Posts Tagged ‘corrections’
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An alternative to mandatory minimum sentences
… one side demands stiffer, more certain sentences for offenders who threaten public safety and the other sees them as “blunt instruments that may deprive courts of the ability to tailor proportionate sentences at the lower end of a sentencing range.” … , sentencing guidelines offer the opportunity to structure judicial discretion by providing more specific sentencing ranges based on a variety of stated criteria.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
The Tories want to have their cake and imprison it, too
Canadians… have been spending an additional $91-million a year in order to be less protected from crime…. The Conservative government has… slowed the rate of release for prisoners and this has contributed to a 6-per-cent increase in prison populations over the past four years… In fact crime rates have been dropping since 1991 – 15 years before the Conservatives came to power… “Truth in sentencing” is what the Conservatives call their policy of making it more difficult for inmates to be paroled.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Harper fought the law and the law won
Ideologically, Harper claims to favour small government, but his taste for punishment leads to bigger and more costly government: more jails, more jailing, more solitary confinement, and so on. This is the American style. It doesn’t work here… All of Harper’s mandatory minimum sentencing laws resemble each other in that they chip away at judges themselves. In his world, judges – who exist to state reasons out loud, to balance punishment with mercy – might as well not be in the room.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Index ranks Canada as sixth most socially advanced country
Canada sits in 6th place of 133 countries – the highest of any G7 nation – in an annual “social progress index”… The index… is meant to complement the traditional measure of gross domestic product in assessing progress. It tracks 52 indicators – from crime levels to literacy rates and gender equality – that reflect whether a country is providing essential needs to its citizens and opportunities for people to improve their lot in society.
Tags: child care, corrections, disabilities, Health, housing, ideology, immigration, Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Jail report recommendations on mentally ill ‘positive and progressive,’ lawyer says
The report… recommends the creation of both “step down” and “stabilization unit” that could meet the needs of female inmates with major mental health issues… staffed by mental health professionals in select correctional facilities… The recommendations flowed from a settlement Jahn reached with the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services in 2013 after accusing the government of discrimination by locking her up for 23 hours a day in a windowless cell at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre instead of treating her mental illness.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Stephen Harper’s ‘lifer’ law has no purpose beyond cynical politics
Based on incarceration rates, Canada is the second most punitive correctional system in the developed world. We have become an isolated, penal outlier. In contrast, the U.S. — whose model inspired so much of our regressive penal legislation — is in full retreat from failed experiments with mandatory minimum sentences or three-strikes-and-you’re-out laws. Its mistakes are seen to have warehoused offenders under inhumane conditions while utterly failing to deter crime.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada needs more crime prevention, not vengeance
The pending legislation is simply the latest in a string of moves to turn the justice system into a machine for pure vengeance. While perhaps cathartic, vengeance is a misspent emotion — burning the cash that should be invested in what actually prevents violence and keeps front-line cops and communities safe… Putting our money into the front end of criminal justice equivalent to 10 per cent of what we are spending on pure vengeance, we would achieve a 50 per cent reduction in violence over the next five to 10 years and so would likely save hundreds of lives and billions of tax dollars each year.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | 1 Comment »
No need for Tories’ ‘Throw Away the Key Act’
The suggestion is that Canada’s streets are menaced by a wave of elderly jailbirds, released on parole after a scant 25 years in the slammer. This is — does it even need saying? — nonsense. Not every prisoner is paroled after 25 years: only those judged at low risk of re-offending. Those designated as “dangerous offenders” can already be kept locked up for life.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
How Harper created a more conservative Canada
Nine years after Stephen Harper was sworn in as prime minister, we are a more conservative land… Absolutely not, you say? Then would you support increasing the GST by two percentage points? Do you want to relax parole eligibility for sex offenders? Would you get behind some big new national program, even if it infuriated Quebec and Alberta? … If a ship filled with refugee claimants appears, should we just let them in? And how do you think your neighbours would answer these questions?
Tags: budget, child care, corrections, crime prevention, economy, globalization, Health, housing, ideology, immigration, Indigenous, jurisdiction, participation, pensions, poverty, rights, tax
Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »
Ontario’s welcome move on rights shows reality of trans people in prisons
When it comes to the treatment of trans people in Canadian prisons, a series of recent high-profile cases raise serious questions about whether federal and provincial governments are complying with their human rights obligations… Recent empirical evidence demonstrates that trans people are regularly subjected to extraordinarily high rates of discrimination, harassment, and violence in correctional facilities across Canada.
Tags: corrections, ideology, mental Health, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
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