Posts Tagged ‘corrections’
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Crime bill cuts concessions to aboriginal circumstance
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
Dec. 6, 2011
… Canada has failed to come to terms with the over-incarceration of aboriginal offenders… The Gladue decision urges courts to be more creative with sentencing, to look deeper into causes and solutions and to draw from aboriginal traditions. One of these traditions is restorative justice, which seeks to bring victims and offenders together, enabling offenders to make meaningful amends for the harm they have done. The judicial tool that has allowed for such creative sentencing is the conditional sentence… Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, however, will continue to cut away at the ability of courts to impose these conditional sentences.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, Indigenous, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Five things about crime and doing the time in Canada
Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Dec 3, 2011
Of the 262,616 cases put before the courts in 2009-10, 183,204 of the defendants were deemed guilty under the Criminal Code. Of that figure, 71,417 were sent to prison, 100,956 were put on probation, 8,281 received a conditional sentence, 6,699 were ordered to pay restitution, 28,757 were fined and 88,019 received some other kind of sentence… Ontario is also doing a lot more screening of cases to see if some can be handled out of court. “The ones that go forward in a jurisdiction that screens out a lot of cases tend to be more likely to have a prison sentence associated with them
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, rights
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Omnibus crime bill a concern
Sunday, November 20th, 2011
Nov. 19, 2011
… the building of far greater numbers of prison cells, with far more restrictive rules and far fewer useful programs — is a totally wrongheaded approach. First: Health care is appalling inside prisons… Second: Educational and social remedial programs are inadequate… Third: Treating people like caged animals is a sure way to ensure that they will behave like caged creatures and not like socialized human beings… Take note of and repair these problems, and then, and only then, you can consider whether you need or want any expansion of prisons in this country.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Bar association blasts tough-on-crime bill
Saturday, November 19th, 2011
November 18, 2011
Canada’s lawyers have joined a host of others – from Texas Republicans to criminologists and civil libertarians – denouncing the federal omnibus crime bill. Ironically titled The Safe Streets and Communities Act, Bill C-10 is being rammed through Parliament by the Conservative majority government although many of its measures are a proven waste of money and effort. Many penology and law-enforcement specialists say the ill-considered legislation could make things worse.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Omnibus crime bill misses the mark
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Nov 17 2011
… we can make our justice system more efficient and cost effective with smart rehabilitation programs. In many cases, people do criminal things because they are desperate. Desperate for money to get out of poverty… Putting these criminals in jail for long sentences, while in the short term making us feel safer, leads to worse outcomes. Texas and other jurisdictions are telling us this scheme doesn’t work; the Canadian Bar Association says this plan will worsen the justice system.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Mandatory reading on mandatory minimum sentences
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
Nov. 15, 2011
In Canada, the federal prison population rose by 1,000 to 14,500, in just 18 months, partly as a result of new mandatory minimums, a federal report found in August. At an average cost of $110,000 a year per inmate, the benefits would be questionable at any time – all the more so when economies nearly everywhere are at risk… the Canadian government… seems intent on following the failed U.S. model, even as that country beats a retreat.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Canada must address the crisis faced by aboriginal children
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
November 07, 2011
… the council of advocates and UNICEF Canada support another report done by the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. Key among its recommendations are: developing a rights-based lens for reviewing and amending provincial and federal legislation; establishing systematic monitoring of legislation and programs; abandoning proposed changes to the juvenile justice act. The justice act changes will have their greatest effect on aboriginal youth. Shockingly, as the advocates note, an aboriginal youth is more likely to be sentenced to youth custody than to graduate from high school.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Debates, Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
CASW Asking for Balance on Crime and Punishment Legislation
Monday, November 7th, 2011
November 7, 2011
“Social workers are respecfully appealing to Prime Minister Harper to lift the 100 day self-imposed timetable for passing C-10, retract the bill, and to reintroduce its component parts next session so that each can be debated on their own merits”… “Victims justly require protection, support and justice; let us honour them by not creating a system that, as an unintended consequence, creates more victims that it supports.”
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, participation
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Tough but not smart on crime
Monday, November 7th, 2011
Nov 06 2011
There are three problems with the suggestion that offending by youths (or adults) can be reduced by imposing harsher sentences. First, decades of research has demonstrated that harsher sentences for youths (or adults) do not reduce reoffending. Nor would harsher sentences deter others. These are not ideological statements; they are based on evidence from numerous studies. The results are quite consistent: one cannot punish away crime.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 2 Comments »
Omnibus crime bill ignores the true victims
Monday, November 7th, 2011
Nov 7, 2011
There is no evidence that women are not reporting because sentencing is too low. In a Department of Justice Study, female sexual assault victims were asked what they would do to fix the system and few said toughen sentencing. Most said stop blaming the victim, provide women with more support, invest in more prevention. A few even talked about treatment for offenders and centres for men who were victimized as children. None of that will be accomplished by this bill.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
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