms result in criminals being slightly more likely to reoffend upon release. Also, first nations and the mentally ill will be discriminated against.

Mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes will increase both the number of prisoners in the system and the length of sentence they serve. Yet research from the United States suggests they result in people who are not a threat to society being incarcerated and that prosecutors in that country often did not file charges calling for the mandatory minimum sentence even when the evidence was present. Research from South Africa suggested that the introduction of mandatory minimums in that country resulted in overcrowding of prisons and disproportionate prison sentences to offences.

The report points out that the reforms will also come at a significant cost to taxpayers. In the US, according to one study, a tripling of the incarceration rate over a 20-year period as a result of tougher crime laws resulted in a $43 billion increase in the amount of tax revenue spent on the prison system.

The researchers pointed out that studies suggest prisons in Canada are already overcrowded, the number of times guards have to use force against prisoners is increasing, and inmates have limited access to correctional programs. An increased prison population will only exacerbate these conditions.

Both first nations and the mentally ill are already over-represented in the prison system. First nations make up 4 percent of Canada’s population, but 20 percent of inmates. The proportion of Canadian inmates with mental illness is three times higher than in the general population. Mandatory minimum sentences will thus disproportionately affect these groups.

Cook and Roesch concluded that community-based programs targeting at-risk youth are more effective than incarceration at reducing crime rates and come with a much lower price tag. Researchers in California found that such programs working with at-risk youth are more effective and cost significantly less per person. 

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