Crime and Justice

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2010-11-22T17:26:00.000-08:00

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Judy Wasylycia-Leis Crime Prevention Part Two

2010-09-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

Judy to fight crime with community programs

Here’s today’s press release from Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who appears to be trying to counter Sam Katz’s announcement from two days ago to hire more cops with a pledge to attack the root causes of crime:

COMPREHENSIVE FIVE-POINT SAFE NEIGHBOURHOODS PLAN TO STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY SAFETY, TACKLE CAUSES OF CRIME AT THE ROOT

Community resource hubs, local action plans form the first of five crime-reduction planks to empower communities, begin reversing pervasive crime trend: Wasylycia-Leis

Directly addressing neighbourhood needs via community resource hubs, plus local action plans that empower communities to work with the city to prioritize urgent issues round out the first plank of a comprehensive five-point safe neighbourhoods strategy to begin reversing crime trends across the city, Judy Wasylycia Leis announced today.

This strategy is about giving communities the tools they need to replace a culture of crime with a culture of hope, inclusion, empowerment and opportunity, said Wasylycia-Leis.

Its about supporting Winnipeg families, and giving every kid the chance of a bright future free from the lure of gangs. Its about finally moving away from simply treating the symptoms of crime and instead working directly with communities to prevent it.

Wasylycia-Leis said a key priority of the five-point crime-prevention strategy is building community capacity to start to reverse the crime culture that affects families across the city.

The mayoral candidate today rolled out details of the plans first plank of ensuring neighbourhoods have the tools they need to directly tackle the causes of crime.

Under the first plank announced today, City Hall would prioritize expanding service delivery of needed programs at community resource hub sites, beginning with the highest-need areas of the city. The hubs would be tailored to meet local, community-identified needs, from parenting resources, to employment tools, to learning supports, to anti-gang initiatives.

Wasylycia-Leis said existing community-driven service-delivery sites would serve as hubs in neighbourhoods where key community needs have already been identified. Todays announcement was held at the Elmwood Community Resource Centre a community-driven service-delivery centre presently delivering vital programming but in need of far greater resources to adequately meet the needs of the community.

In at-risk communities where the highest-priority needs have not yet been fully identified, facilitators will bring together community leaders and citizens to hold roundtable meetings to develop local action plans to prioritize local need. The action plans would effectively serve as blueprints for City Hall to ensure that the highest-priority needs of each target neighbourhood were given precedence.

No one knows better which strategies are needed to steer neighbourhood kids away from crime and toward brighter futures than community leaders and families themselves, said Wasylycia-Leis.

Communities across our city know which tools they need to start making neighbourhoods safer, but they need support to do it not piecemeal plans that only scratch the surface of the deep-rooted challenges many communities face.

Wasylycia-Leis said enhanced policing is a key part of strengthening community safety but noted that crime continues to rise in Winnipeg despite an increase in police officers. Meaningful, sustained community supports to strike at crimes root causes are long overdue.

BACKGROUNDER

Judy Wasylycia-Leis today committed to a comprehensive, five-point strategy to tackle the causes of crime to begin reversing the upward crime trend that affects neighbourhoods across the city. She today rolled out key details of the plans first plank of ensuring communities have the tools they need to address deep-rooted causes of crime, with the goal of working with neighbourhoods to build engaged, safe, supported communities.

Under this first plank, community resource hub sites would be identified and given the tools they need to better meet the social needs of the community, as identified by the community itself. Depending on the neighbourhood, hubs might deliver employment information, youth supports, parenting resources, or other services vitally needed in the community.

The city would work with hubs to better integrate existing resources to avoid duplication of services, expand programs that are working well, and fill in identified service gaps. In many communities, gaps in the spectrum of services have already been clearly identified by the community, but resources to fill the gaps arent available.

In at-risk neighbourhoods where the communitys highest needs have not yet been fully identified, city facilitators would work with community leaders and families to hold open roundtables to prioritize needs and summarize them in local action plans. These plans would effectively serve as blueprints to ensure that the highest needs as identified by the community were reflected at City Hall.

Wasylycia-Leis earlier announced an initial piece of her first plank of engaging communities is an expansion of the successful PowerLine program and the implementation of the City Watch program proven successful in B.C.

Strike two for Judy

It’s strike two for mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis on justice issues after another bogus announcement on how to tackle Winnipeg’s burgeoning gang and violent crime problem.

One more strike and she’s out — out of the mayoral race, that is.

Wasylycia-Leis told us last month during her first announcement on justice she wants to encourage more people and city workers to report crime through an anonymous phone line.

She talked about wanting to “empower” people to report crime. That went over like a pro-free enterprise speech at an NDP convention. Strike one.

On Thursday, she gave us a bunch of platitudes about wanting to set up “hubs” around the city to provide more resources to communities to help prevent crime and to create a comprehensive crime-prevention strategy that allows neighbourhoods to identify local needs and to formulate action plans in a more holistic and grassroots way and to ... yeah, that’s right, pure gibberish.

A bunch of meaningless rhetoric that explains why increasing numbers of people are tuning out of politics and election campaigns altogether.

Wasylycia-Leis didn’t have one concrete proposal in her Thursday anti-crime “plank,” other than to give $110,000 to an Elmwood “hub,” or resource centre.

She gave us the usual hyperbole about how we have to stop looking solely at policing to fight crime and focus instead on crime-prevention through more parenting resources, amateur sport opportunities and employment tools, as if we don’t do that already.

Winnipeg has hundreds, probably thousands, of programs, sporting opportunities, employment resources, parenting supports, community centres, local health services, family centres — you name it — funded by all levels of government and non-government, not-for-profits to provide services in all of those areas.

To suggest society doesn’t already work in those capacities is an insult to the thousands of volunteers and paid staff who do.

That was strike two.

Strike three and Judy will be sent packing to the bullpen.

Why?

Because crime is emerging as the top issue in this campaign. And even though municipal politicians are limited in their ability to fight crime in a meaningful way, any candidate who wants to make a strong impression on voters is going to have to come up with something more creative than creating “hubs” around the city.

I’m all for finding new and creative ways of trying to get to the root of crime.

It’s a very complicated subject. We have dysfunctional households all over the city and in rural and northern Manitoba producing broken people, in some cases with severe — and completely avoidable — mental health problems like fetal alcohol syndrome.

We have parents who are incapable or disinterested in raising their children properly. We have AWOL parents. We have parents who play the race card and the “poor me” card instead of picking themselves up off the mat and breaking through the trap they feel they’re in.

It’s going to take a lot more than beefing up resources at the local community centre to solve those problems.

Let’s face it, in many cases resources already exist to help families in need. But people have to want to help themselves.

That doesn’t mean we don’t need new and innovative ideas to help create more resources and opportunities for families in need.

But I didn’t hear any from Wasylycia-Leis.

All I heard was a bunch of white noise.

Next pitch is a change-up, Judy. Better keep your eye on the ball.

Kids before cops

Judy Wasylycia-Leis agrees Winnipeg needs more cops on the street, but said they won’t do much good if we don’t nip young criminals in the bud before they bloom.

“If we ignore the needs of children and families, we will never get a handle on this crime problem,” Wasylycia-Leis said during a campaign announcement Thursday.

“Do we need more police? Absolutely. I’ve said that from day one ... (but) all the police in the world will not reverse the crime stats unless we have a way to get at the causes of crime.”

The mayoral candidate proposed Thursday what she believes is a way to tackle those root causes.

The city needs to increase funding to “community resource hubs” in the 10 highest-crime areas of Winnipeg, she said, so those centres can better offer everything from parenting supports to employment information to anti-gang initiatives — all of which she said can help reduce crime by addressing its root causes.

Wasylycia-Leis said she would work with each hub — like the Elmwood Community Resource Centre, which served as the backdrop for the announcement — to determine specific needs and see what they think would work best for their neighbourhood.

“It cannot be a top-down approach,” she said. “There isn’t one size that fits all.”

Wasylycia-Leis estimated between $1 million and $1.5 million could help the first 10 community hubs get what they need. She said the city doesn’t have much money dedicated for this type of idea, and what does exist is “ad hoc and piecemeal.”

Mayor Sam Katz was unavailable Thursday due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday, but his campaign manager Marni Larkin said the city already has a program in place similar to what Wasylycia-Leis is suggesting.

“She keeps announcing things that are already in place,” Larkin said. “The things she’s talking about today city council did in 2008 under the current mayor. They’re continuing to offer those programs. They’re already in existence.”

Judy eyes community hubs

WINNIPEG - Mayoral hopeful Judy Wasylycia-Leis wants to earmark about $1 million to fund "community hubs" that offer recreation, parenting classes and other programs to inner-city neighbourhoods.

It’s the first of five planks in her crime-fighting agenda, the rest of which will be announced as the campaign wears on.

Wasylycia-Leis made the announcement over the noon-hour at the Elmwood Community Resource Centre, which needs about $110,000 for a bigger office that can offer more programs and stay open later to help keep kids off the streets.

Wasylycia-Leis said the city provides very minimal funding for inner-city programming.

Plans community resource hubs to help prevent crime

As part of a campaign announcement, mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis unveiled a plan to create community resource hubs to help prevent crime in Winnipeg.

The hubs would offer things such as parenting classes and recreation programs in areas of Winnipeg where crime rates are high.

"We need police officers, yes, for safety purposes and to work with neighbourhood associations, but if we don't have programs that stop crime in the first place, how are we ever going to pay for this and keep on top of it in the long run," asked Wasylycia-Leis. She said Winnipeg needs to do more to meet the needs of children and families.

If elected, she said she would set aside $1 million to create the hubs. Wasylycia-Leis previously announced a proposal to expand a community-based hotline to respond to crime.

Wasylycia-Leis said she will be announcing in upcoming weeks more details of her plan for tackling crime in Winnipeg.

$1 Million for crime prevention

Winnipeg mayoralty hopeful Judy Wasylycia-Leis is promising a $1-million boost to community resources as part of her crime-prevention platform.

The former NDP MP said Thursday the money would be spent on community services in areas of the city with the greatest need for youth-related programming.

The approach is in marked contrast to that of incumbent Sam Katz, who said Tuesday he would hire 58 new police officers as a crime-fighting measure.

However, Wasylycia-Leis said putting more police on the street isn't a long-term solution.

"If we don't have a crime prevention strategy, we're going to have to put more police in place," she said.

Wasylycia-Leis made the announcement at the Elmwood Community Resource Centre.

People living in the Elmwood area said they've lived with high crime rates for years and agreed with Wasylycia-Leis's approach. .

"Education is the main thing," said Brian Whidden. "If people are idle, if they're not educated, if they're not working, then they get into trouble," he said.

Wasylycia-Leis said more details about her crime-cutting strategy would be coming over the next few weeks.

In August she promised to expand an anonymous crime-reporting phone line similar to one in operation in Winnipeg's Point Douglas neighbourhood.

Winnipeggers head to the polls on Oct. 27.

Judy concepts are right on. It's a proven fact that education is the way to long term rehabilitation. If we can show them how to get out of the ghetto, get into a real job and get hold of their own reality, you've got a chance to change the direction a youth gone wrong is headed.
Judy has her priorities right. You catch them prior to the crimes being committed. Prior to the gangs being joined and by introducing a proactive life stye you will significantly decrease a criminal life stye.
Judy has an educated view of how to solve criminal behaviour. You don't just throw 58 new police officers at them and hope for the best.

I think the Conservatives, including you Tom, greatly lack information, understanding and knowledge about the workings, effectiveness and issues of our justice system. They completely ignore the criminological research, proving that prisons and tougher laws are NOT effective in preventing and reducing crime. You can't ignore that fact. Inmates with longer sentences are more likely to re-offend when released. How does that improve community safety? Please do tell b/c II am not understanding. It have been proven to be more successful and cost effective to focus on preventing the root causes of crime through community programming, services, resources, etc. Proactive and preventive crime strategies have a long term effect on community safety.

What is being discussed now is targeting programs as anti-gang initiatives. Certainly we have lots of sports and activities but none of them are focused on specifically mentoring at-risk youth away from gangs and criminal activities. I should also mention that the best resources now go to better neighbourhoods and address community entertainment demands, not social improvement. I would think that if you truly wanted to reduce crime, you would be encouraging better alternatives. If it's the number of programs that bother you perhaps Lindenwoods can put off their gym expansion or we can eliminate some hockey teams in Grant Park etc. in order to save a few kids from joining gangs.

Judy Wasylycia-Leis's Crime Prevention Plan Part One

2010-09-10T05:31:00.000-07:00

Crime plans join election fray

Community volunteers and city workers would help the Winnipeg Police Service prevent crime if Judy Wasylycia-Leis is elected mayor this fall.

The former NDP MP for Winnipeg North, who's vying to unseat Sam Katz this fall, pledged Monday to create two new crime-fighting programs within six days of being elected mayor.

The first program, PowerLine, is based on a three-year-old North Point Douglas effort that has reduced the crack cocaine trade and gang presence in the inner-city neighbourhood.

Wasylycia-Leis would like to expand the program to other Winnipeg neighbourhoods by appointing volunteer co-ordinators who would field calls about crime and vandalism and then co-ordinate a response with police and Manitoba Justice officials.

"The point of the program is the less bureaucratic it is, the more success it'll have," she told reporters outside Norquay Community Centre in Point Douglas, flanked by community activist Sel Burrows. "One size does not fit all. We're not going to find a Sel Burrows in every community."

Volunteer co-ordinators would not be subject to police background checks, she said. Burrows dismissed concerns that could enable organized crime to infiltrate the program.

"One of the things we've noticed is the reverse has happened. We have infiltrated organized crime," he said, suggesting criminals are not intelligent.

The second proposed program, City Watch, would see members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500 -- the city's largest union -- aid police by reporting crimes.

CUPE members are willing to do this, provided they receive proper training, said local president Mike Davidson, who also stood alongside Wasylycia-Leis. Similar programs are in place in six British Columbia municipalities, she said.

Wasylycia-Leis also said the Winnipeg Police Association supports the initiative. WPA vice-president Marc Pellerin declined to comment.

The cost of both PowerLine and City Watch would be minimal, said Wasylycia-Leis, though she has yet to cost them out precisely. She claimed Mayor Sam Katz has done little to prevent crime during six years in office.

"Like so many Winnipeggers, I am sick and tired of hearing we are the No. 1 violent-crime capital of Canada," she said.

Katz, however, said he launched a program similar to City Watch in 2004, when 70 waste-management workers were recruited to monitor crime. Winnipeg Transit employees have also been trained to report crime, he said.

"The key thing is, we would hope that what would prevail is common sense, in that all employees and all citizens would report crimes when they see them," Katz said.

The mayor repeated his assertion Wasylycia-Leis stymied federal Conservative efforts to bolster justice legislation while in Ottawa -- something the former MP has denied -- and said he has been instrumental in hiring 155 more police officers, creating a swat team, Operation Clean Sweep, CrimeStat and getting a police a helicopter off the ground.

"Do you really believe Wasylycia-Leis will be tougher on crime than I am?" he asked.

But Wasylycia-Leis said Winnipeg needs even more police officers.

Wasylycia-Leis pledges to launch two new crime fighting programs

WINNIPEG--Mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis has pledged to prevent crime in Winnipeg by enlisting city workers and neighbourhood volunteers.

The former NDP MP for Winnipeg North, who's vying to unseat Sam Katz this fall, told reporters this morning she would launch two new crime-fighting programs within days of being elected mayor.

The first, PowerLine, would see one volunteer in each Winnipeg neighbourhood field calls about crime and vandalism and then co-ordinate with police and Manitoba Justice officials.

The second, City Watch, would see city workers aid police by reporting crimes.

Standing in a North Point Douglas Park, flanked by community activist Sel Burrows and Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500 president Mike Davidson, Wasylycia-Leis said both programs would deter crime in Winnipeg.

Davidson said CUPE members would be willing to help, but need special training to aid police.

Burrows said neighbourhood volunteers can take on gangs with the help of united communities.

Wasylycia-Leis said the cost of both programs would be minimal, but had not costed them out precisely.

The volunteer co-ordinators would not be subject to police background checks, she said. She dismissed concerns that PowerLine could be infiltrated by organized crime.

Wasylycia-Leis also said Winnipeg needs more police officers but would not say whether she would raise property taxes to pay for additional salaries.

Judy unveils crime cutting strategy

Winnipeg mayoralty hopeful Judy Wasylycia-Leis announced two anti-crime measures Monday that she believes will curb perceptions the city is a hotbed for criminals.

In what is the former NDP MP's first substantive policy announcement since she launched her campaign earlier this summer, Wasylycia-Leis said the city has a culture of crime that must be broken.

"Like so many Winnipeggers I am sick and tired of being told how we are the number one violent crime capital of Canada," Wasylycia-Leis said. "We can start to turn around this idea of a crime culture in Winnipeg."

Wasylycia-Leis proposed two specific programs during the morning announcement that she said would deter crime and increase neighbourhood safety.

The first is the creation of an initiative for city employees to start reporting more crimes when they see them.

'Do you really believe that Ms. Wasylycia-Leis would be tougher on crime than yours truly?'—Mayor Sam Katz

The second would be the establishing of a citywide anonymous tip line for residents to report crime to police.

She also criticized her main opponent, incumbent Mayor Sam Katz, saying he hasn't done enough to stamp out crime.

"The current administration at City Hall hasn't come forward with a detailed crime-prevention strategy after six full years in office, and that needs to change," she said in a statement.

Katz responded by detailing a number of his own programs to combat crime, including the Winnipeg police Street Crime unit, and the soon-to-be-airborne police helicopter.

"Do you really believe that Ms. Wasylycia-Leis would be tougher on crime than yours truly?," he asked.

Winnipeggers go to the polls on Oct. 27.

Why 58 more cops Mr. Katz?

Mayor Sam Katz is promising to hire another 58 police officers in an effort to end the city's reputation as one of the most crime-plagued centres in Canada. He acknowledged that police alone cannot make a community safer, but the emphasis in his first campaign announcement was clearly about boosting police numbers to make the city safer.

This stands in stark contrast to his main rival, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who has promised to take steps to empower community groups to defend their neighbourhoods. Ms. Wasylycia-Leis is hoping that the success experienced in Point Douglas, which has seen a drop in crime and an increase in comfort levels, can be replicated elsewhere.

Her overall platform on crime, however, was vague and she did not address the question of police numbers. The mayor, on the other hand, seems to be putting too much confidence in the ability of police forces to solve complex problems.

With nearly 1,400 officers, the city already is one of the most policed cities in Canada -- our exact ranking is a source of endless debate -- but the mayor thinks we still don't have enough.

Everyone agrees that police are vital in deterring crime and arresting criminals -- otherwise we wouldn't need them -- but what is the right number? Would another 5,000 officers make the city five times safer, or is there a law of diminishing returns with respect to law enforcement?

A few years ago, the mayor actually promised to answer the question. He was going to hold the police service accountable to ensure taxpayers were getting value for their money and that "crime-reduction targets are being met."

Unfortunately, as the mayor has since learned, it's not that easy. Sometimes crime rises or falls for reasons that have little to do with the ratio of police to citizens.

Even so-called objective criteria for measuring performance aren't necessarily neutral. The Winnipeg Police Service, for example, has one of the lowest clearance rates in Canada. Our statistics for clearing crimes, or making arrests, are poorer than both Regina and Saskatoon, high crime cities with fewer officers per capita than Winnipeg.

But maybe Winnipeg is different. Violent street crime and mayhem, for example -- the kind we see a lot of in the city -- can result in serious offences that are difficult to clear because there are endless possible suspects, or none at all.

The argument could be made that Winnipeg needs more police officers because of our large inner city, high rates of poverty and sprawling suburbs, combined with priorities such as downtown renewal and unique social issues, such as homelessness, public drunkenness and so on.

Unfortunately, Mr. Katz offered no insight as to why he wants to hire 58 new officers, as opposed to 28 or 68, at a cost of $4 million, which sounds a little on the light side, given that a rule of thumb is that it costs $100,000 for every new police officer, once benefits, equipment and overtime are factored. Nor did he promise accountability and benchmarks for determining success.

As the campaign moves ahead, both candidates need to expand on their policies for dealing with crime, and on how they would measure success. A serious discussion, as opposed to sloganeering, might help identify where the efforts should be made.

Another question is how is he going to pay for this? He can promise the world but it means nothing if he can't pay for it.

More police and tougher laws are reactionary responses to crime. What we need, is more proactive and preventative approaches and strategies. Crime prevention and intervention are far more successful and more cost effective ways of dealing with crime. Police officers respond to crime, not prevent it. If more police officers are hired, they need to be more involved in community policing and crime prevention initiatives. We need more community recreation programs for youth, such as after school programs and Lighthouses and also more parenting, employment, counselling and education programs. Punishment does not prevent or reduce crime. Crime prevention is always the most effective and can take many forms, including better lighting on streets, windows and patios facing the streets, block parents, neighbourhood watch, community programs, youth training and opportunities, addictions resources, etc. We need to provide alternative options to people who might otherwise be influenced into a lifestyle of crime. Prisons are the schools of crime. They harden criminals as each individual is surrounded by antisocial criminal peers. Inmates come to adopt the subscribe to the inmate subculture. Judy is SMART, not TOUGH on crime. She acknowledges the research.

The justice system isn't going to be fixed anytime soon so if we want to make improvements we need to look at ways to do it within the existing system. If so much of our officers' time is being taken up due to flaws in the system that they can't be out on the street, then you don't have enough people on the streets with current staffing levels. That's either fixed by changing the system, or hiring more people. It's not realistic to believe we can change the justice system quickly enough to get tangable results anytime soon. Would be nice, but from a practical perspective it's not going to happen for a very long time. So we either do what we can within the system to try and improve things, or we just pass the buck, blame the system, and wait for it to be fixed, which may never happen. In concept I agree with what you're saying, but I don't see it as a practical solution. Maybe a long-term goal but not something we can bank on.

Not sure how effective Judy's ideas will be here. They imply a trend to more community involvement, which I think is important. On their own they probably won't do much, if anything, so it depends on what other programs go along with them.

We don't need more cops. We've tried that and things have gotten worse. We need to keep kids out of trouble, especially gang-related trouble, in the first place. We need communities to pull together. We need to work on solving the poverty problem. We need to reform our drug laws to take the profitability out of selling drugs. We need better education programs...not just traditional job training, but training in the arts and volunteerism.

Katz has no real thoughts on any of this. Instead he has opted for a meaningless sound bite. He's a poor mayor, a poor leader, and so out of touch with the reality of living in this city that it's frightening.

Gang members plead guilty to kidnapping

2010-09-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

Gang members plead guilty to gunpoint kidnapping

Two members of Winnipeg street gang have admitted to a gunpoint attack against the mother of one of their criminal colleagues.

Jammal Dillinger Jacob and Michael Brandon Williams pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges including kidnapping, forcible confinement and aggravated assault. The pair, who have ties to the Mad Cowz, will be sentenced later this year.

The 40-year-old victim immigrated from South Africa and has described her ordeal as comparable to the violence she witnessed in refugee camps prior to coming to Canada. The single mother of four suffered extensive physical and emotional injuries and was placed in the federal witness-protection program. She moved out of the province, court was told.

Jacob, Williams and another gang member had known the victim for years because of their affiliation with her son. The trio decided to try to get some money out of the woman after they crossed paths with her on the street while she was looking for her son in 2007.

They took the woman to a home on the belief her son would be there. Then, they pulled out guns and held them to her head. The gang members told the woman she hadn't "thanked them" for looking after her boy when he was in prison by ensuring he wouldn't be attacked by other inmates.

They initially demanded $10,000, then changed it to $40,000 when she said she could only offer a few hundred dollars. The men beat her with the butt ends of their guns, fracturing her left sinus cavity. They also hit her with a set of weights and a pipe, poked her in the eye socket and said she and her family would be killed.

The woman convinced the men to drive her to the restaurant where she worked so she could get some cash. She ran for help as soon as she was let out of the car.

Cory Amyotte, 23, pleaded guilty earlier this summer to aggravated assault and extortion and was sentenced to four years in prison. Amyotte and Jacob have previously made headlines for refusing to testify in a high-profile murder trial.

Phil Haiart died in October 2005 after getting caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout in the West End. Jeffrey Cansanay was convicted earlier this year of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Cory Spence was convicted of the same charge as a youth, but raised to adult court and given life in prison.

Amyotte and another gang member, Gharib Abdullah, were the targets of the bullets that hit Haiart. Cansanay previously went on trial in 2007 but was cleared by a judge who refused to allow videotaped police statements from Amyotte and Abdullah to be played in court when they both remained silent in the witness box. The Manitoba Court of Appeal later overturned the decision and ordered a new trial, saying the judge had erred.

Abdullah and Amyotte were cited for contempt of court and received precedent-setting prison terms -- four years for Amyotte, three-and-a-half for Abdullah. Both men testified when Cansanay's second trial began this spring. Abdullah told jurors he saw Cansanay open fire on him and Amyotte. Amyotte said he was in hiding at the time and didn't see anything.

Jacob was sentenced in 2008 to two years in prison for refusing to testify at Spence's trial. He was originally given three years behind bars for contempt of court but had it reduced on appeal to two years.

These gang members should not be given overly harsh sentences. Gangs often flourish in prisons and ties are often strengthened with antisocial criminal peers. Gang members readily subscribe to the prison subculture consisting of pro criminal attitudes, values and behaviours. They are often released with little to no rehabilitation, no skills, education, or assistance/support in the community and are therefore, much more likely to resort back to crime. I feel sorry for gang members because they often join due to a lack of belonging and sense of affection, respect and identity within their biological families and therefore, they fulfill these needs in other ways, for example, by joining gangs. Family conflict, neglect, abuse, dysfunction, etc. often underlies the reasons why individuals join gangs. Those issues need to be addressed effectively. I would sentence these gang members to 2 years in prison followed by community support, intensive supervision, family counseling, and community programming aimed at gang desistance.

Appeal Court reduces prison sentence for sex offender

2010-09-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

Sex offender has sentence reduced

Manitoba’s highest court has slashed a prison sentence given to a high-risk sex offender who randomly stalked and molested a woman in a Winnipeg shopping mall.

Corey Wright, 39, was originally sentenced to four years behind bars but learned Wednesday the Court of Appeal had reduced it to three years.

Justice Richard Chartier said the initial penalty given to Wright "falls outside an acceptable range of sentences under similar circumstances, making it demonstrably unfit." Chartier noted the trial judge found the 2008 incident didn’t meet the legal definition of a "major sexual assault" - but then imposed a sentence as if it was.

Wright was found guilty of sexual assault for following a young woman around a shopping mall for 30 minutes, then running up behind her, grabbing her waist and forcing his hand between her legs. She screamed and ran away.

"The facts are very disconcerting," aid Chartier. "Although the victim was not physically injured from the attack, she suffered emotional and psychological harm."

Police were able to quickly identity and arrest Wright because the attack was caught on surveillance video, court was told.

Wright has a lengthy criminal history with more than 40 prior convictions, including five for "sexually-motivated" offences. Three involved exposing himself to women, one was for making indecent phone calls and the other was for criminal harassment against a female victim who he also stalked and exposed himself to in a shopping mall.

"What is clear from the latest incident...is that there is a noticeable and troublesome escalation in the level of violence used by the accused," said Chartier. "Furthermore, at the time of sentencing, the accused had done little to address his offending behaviour."

The Crown had originally sought a five-year sentence for Wright, while his lawyer asked for a 26-month penalty.

Wright had served pre-trial custody which was given-double time credit of 23 months. Chartier has now ordered him to spend another 13 months behind bars, to be followed by two years of supervised probation. His conditions include mandatory sex offender counselling and having no contact with the victim.

Appeal court slashes prison sentence for high risk sex offender

MANITOBA'S highest court has slashed a prison sentence given to a high-risk sex offender who randomly stalked and molested a woman in a Winnipeg shopping mall.

Corey Wright, 39, was originally sentenced to four years behind bars but learned Wednesday the Court of Appeal had reduced it to three years.

Justice Richard Chartier said the initial penalty given to Wright "falls outside an acceptable range of sentences under similar circumstances, making it demonstrably unfit." Chartier noted the trial judge found the 2008 incident didn't meet the legal definition of a "major sexual assault" -- but then imposed a sentence as if it was.

"The facts are very disconcerting," said Chartier. "Although the victim was not physically injured from the attack, she suffered emotional and psychological harm."

Police were able to quickly identity and arrest Wright because the attack was caught on surveillance video, court was told.

Wright has a lengthy criminal history with more than 40 prior convictions, including five for "sexually motivated" offences. Three involved exposing himself to women, one was for making indecent phone calls and the other was for criminal harassment against a female victim who he also stalked and exposed himself to in a shopping mall.

The Crown had originally sought a five-year sentence for Wright, while his lawyer asked for a 26-month penalty.

The portion of the public who advocates for "tougher" sentences simply lack understanding, knowledge and information regarding our complex justice system and its mechanisms. Anyone who clearly understands our justice system and studies crime, such as criminologists and professors, usually do not advocate for tougher sentences, because the research has proven it to be ineffective and expensive at crime reduction and prevention. Because the majority of public receive information about crime and justice solely from the media (which is biased and sensationalizes violent and rare crimes), their attitudes about criminality are subsequently biased and not well developed. They are not well informed about the many issues surrounding the decisions made.

As a criminal justice student, it frustrates and concerns me to see so many members of the public completely disregarding human rights inherent to all Canadians (including prisoners) and advocating for tougher sentences which have been proven in research time and time again, to have little, if any, significant impact on crime rates. We need to stop ignoring the research, stop reactionary responses to crime and start implementing proactive and preventative policies instead. That is the only way crime will be reduced and/or prevented. I wish everybody understood this or at least acknowledged the research.. but unfortunately, some individuals are too self-centered/ignorant to acknowledge that they are wrong.

Seriously, how are longer prison sentences helpful to long term public safety and offender rehabilitation? They aren't. Longer sentences have been proven to increase an offender's chances of re-offending and decrease their chances of successful reintegration, which is extremely important for improving public safety. We must facilitate rehabilitation and reintegration in all cases, so offenders can be returned to society as productive and law abiding citizens.

How are longer prison sentences helpful to long term public safety and offender rehabilitation and reintegration? They are ineffective at all of these objectives. Longer sentences have been proven to increase an offender's chances of re-offending and decrease their likelihood of successful reintegration. How does that improve public safety? If an offender is not rehabilitated, provided with little support, assistance and programming upon release/guidance, they are more likely to re-offend, therefore, creating more dangerous communities. We have to remember that virtually all offenders WILL eventually be released back into our communities and be living among us. They will live in our cities and towns, be our coworkers, attend college or university with us or with our children and be our neighbours. Therefore, we MUST facilitate reintegration by providing offenders with the skills necessary to be productive members of society. We must always remember to do what is in society's best interests, and that does not mean retribution, revenge or excessive punishment.

An inmate serving a lengthy sentence in prison once said, "When I get out of here in 25 years, do you want to be my neighbour?"

I would have preferred a sentence of 2 years in prison for this sex offender. He should have to participate in sex offender counselling and programming in prison and also relapse prevention/maintenance programs once released into the community. Sex offenders suffer from cognitive distortions, and have often been abused or neglected themselves, therefore, they need effective psychological treatment. This man would be considered a "rapist" in the three categories of sex offenders and therefore, requires general crime programming and moderate intensity sex offender programming.

Medical response in prisons identified as still a problem

2010-09-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Medical response in jails ID'd as still a problem

A review of nine deaths that occurred in federal custody between April 2008 and April 2010 shows recurring problems in responding to medical emergencies, as well as problems with accountability and compliance.

The fourth and final assessment of the Correctional Service of Canada's progress in preventing deaths in custody was released Wednesday in Ottawa.

While the correctional service has taken some concrete steps toward preventing deaths in federal facilities, "measurable progress is not yet where it should be," the review's author, Howard Sapers, who is the Correctional Investigator of Canada, said in a statement.

"The preservation of life is an integral part of the mandate of the correctional service. I expect this principle to be embedded in policy, reflected in the culture of the organization and orient its day-to-day interactions with offenders."

The Correctional Investigator is an independent ombudsman for federal offenders.

The nine cases reviewed in the final assessment found problems in the following areas:

Slow response to medical emergencies.
Lack of sharing of information between clinical and front-line staff.
Lack of monitoring of suicide pre-indicators.
Quality and frequency of security patrols.
Management of mentally ill offenders.
Quality of internal investigative reports and processes.

One of Saper's key recommendations is that the CSC create a senior management position responsible for promoting and monitoring safe custody practices

Among his other recommendations:

Prohibit the practice of placing mentally ill offenders, or those at risk of suicide or serious self-injury, in prolonged segregation.
Provide round-the-clock health-care coverage at all maximum, medium and multi-level institutions.
Introduce audits to ensure the quality of security patrols.
Training front-line staff on how to manage offenders at risk of self-injury or to ensure proper monitoring, crisis response and prevention protocols are in place.

The quarterly assessment process was sparked by the case of Ashley Smith, who had history of harming herself and died in her Kitchener, Ont., prison cell In October 2007 after a prolonged period of segregation.

Smith had spent five years in the youth justice system in New Brunswick before being transferred to the federal facility in October 2006, at age 18.

Since Smith's death, more than 130 offenders have died in federal custody.

I completely agree with the recommendations, especially not imprisoning mentally ill individuals. They cannot receive proper treatment and services in prison and there conditions are likely to worsen in prisons, due to the negative effects (psychological). They should either be treated in a community setting or in a mental health care facility. There needs to be improved medical services in prisons also. Prisoners are human beings and therefore, deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and care. This means that they are entitled to adequate medical and mental health care. Anything less is inhumane and unacceptable. The government is obligated to provide for their basic health care needs. Healthcare is universal, not discriminating. The majority of criminals are released back into the community after completing their sentences. We need to do what is in society's best interests regarding treatment and services, because eventually, most of these individuals will be living in our communities. They need to be reintegrated properly and successfully and be provided with the skills and services and opportunities to do so. We need to be civilized in the manner in which we treat the mentally ill. Healthcare is a basic right to which all Canadians should be afforded. Prisons are meant to be for rehabilitation and protection, not further punishment and retribution. Many prisoners can be rehabilitated so that they are not a threat to themselves or others. Counselling and therapy around sexual, physical and emotional abuse would rehabilitate many. Education training and job upgrading would ensure inmates returning to soicety would have the tools necessary to become self sufficient and productive members of society. This would cost a lot less than building more prisons.

Facebook revenge plot nets prison sentence. Completely inappropriate.

2010-08-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Posting nude pics of ex gets man jail time

A Winnipeg man is heading to jail for posting nude photos of his 16-year-old former girlfriend on Facebook.

The 18-year-old – who can’t be named to protect the identity of the victim – pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography and criminal harassment. He was sentenced on Friday to six months behind bars as part of a joint-recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers.

Crown attorney Terry McComb told court the girl took the pictures of herself and emailed them to the accused when she was just 15. The pair had been in a relationship for nearly two years but broke up last spring.

The accused was apparently upset after learning she was in a new relationship with a man he didn’t like and decided to seek revenge by creating a Facebook account under a bogus name, then posting the pictures online and sending links to friends of the girl and her new boyfriend, court was told.

The photos included topless shots of the teen and others which showed her naked torso, but not her face. In Canada, nude photos of a sexual nature depicting anyone under the age of 18 are considered child pornography.

The accused was arrested in April and spent four nights in custody before getting bail. He then sent his ex-girlfriend an email apology. "I’m sorry for showing you to his friends. I got charged with child pornography and that’s killer," he wrote.

The man was quickly re-arrested by police and charged with violating his bail by having contact with the victim. He has been in custody at Headingley Jail ever since.

Provincial court Judge Kelly Moar called the man’s actions "totally reprehensible" and noted the explicit pictures of the girl will remain online forever.

"What you chose to do is unfortunately something that cannot be undone," Moar said. "There's no delete button on the Internet. Those things float forever on the Internet."

Defence lawyer Michelle Bright said her client was motivated by revenge, not sexual deviance. A pre-sentenced report shows he is a low-risk to re-offend and has expressed remorse for his actions.

Moar sentenced the man to three and-a-half more months in jail, in addition to two and-a-half months of time already served. He also placed the accused on two years of supervised probation which includes an order to stay away from the victim. He is also banned from having any Internet access unless it’s related to his work or schooling and must attend domestic counselling.

Facebook revenge plot nets 6 month sentence

A young Winnipeg man's plot to seek revenge on his ex-girlfriend by posting explicit photos of the teen on Facebook has netted him a six-month jail term for distributing child pornography.
The 18-year-old was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in July to the child-pornography charge and another allegation of criminal harassment.

'I'm sorry for showing you to his friends … I got charged with child pornography and that's killer.'— 18-year-old who tried to get revenge on former girlfriend

A court-ordered ban prevents his name from being published because it could identify the 16-year-old victim.
The two teens had been in a romantic relationship for about two years but broke up in March, court heard.
The man was arrested in April after friends of the victim's new boyfriend were sent an online link taking them to a Facebook profile page in the girl's name. Explicit photos of her were posted there, Crown prosecutor Terry McComb said.
The 18-year-old spent four nights in jail but was released on bail conditions that included a ban against contacting the younger teen for any reason.
However, a few days after his release, he created a new Hotmail email account and sent the victim a message, McComb said.
"Please just read and don't tell the cops," the message said. "I'm sorry for showing you to his friends … I got charged with child pornography and that's killer."
McComb told provincial court Judge Kelly Moar that the apology was not allowed under the bail terms.
After reading the email, the girl phoned police, who quickly rearrested the young man and charged him with harassment. He's been held at the Headingley Correctional Centre ever since.
Defence lawyer Michelle Bright said a need for revenge motivated the 18-year-old after his ex-girlfriend started a relationship, not long after the breakup, with someone he didn't like.
The teen is remorseful for what he did and told a probation officer, "I don't like [jail], but I deserve it," Bright said.
Moar called the man's actions "totally reprehensible" and said it's possible he made the girl a lifelong victim of sexual exploitation because of the permanence of online content.
"What you chose to do … is unfortunately something that cannot be undone," Moar said. "There's no delete button on the internet. Those things float forever on the internet."
Moar sentenced the man to three and a half more months in jail after crediting him for the more than two months he's already spent locked up.
Moar also ordered him to two years on supervised probation, which forbids him from having any access to the internet or using a computer unless it's at work or school.
A court-ordered pre-sentencing report recommended the teen be released immediately into a community-based domestic-violence treatment program. McComb and the man's lawyer, Michelle Bright, told Moar the case was more akin to one involving domestic violence and not sexual deviance.
At the request of the lawyers, Moar declined to have the man's name placed on a federal database of sex-offenders, calling such a move "grossly disproportionate" given the circumstances of the case.

So what purpose does prison serve in this case? Absolutely none. We should not imprison non violent and non dangerous offenders, such as this teen. Prison for this teen is harsh, inappropriate and excessive. He is not a child molester or sex offender! The public does not need to be protected from this man. Jail will cause more harm than good. He should have received community service and counseling. He expressed remorse for his stupidity and is being punished for apologizing. He cannot have internet access unless it's related to work or schooling. Imprisoning this teen and giving him a criminal record, creates barriers for employment in his future. He made a mistake. He didn't intend to "distribute." Youth brains are under-developed and they do not consider the consequences of their actions or the possibility of punishment. He made a bad decision, that's all. Prison is completely inappropriate. This man is not a child molester or predator by any means. He is not dangerous to society. The made a mistake and posted the pictures. Imprisoning him is a waste of money and resources and causes further overcrowding when the courts overrely on prisons. It is waste of money and the courts. Prisons are the schools of crime and educate non violent offenders to become hardened criminals. They learn skills and how to avoid detection.

This man's actions were a mistake. He had no intention to "distribute" child pornography. It was a mistake made in the heat of the moment, with contributing emotions of rage and revenge. Prison is completely inappropriate. It serves no purpose and fails to address the social and economic, psychological and biological root causes of the crime. This man will be released with no rehabilitation, and a criminal record which creates barriers to later employment and housing opportunities. He is a low risk to re-offend, is not a danger to society and expressed remorse for his actions. Prison is an excessive punishment. I also think that holding this man at Headingly prior to his court date, was also excessive. Prison is a negative environment with negative influences and pro criminal attitudes. He should have been granted bail as he is not a danger to society. This crime was motivated by a need to revenge and emotions of rage. This man should have received 2 years probation with no access to internet or contact with the victim, court ordered counseling and community service. That would be more meaningful than prison.

it has been proven time and time again that punishment in most cases, is completely ineffective. Rehabilitation, and prevention and restoration are the effective and long term crime solutions. Too bad the Conservatives ignore criminological and sociological research....

haha 3,000 years we've been throwing people in prison. 3000 years it hasn't been working. I distinctly remember having this conversation already. See what I mean about not changing opinions? You are fighting a battle of wits, with an unarmed opponent. There is no way to win. He will just scream "CRIMINALS" every time he sees a crime, and never look past it.

There are much better ways to punish and rehabilitate people than prison. The fact we don't use them is pretty telling. Nobody learns from prison, except how to commit more crimes. My proof? Look at yourself. What do you learn from? Certainly not the people you encounter in your day to day life. You learn from what you believe will benefit you. You see no value in others peaceful beliefs because you cannot make profits from it, so you choose to discard them.

This is the type of mentality that supports our wholesale industrial slaughter of innocent human beings halfway across the world, on the premise that 'we' are better, and deserve more rights, than other people.

Prison for this man is harsh, inappropriate and excessive. He is not a danger to society and is a low risk to re-offend. He made a mistake by posting nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend online that was motivated by a desire for revenge and emotions of rage. He expressed remorse for his actions. Prison serves no purpose, has negative effects and creates barriers for employment and housing opportunities. He should have received probation and community service.

Teen admits to killing 9 year old boy on Manitoba reserve

2010-08-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

Teen admits killing 9 year old boy on MB reserve

WINNIPEG - A Manitoba teen has admitted to slitting the throat of a nine-year-old boy he was babysitting on a remote reserve.

The 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder and will be sentenced this fall. Justice officials agreed not to seek an adult sentence in exchange for his admission of guilt.

Tristian Dunsford was killed on June 27, 2008 inside a home in Little Grand Rapids, about 280 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. He suffered massive blood loss as a result of "sharp force trauma to the neck," according to police.

No other details have been presented to the court, including any motive for the slaying or what type of weapon was used.

The accused was set to begin a Queen’s Bench jury trial next month before striking the plea bargain.

Crown and defence lawyers have requested a pre-sentence report and forensic assessment based on the belief the youth suffers from mental-health issues. However, the teen is not seeking to avoid criminal responsibility based on any existing issues.

He now faces a maximum sentence under the Youth Criminal Justice Act of seven years custody and community supervision. An adult convicted of second-degree murder would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

There could be many factors which contributed to this crime. First of all, this teen was from a reserve, which usually offer little employment or recreational opportunities, leaving reservation teens restless and bored. They often are more likely to be influenced by deviant norms and values of their peers, due to the fact that their parents live in poverty. They may witness or experience abuse, witness substance abuse, are neglected, lack supervision or monitoring, parents lack involvement in their child's life, lack of encouragement, support, affection, nurturance, consistent discipline, etc. These are all risk factors for teens to become involved in delinquent and antisocial behaviours. This article is biased as it fails to mention anything about this teen's background and family life.

Sentencing for woman who accidentally killed two-- gets suspended sentence

2010-08-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

Sentencing of woman who killed two pedestrians in 2008 downtown Winnipeg crash

Driver who accidentally killed two, gets suspended sentence and banned from driving for 10 years

A Winnipeg woman offered a tearful apology Friday to the families of two pedestrians she killed a horrific downtown crash.

Lucy Muthoka, 52, was handed a two-year suspended sentence with probation after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death for the June 2008 incident near the intersection of Donald Street and St. Mary Avenue in downtown Winnipeg.

William Halcrow, 57, and James Ross, 58, were killed instantly after being hit by Muthoka’s Subaru Forester. The two friends were from the Cross Lake reserve in northern Manitoba and were in Winnipeg for medical treatment.

"God being my witness, I never intended to harm. Words fail to express how sorry I am," Muthoka told a large courtroom gathering which included family and friends of the two men. "I am more sorry than the world will understand. I will continue to pray for the healing of everyone affected by this. May God meet the needs of everyone whose lives were changed."

Crown attorney Zane Tessler said Muthoka was an inexperienced driver who had just completed five refresher courses after purchasing a new car. While exiting a downtown parkade, she somehow hit the gas pedal instead of her brake and accelerated rapidly, striking several vehicles and people at the crowded intersection during rush-hour traffic.

Muthoka also hit a fire hydrant, which caused hundreds of litres of water to quickly flood the area. That hampered the police investigation because it was difficult to re-create the scene and figure out the sequence of events.

Several bystanders who witnessed the crash - and narrowly avoided being hit - tried frantically to revive the two gravely injured men, as did firefighters and paramedics upon arrival. A third man was pinned between two cars and suffered serious injuries, as did the drivers of two other vehicles.

"The degree of resulting carnage was substantial," said Tessler. Muthoka wasn’t intoxicated or distracted by anything such as a cellular phone or texting, court was told. It was a "perfect summer day" with clear skies and dry roads.

Muthoka has no prior criminal record and is a devoutly religious single mother who has spent the past decade working for Agriculture Canada. She is originally from Kenya and serves as an elder within the local community, along with being heavily involved in her church. More than 30 people filed glowing letters of support on her behalf.

"Her sense of guilt is enormous," said defence lawyer Saul Simmonds. "This is a decent, honest, hardworking person. It’s the nightmare for everyone who gets behind the wheel."

The families of both victims made emotional impact statements in court, describing how both men were loved and respected by their community.

"The pain of loss is excruciating," said Ross’ sister, Betty. "To lose someone in such a sudden, unexpected and inhumane way."

The sentencing judge said this case was especially difficult given the tragic circumstances, Muthoka’s obvious lack of intent and her glowing background. He said no punishment can undo the damage caused or bring the victims back.

He ordered Muthoka to perform 240 hours of community service work and banned her from driving for a 10-year period. Muthoka also expressed a desire to meet with the families of the victims and make a charitable donation on their behalf, if they wished, letter of apology and mediation.

No jail for killer Winnipeg driver
A Winnipeg woman who killed two Manitoba men in a devastating crash more than two years ago will not go to jail for her dangerous driving.
Lucy Muthoka, 53, was handed a suspended sentence and two years of probation Friday in the deaths of William Halcrow, 57, and James Ross, 58, on the evening of June 25, 2008.
The two friends were killed after being struck by an erratically driven Subaru Forester near the corner of Donald Street and St. Mary Avenue. They were in Winnipeg from their home community of Cross Lake to attend medical appointments.
After a prolonged police investigation, Muthoka, the Subaru's driver, was arrested and charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death on Dec. 11, 2008.
The Crown stayed the more serious charges in exchange for her guilty pleas to dangerous driving causing death.

'It's like getting kicked some more when you already suffered.'—Marlene Castel

The conditions of Muthoka's probation include performing 240 hours of community service work, writing a letter of apology to the families of the victims and the community of Cross Lake and participating in mediation with the families if they request it in the future.
She is forbidden from driving in Canada for the next 10 years.
She walked out of court at about 2:30 p.m. CT after signing her probation order.

Sudden acceleration

Muthoka was coming out of the Millennium Library's parkade when her car suddenly accelerated, according to a brief summary of the Crown's facts of the case told to provincial court Judge Brent Stewart.
She slammed into a truck, swerved across a street and struck the two men, who died at the scene despite efforts by paramedics and passersby to save their lives.
Another man, David Matsubara, was injured, but survived.
Halcrow and Ross's families travelled to Winnipeg to attend Friday's sentencing hearing. Members of each family admitted being disappointed at the sentence Muthoka was given.

'It was lenient for her but not lenient for us.'—Betty Ross

"It's like getting kicked some more when you already suffered. There's no words I could use except that I'm very disappointed," said Marlene Castel, Halcrow's sister.
Ross's sister, Betty Ross, told CBC News that it appeared all efforts were being made during the court hearing to shield Muthoka from punishment.
"It almost felt that everybody was cushioning her, and that they were lifting her up and of course, the judge took that," Ross said.
"Sure enough, it was lenient for her but not lenient for us."
At a prior hearing, court heard that Muthoka had been sent threatening notes about the deadly crash. The nature of the notes was not revealed in court.
Muthoka spoke in court and apologized for what happened, but the victims' families said they were upset she didn't look at them while saying she was sorry.

Pretty biased headline CBC. This woman did not kill anybody intentionally. It was a complete accident which could have happened to anybody. Labeling her as a "killer" is really inappropriate. Plus, saying "no jail" makes it appear as if that type of sentence was expected. This woman has to live with the details of this horrific tragedy for the rest of her life and expresses sincere remorse. I think that is enough punishment. Prison for this woman would be considered cruel and would serve no purpose.

Her sense of guilt is enormous-- driver pleads guilty to killing two men
An inexperienced Winnipeg driver who accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of her brake offered a tearful apology to the families of two pedestrians she killed in a chaotic downtown crash.
Lucy Muthoka, 52, was handed a two-year suspended sentence with probation Friday after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death for the June 2008 incident near the intersection of Donald Street and St. Mary Avenue.
William Halcrow, 57, and James Ross, 58, were killed instantly after being hit by Muthoka's Subaru Forester. The two friends were from the Cross Lake reserve in northern Manitoba and were in Winnipeg for medical treatment.
"God being my witness, I never intended to harm. Words fail to express how sorry I am," a tearful Muthoka told a large courtroom gathering, which included family and friends of the two men. "I am more sorry than the world will understand. I will continue to pray for the healing of everyone affected by this. May God meet the needs of everyone whose lives were changed."
Crown attorney Zane Tessler said Muthoka was an "infrequent" driver who had just completed five refresher courses after purchasing a new car. She had placed a "novice driver" warning sign at the back of the vehicle.
Her driving instructor later told police she wouldn't have had the skills to pass a driving test following her first lesson, but likely would have following completion of the course.
While exiting the Millennium Library parkade just after 4:30 p.m., Muthoka suddenly accelerated rapidly, striking several vehicles and people at the crowded intersection during rush-hour traffic. Muthoka also went up on the sidewalk and hit a fire hydrant, which caused hundreds of litres of water to quickly flood the area. That hampered the police investigation because it was difficult to recreate the scene and figure out the sequence of events.
Several witnesses -- who narrowly avoided being hit -- tried frantically to revive the two gravely injured men lying in the rapidly rising waters, as did firefighters and paramedics. A third man was pinned between two cars and suffered serious injuries, as did the drivers of two other vehicles.
"The degree of resulting carnage was substantial," Tessler said.
Muthoka wasn't intoxicated or distracted by anything such as a cellular phone, court was told. It was a "perfect summer day" with clear skies and dry roads.
Muthoka had no criminal record and is a religious single mother who has spent the past decade working for Agriculture Canada.
She is originally from Kenya and serves as an elder within the local community. More than 30 people filed letters of support on her behalf.
"Her sense of guilt is enormous," defence lawyer Saul Simmonds said. "She goes to sleep at night praying for Mr. Ross and Mr. Halcrow and their families. She wakes up praying for them. This is a decent, honest, hard-working person. It's the nightmare for everyone who gets behind the wheel."
The families of both victims made emotional impact statements in court, describing how both men were loved and respected by their community. They were joined by the Cross Lake chief and council members.
"The pain of loss is excruciating," said Ross' sister, Betty. "To lose someone in such a sudden, unexpected and inhumane way."
Provincial court Judge Brent Stewart said the case was especially difficult given the tragic circumstances, Muthoka's obvious lack of intent and her glowing background. He said no punishment can undo the damage caused or bring the victims back.
"This is not a court of vengeance," said Stewart. Outside court, several family members expressed anger at the suspended sentence and questioned the sincerity of Muthoka's apology.
As part of her penalty, Stewart ordered Muthoka to perform 240 hours of community service and banned her from driving for a 10-year period.
Muthoka also expressed a desire to meet with the families of the victims and make a charitable donation on their behalf, if they wished.

I completely agree with the sentence of this woman. Prison should only be implemented for the most dangerous individuals and this woman, does not appear to pose a great risk to the community. This killing was an accident, not intentional. How would prison help her? What purpose would that serve? None. It is a negative environment with pro criminal attitudes and values and the prison subculture would likely have a negative impact on this woman's life. Plus, most prisoners are released with little assistance, support, guidance, rehabilitation, no housing or employment and often resort back to crime or end up living in poverty. That is not acceptable.

This woman offered a tearful apology which clearly shows that she feels remorse for the consequences of her actions. She clearly feels absolutely horrible for what happened, and she will have to live with the fact that she killed two people for the rest of her life. That is enough punishment. Prison is not needed and would only cause more harm to her psychological well being. Hitting the gas pedal instead of the brake, is an honest mistake which could happen to any new driver. She had no intention to harm those individuals. This woman has no prior criminal record and is a single mother. She needs to be able to provide for her children and prison would hamper that. Studies show that children without parents and living in foster care are more likely to become delinquent or antisocial as they have little attachment to their parents, especially if their mother is in prison. That would not help her family situation at all and would set her children up for failure and possibly later crime. I believe this woman is a decent and hard working individual who made an honest and horrific/tragic mistake. She even wants to meet with the families and make a donation on their behalf. That shows the compassion and kindness of this woman's heart. It was a horrible accident and she feels extreme remorse and guilt for what happened. Punishment would be unnecessary and harsh. This woman's needs the public's sympathy. She had no intent whatsoever. It was an accident and she is paying for it in her soul. She stepped on the wrong pedal by mistake. There is no way you could send this woman to jail as there was no intent on doing anything incriminating with her vehicle. She was not driving recklessly, intentionally speeding, blowing through stop signs, etc.

She was following the rules of the road and put her foot on the wrong pedal by mistake. Anyone who advocates for prison time is unreasonably harsh, vengeful and unsympathetic. This woman is devoutly religious, a church leader, with n prior criminal record who accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. She just came out of a parking garage, accelerated by accident and smashed into cars and people. Horrible accident. 2 pedestrians were killed instantly, and another man pinned between two cars.

I think we all need to step back and try to understand this was an accident. This could happen to ANYONE! I for one would be horrified if I ever caused something like this and I think we need to remember "there but for the grace of god go I" I feel terrible for everyone involved. So sad.

I am seriously saddened to see some of these remarks. The article clearly stated she was an unexperienced driver that had recently taken a refresher course. She may have gotten her licence 15 years ago and hasn't really driven since.
She is obviously distraught and appears to be a hardworking, charitable woman.
I'd hate to see my fellow winnipegers stand in judgement of me if I were to make a mistake. It appears that everyone should go to jail for everything when you read these boards.

Wow you people are so unsympathetic. There was no intent by this woman whatsoever. It was a frak accident. She is paying for it inside her soul. I can't imagine the guilt of killing two people when all you were trying to do was exit a parkade. she stepped on the wrong pedal by mistake.

My question is if she was such a bad or inexperienced driver, how did she pass her road test? There lies the problem in this case. It's the womans fault but indirectly only. There is no way you can send this person to jail for vechiular manslaughter as there was no intent on doing anything incriminating with her vechicle. She was not driving recklessly-and by that I mean intentionally speeding, blowing stop signs etc. she was following the rules of the road and put her foot on the wrong pedal by mistake. Enough said. Jail time, give me a break

There are two reasons to put people in jail:

#1 - to keep dangerous criminals from harming society. This was an accident, regardless of whether the woman was a poor driver or whether it was a genuine accident. Taking her license away for ten years (and the obvious emotional guilt she has) is enough to keep her from harming others; and

#2 - to serve as a warning to others that this kind of action isn't acceptable. I don't know about the rest of you, but whether this woman is put behind bars for 25 years, or whether she walks free, it doesn't stop me from either having an automobile accident, nor does it stop inexperienced drivers.

Our justice system is flooded with criminals, so putting her in jail takes a bed away from real repeat offenders that continually disobey our laws. This woman did something awful, and she has to live with that for the rest of her life. I don't even agree with jail time when it's drinking and driving from a remorseful person, let alone just an inexperienced driver.

Keep this woman off the road, let her do the community service, that in itself is enough punishment and will do the best for society. Putting her in jail will not bring the dead back, nor will teach her or anyone else a lesson not to have an auto accident.

It's very unfortunate, but accidents happen.

in this case, people shouldn't judge her. It could happen to ANY ONE OF US.

This was an accident which could have happened to anybody. Anyone can make the mistake of hitting the gas pedal instead of the brake. It's tragic that two individuals were killed, but we have to understand that this killing was completely unintentional. This woman had no intention to harm or kill anybody and therefore, should not be punished. I am saddened and shocked to read the many vengeful, and unsympathetic comments towards this woman. She is obviously distraught, expressed genuine remorse, has no prior criminal record, is a single mother, religious, charitable and hardworking woman. It appears that everyone should go to jail for everything when you read these comments. How can we be so unsympathetic?

This tragic killing of two individuals, was a complete accident which could have happened to anybody. This woman hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. She had no intention to harm or kill anyone. This was an unintentional killing. I am saddened to read the many vengeful and unsympathetic comments towards this woman by the public. She is obviously distraught, expressed genuine remorse, has no prior criminal record, is a single mother and a religious, hard working and charitable woman who now has to live with extreme guilt over what happened for the rest of her life. That is enough punishment.

Prisoners go on hunger strike over bad food

2010-08-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Prisoners go on hunger strike over bad food

It’s a lot easier to go on a hunger strike if you hate the food.

About 300 inmates began the boycott Monday at the Toronto East Detention Centre in Scarborough, according to Laurie Galway, a lawyer representing one of the inmates participating in the strike.

Daniel Sholman, a 19-year-old prisoner, says he would prefer to do his time in a more civilized prison like the Don Jail, where he’s also sampled the cuisine.

“I’ve been in many jails in my life which is kind of sad,” said Sholman, calling the Star from the detention centre. “I’m not saying I’m perfect. But we’re human beings and deserve to be treated better.”

The strike is running in conjunction with Tuesday’s Prison Justice Day, a day set aside to remember inmates killed in Canadian jails, which inspires hunger strikes across the country.

At the Toronto East Detention Centre, chicken is served only once a month, fruits and vegetables are a rarity and special dietary needs are ignored, Sholman said. He’s been at the jail for the past two months as he awaits trial for breaking and entering charges.

Not only is the food subpar, prisoners say, but portions are simply too meagre.

“There’s not enough food for grown men to live on,” Galway said.

Sholman said the inmates filled out complaint forms. Galway, who represents a different prisoner, said the complaints were sent up the chain of command and dismissed.

But problems go beyond the food, inmates say. It’s also the hospitality.

“In the Don and Maplehurst (correctional complex) I feel more alive,” Sholman said. “They bring you outside.”

The situation inside could get worse. There is talk of rioting among the prisoners, but that may jeopardize their cause of securing delicious food, Sholman said.

“It makes me feel like I have no hope. I feel like a hamster (in a cage),” Sholman said.

Toronto East Detention Centre officials refused to comment.

I advocate for prisoners' rights and they are human beings and deserve to be provided with adequate and nutritious food and the jail must provide for dietary needs. That is so inhumane and I support this hunger strike.

A rise in unreported crime does NOT justify expanding prisons

2010-08-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sound the alarm on Stockwell Day's statistics

The only alarming thing about a six-year-old rise in unreported crime is that the government of Canada is leaning on it to justify a $5.1-billion a year expansion of the prison system.

“People simply aren’t reporting the same way they used to,” says Stockwell Day, a senior minister in the Conservative government. “I’m saying one statistic of many that concerns us is the amount of crimes that go unreported.”

The office of Justice Minister Rob Nicholson later released more detail on the allegedly “alarming statistic:” in 2004, a Statistics Canada survey found that 34 per cent of crime incidents were reported to police, down from 37 per cent in 1999.

This is alarming? A six-year-old uptick in unreported crimes – mostly minor thefts not considered sufficiently serious by Canadians to report, says StatsCan. And where are the other data points of concern? None have been cited.

StatsCan also found that 94 per cent of Canadians felt safe. Is Mr. Day alarmed on behalf of the frightened six per cent? And what do unreported crimes have to do with building more prisons anyway?

There is an alarming number Mr. Day neglected to mention. At the moment, Canada spends $4.4-billion a year on its jails (Ottawa and the provinces combined). The Conservative government will raise the costs to $9.5-billion a year, by the estimate of Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Mr. Page looked only at the Truth in Sentencing Act, which takes away the two-for-one credit for jail time served before sentencing. (The government says the true extra cost is $400-million a year, but it has offered scant supporting evidence.)

The principle behind the law is sound – the bonus was too rich – but that does not justify such an outlandish expenditure in what should be an era of government spending restraint. And this is just one law of many that could increase the prison population.

Crime rates are in decline. The government has not made the case that crime is a priority that overrides the need to reduce spending and the deficit.

If the government has persuasive justifications for such recklessness with public money, it should make them known. It should not fall back on a six-year-old blip in unreported crime. What is alarming is that the government is apparently bent on more than doubling the cost of the prison system, at a time of restraint, on the thinnest of pretexts.

A six-year-old rise in unreported crime does not justify the Conservative government's $5.1-billion-a-year expansion of the prison system

Crime overhaul unnecessary, We do not need to get tough on crime

2010-08-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

Crime overhaul targets gang leaders, madams and bookies

Brothels and bookies have become the latest targets of the Conservative crime crackdown.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson unveiled a series of regulation changes on Wednesday that have expanded the definition of a “serious crime” to include a series of gambling offences, and crimes related to drug trafficking and prostitution.
While the changes boost penalties for those crimes, the primary goal is to widen the use of the sophisticated law-enforcement tools that can be used to crack indictable offences committed by organized crime groups.
The new regulations will allow authorities to pursue wiretaps, the seizure of proceeds of crime along with tougher bail, parole and sentencing conditions for organized rings involved in drug smuggling, prostitution and gambling.
Mr. Nicholson said the new rules aren’t just meant to target madams and gambling cheats. The real targets are the gang kingpins who make immense profits from the illegal activities and could previously escape the toughest measures aimed at gangsters.
“Such crimes are often considered signature activities of organized crime because of its long-standing involvement in and reliance upon those activities,” Mr. Nicholson said.
“It’s one more tool.”
Claude Laferrière, the lawyer for a Quebec victims’ rights group, suggested the changes are too small to strike fear into the heart of the criminal underworld. He said the measures appear to be “a small step toward harmonizing” Canadian law with penalties in the United States.
“They’re trying to create an approach more in concert with the Americans. It’s a very timid step, but it’s a step,” he said.
Michel Auger, an author and expert on organized crime, said gambling has long been a big source of revenue for gangs, even as police concentrated efforts on the rapidly expanding drug trade.
“For a long time people who ran those organizations were outside the target of measures used to crack down on crime. These laws should take them off the sidelines and put more of them in jail,” Mr. Auger told Radio-Canada.
The changes were applauded by law-enforcement officials from Ontario and Quebec. Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Don Bell said areas like illegal gambling have long been dominated by gangs “because of extremely high profit margins for very low risk.”
“We’ve now closed that loophole,” he said.
Regulation changes announced by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson apply to 11 charges. The crimes include:
» Keeping a common gaming or betting house.
» Betting, pool-selling and book-making.
» Committing offences in relation to lotteries and games of chance.
» Cheating while playing a game or in holding the stakes for a game or in betting.
» Keeping a common bawdy house.
» Several offences in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act relating to trafficking.
» Importing, exporting or production of certain scheduled drugs.

What Stockwell Day meant to say

2010-08-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

What Stockwell Day meant to say

The Prime Minister’s Office was busily emailing its message of the day to supporters and MPs as Treasury Board President Stockwell Day was unsuccessfully trying to share it with reporters in Ottawa Tuesday.

“Continuing the Focus on Jobs and Growth – Message of the Day” was the headline on the PMO missive. That was not Mr. Day’s message, try though he did. The minister was sent out as the Tory representative in the morning in advance of a series of cabinet meetings this week that ends with the national Conservative caucus meeting Thursday.

Mr. Day was to talk about jobs and growth; he tried to talk about jobs and growth and stimulus. However, reporters had other ideas – the controversy over the census dominated and there was a question about prisons to which he gave a very curious answer – and so his news conference went slightly off the rails.

Here’s what he was supposed to be discussing:

“Today, the Honourable Stockwell Day, President of the Treasury Board, Minister for the Pacific Gateway and Minister Responsible for British Columbia … discussed the Government’s continued focus on creating jobs and economic growth across Canada,” the PMO email says.

And it listed some of the points that Mr. Day would make:

“Today, Canadians can be encouraged by the positive signs of recovery we are seeing across the country,” according to the talking points. “However, the recovery is still fragile and Canada is not immune to the economic instability of other countries.”

To be fair he did make the points in his introductory remarks before he took any questions, he just wasn’t able to build on them. That’s because reporters had other ideas _ nowhere, for example, in the talking points is any mention of the controversy over the scrapping of the compulsory long-form census or Canadians not reporting crime.

Mr. Day, in answering a question about the government’s thinking in building more prisons during a recession, defended the billions of dollars of expense with his assertion that the crime rate is not going down because other offences are going unreported at an “alarming” rate.

“It shows we can’t take a Liberal view to crime which is, some would suggest, that it is barely happening at all,” Mr. Day said. “Still, there are too many situations of criminal activity that are alarming to our citizens and we intend to deal with that.”

Not surprisingly, Mr. Day’s comments about unreported crime have provoked a lot of commentary, including a YouTube video annotating his statements during the news conference.

The Liberals, too, were quick to pounce. “Stockwell Day seems like he is making things up,” a senior Ignatieff official told The Globe. “Not to say that there are no such things as ‘unreported crimes,’ but to use that to justify their ‘lock’em all up and throw away the key’ agenda is pushing the envelope.

“If Mr. Day is so keen to look back to the early 60s crime stats, he should know that some crimes reported today were not necessarily reported back then: domestic violence, rape and child abuse, to name a few.”

If only the Treasury Board President had just stuck to the talking points. What he really meant to say was that his government is continuing its work to “return to balanced budgets by winding down stimulus spending when the time is right.”

---

Update A Justice Department press secretary is contacting reporters telling them Mr. Day is “correct in his assertion that many crimes go unreported in Canada”, arguing, too, that the Liberals use statistics as an “EXCUSE not to get tough on criminals.”

Pamela Stephens’s defence of the Treasury Board President came Tuesday afternoon by way of an email, in which she notes she has received “some calls” about Mr. Day's s contention that crime is going unreported in Canada.

“As far as our Government is concerned, one victim of crime is still one too many,” she writes. “What the Liberals forget to tell Canadians is that there is a cost to crime whatever way you look at it. Allowing criminals to roam our streets is not free. It costs money to try to keep track of them, and sometimes when we lose track of their whereabouts and they re-offend the impact can be devastating.”

Ms. Stephens points to a 2004 Statistics Canada survey, which she notes finds that an estimated 34 per cent of Canadians who are victims crime still aren't reporting the offence to police.

Stockwell Day cites 'alarming' rise in unreported crime to justify new prisons

2010-08-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Stockwell Day cites 'alarming' rise in unreported crime to justify new prisons

Although the official crime rate is going down, a senior Harper government minister says there is reason to disbelieve the statistics and spend billions of dollars on new prisons: an “alarming” increase in unreported crime.
Stockwell Day’s argument is based on a Statistics Canada survey, conducted like a large poll, which showed a slight rise in unreported crimes – though the increase was in property crimes and petty theft, not violent crimes. And the survey was conducted in 2004 – an ironic twist given that Mr. Day made his case only minutes after he maintained that the long-form census is not very reliable because it can be as much as five years out of date.
Mr. Day, the Treasury Board president, is not the first tough-on-crime Conservative politician to disbelieve the official statistics on reported crimes. Senator Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu said last month that “someone, somewhere, is manipulating the numbers.” The latest Statscan figures, released last month, show the number of crimes reported to police dropped 3 per cent last year, and was 17 per cent lower than in 1999.
But Mr. Day also argued that a tough-on-crime agenda is needed to keep dangerous criminals off the streets and deter them with stiffer punishments. The Harper government has dismissed arguments that tougher sentences alone won’t dent crime rates, but now finds itself defending a multibillion-dollar prison-expansion program when crime rates are falling.
While some experts argue that unreported-crime surveys don’t provide evidence to disbelieve a decline in crime, at least for serious crimes, others insist there are enough questions that the government needs real studies, every year, as a basis for policy decisions.
“My opinion is that we really don’t know,” said Ross Hastings, a criminologist at the University of Ottawa. “If Canada had annual national victimization surveys, we would have some kind of purchase on this. In the same way they’re taking the long form away, so people will have less information [from] census-gathering, they’re not taking a census of crime, either. So more and more we’re making really important and expensive policy decisions sort of on the seat of our pants.”
The Vancouver Board of Trade also thinks reported-crime stats are misleading because of unreported crime, and chief economist Bernie Magnan is calling for the government to conduct an annual survey on crime – which asks people if they have been a victim of crime.
On Tuesday, Mr. Day, who is responsible for controlling government spending, argued that one reason for scrapping the mandatory long-form census is that a study every five years is “untenable in today’s information age.” But on crime rates, he cited the 2004 survey on unreported crime; the next one will be released this fall. “We’re very concerned … about the increase in the amount of unreported crimes that surveys clearly show are happening,” he said, calling the numbers “alarming.”
The 2004 survey on crime victims found that 28 per cent of respondents reported that they had been the victim of a crime – described by Statistics Canada as a slight increase over the 26 per cent who said the same in 1999. But the number who said they had been victims of violent crimes remained flat, while the increase was driven by more theft and vandalism, according to the survey.
“There’s no evidence that we have that there’s a big increase,” said Steve Sullivan, until recently the Conservative-appointed Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime.
There are serious crimes, notably sexual assaults and spousal abuse, that have been persistently under-reported, and Mr. Sullivan noted that’s a reason to spend on programs to prevent crime and help victims. But the survey found the most common reason crimes go unreported is that the victims consider them minor – often petty thefts and minor assaults – or that they are a “personal matter.”
Mr. Sullivan said most of those crimes wouldn’t get the two-year sentence required for a federal prison term – and though he’s not against locking up criminals, tougher sentences alone won’t change most victims’ lives.
“If you’re really strapped for cash,” he said, “there’s better places to put it than just building more prisons.”

We do not need to get tough on crime!! Crime is decreasing and has been for years already. Imprisoning more people for longer periods has been proven in research to increase rates of re-offending and decrease chances of successful reintegration. That does not create safer communities! We need to do what is in society's best interests. We should be spending more money on crime prevention, reintegration and rehabilitation programs, which have been proven to be effective. Stop ignoring the research Harper!

Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless

2010-08-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

More people released from prison face homelessness
On a sticky day in June, Eric Cromwell changed into the clothes he’d worn when he was arrested two months earlier on an assault charge and walked out of the Toronto West Detention Centre on Disco Rd.
He was given a TTC token but possessed little else.
He did have a bachelor apartment where his rent is automatically deducted from his welfare cheque, but that’s where the latest trouble had occurred. There’d been an incident with a neighbour and conditions placed on him forbid him from going anywhere near home.
He’d been in and out of jail a number of times, and on this occasion, as had been the case before, he had no home to go to. But he knew where to go. He took public transit to the Maxwell Meighen shelter at Queen and Sherbourne Sts.
“Down here, to me, it’s like home,” says Cromwell, 32. “I know where to go. I know where to get food. I know how to survive.”
Each year, more people — mostly men — are leaving Toronto jails with nowhere to call home and no plan or supports to keep them from heading back to jail, according to a report by the John Howard Society of Toronto.
One in five prisoners is homeless when he heads to jail, and nearly one in three has no home to return to when he gets out, according to the study, which involved interviews with 363 inmates who were serving sentences of less than two years and were days away from being released.
They homeless prisoners instead head to downtown shelters, live on the street or couch-surf with friends, often returning to areas and conditions that landed them in trouble in the first place.
One in 10 prisoners said they had no idea where they would go upon release.
The report estimates that hundreds of people are in this situation, and cost-benefit studies have shown it is cheaper to provide supports and affordable housing than to deal with the “homeless prisoner” population.
“It’s the modern version of the poorhouse,” says Sylvia Novac, a researcher with the University of Toronto’s Cities Centre, who co-authored the John Howard report. “These are people who had nothing to begin with. They’re worn down, in this middle-aged group, and they have health issues. These people need a lot of help. These people need housing.”
The report, titled “Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless,” makes a number of recommendations, including increased funding for non-profit agencies to provide prisoner discharge planning that would help place inmates directly into rent-subsidized dwellings.
The study is being released to coincide with Prisoners Justice Day, an event to remember prisoners who have died in custody. It was funded by Human Resources and Development Canada.
Unlike prisoners serving longer sentences in federal prisons, inmates in provincial jails have little or no access to programs that would help them reintegrate into society. Even short stays in jail can lead to homelessness, the report found.
Jail stays as brief as five days can lead to job loss, and longer terms cause many to lose homes and result in a suspension of benefits that must be reapplied for upon release.
Eric Cromwell ’s face breaks into a wide, mischievous smile, and he says that only two people have ever taken his picture: his mother and the police.
His troubles began in his final year of high school, when the black man says he was accused of assaulting a classmate who had made racist comments. He was charged and expelled. Cromwell was two credits short of getting his diploma, which he never completed.
In 2003, he found himself without a home. A few years later, he served eight months for a robbery that he says was motivated by a need for drugs. Upon release, he went to stay with a relative, but after only a few days was back in jail for breaking a condition of his release and was also facing fresh charges of assault and theft.
After that stint in jail, a housing worker with the City of Toronto’s Streets to Homes program helped him find a bachelor apartment, which he now can’t return to because of his latest trouble with the law.
On a recent, sun-scorched day, Cromwell and his girlfriend, Sarah, 20, did what they do every day: they killed time by walking around, sitting in parks and availing themselves of free food provided by places such the Good Shepherd Centre on Queen St. E.
“You can go homeless, but you can’t go hungry down here,” says Sarah. “There’s always food.”
There is also crack cocaine. The two try to avoid the temptation of downtown dealers.
Sarah, too, has been in and out of jail, or the “Hilton in Milton” as she calls the Vanier Centre for Women.
She says she has been on the streets since she was 12 and receives no social benefits, because she has neither identification nor a mailing address. She has made money turning tricks and has just finished two years of probation. One of the conditions she had to abide by was to stay out of the front passenger seat of cars.
The two sit in the shade on the grounds of the Metropolitan United Church at the corner of Queen and Church. Other homeless people doze nearby on the grass. Three police officers on bicycles stop and rouse one of them and ask questions. Two of the officers know Sarah by name.
Eric says he feels fortunate because he has a support worker, but he knows of many men who cycle in and out of jail and are homeless. He says often they land back in because they have violated conditions of their release, such as being out after curfew. “I say the system is effed-up.”
Says Sarah: “They don’t care where you’re going to go when you get out; they just care about keeping you in.”
Time to move on. They walk north and east. Eric bends to tie Sarah’s shoelace and as he often does, lifts her tiny frame into his arms and carries her for a block, kissing her along the way.
They find more shade under a tree in an empty schoolyard on the edge of Regent Park, where Eric spent some of his childhood. Sarah pulls a fork and microwaveable meal of red curry chicken from her purse and digs in. They face the street and watch life go by.
“Yeah,” says Eric with a smirk, “so this is the life.”
He steps away and points to a building off in the distance. It’s the apartment building where he lived, where his belongings remain, and to which he cannot return. From his 12th floor balcony, he could see the “three Dons — the Don River, the Don Valley Parkway and the Don Jail.”
“Right now, I’m paying rent for a place I can’t stay,” he says.
His support worker is trying to find him a new home that will bring relief from the streets and shelters.
“For me, it’s freedom. I can go and I can lock the door. I have no worries.”

Homeless prisoners: By the numbers
22.9 - per cent of prisoners who had no fixed address before going to jail
32.2 - per cent of prisoners who said they had no home to return to
12.4 - per cent who didn’t know where they would go
43.3 - per cent of homeless prisoners with serious health issues
22.3 - per cent who are 50 years old or older
2 months - average stay in jail of respondents
Source: Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless, John Howard Society of Toronto

Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and homeless

John Howard Society report: Homeless prisoners on the rise

2010-08-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

John Howard Society report: Homeless prisoners on the rise

On a sticky day in June, Eric Cromwell changed into the clothes he’d worn when he was arrested two months earlier on an assault charge and walked out of the Toronto West Detention Centre on Disco Rd.

He was given a TTC token but possessed little else.

He did have a bachelor apartment where his rent is automatically deducted from his welfare cheque, but that’s where the latest trouble had occurred. There’d been an incident with a neighbour and conditions placed on him forbid him from going anywhere near home.

He’d been in and out of jail a number of times, and on this occasion, as had been the case before, he had no home to go to. But he knew where to go. He took public transit to the Maxwell Meighen shelter at Queen and Sherbourne Sts.

“Down here, to me, it’s like home,” says Cromwell, 32. “I know where to go. I know where to get food. I know how to survive.”

Each year, more people — mostly men — are leaving Toronto jails with nowhere to call home and no plan or supports to keep them from heading back to jail, according to a report to be released on Aug. 10 by the John Howard Society of Toronto.

One in five prisoners is homeless when he heads to jail, and nearly one in three has no home to return to when he gets out, according to the study, which involved interviews with 363 inmates who were serving sentences of less than two years and were days away from being released.

They homeless prisoners instead head to downtown shelters, live on the street or couch-surf with friends, often returning to areas and conditions that landed them in trouble in the first place.

One in 10 prisoners said they had no idea where they would go upon release.

The report estimates that hundreds of people are in this situation, and cost-benefit studies have shown it is cheaper to provide supports and affordable housing than to deal with the “homeless prisoner” population.

“It’s the modern version of the poorhouse,” says Sylvia Novac, a researcher with the University of Toronto’s Cities Centre, who co-authored the John Howard report. “These are people who had nothing to begin with. They’re worn down, in this middle-aged group, and they have health issues. These people need a lot of help. These people need housing.”

The report, titled “Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless,” makes a number of recommendations, including increased funding for non-profit agencies to provide prisoner discharge planning that would help place inmates directly into rent-subsidized dwellings.

The study is being released to coincide with Prisoners Justice Day, an event to remember prisoners who have died in custody. It was funded by Human Resources and Development Canada.

Unlike prisoners serving longer sentences in federal prisons, inmates in provincial jails have little or no access to programs that would help them reintegrate into society. Even short stays in jail can lead to homelessness, the report found.

Jail stays as brief as five days can lead to job loss, and longer terms cause many to lose homes and result in a suspension of benefits that must be reapplied for upon release.

Eric Cromwell ’s face breaks into a wide, mischievous smile, and he says that only two people have ever taken his picture: his mother and the police.

His troubles began in his final year of high school, when the black man says he was accused of assaulting a classmate who had made racist comments. He was charged and expelled. Cromwell was two credits short of getting his diploma, which he never completed.

In 2003, he found himself without a home. A few years later, he served eight months for a robbery that he says was motivated by a need for drugs. Upon release, he went to stay with a relative, but after only a few days was back in jail for breaking a condition of his release and was also facing fresh charges of assault and theft.

After that stint in jail, a housing worker with the City of Toronto’s Streets to Homes program helped him find a bachelor apartment, which he now can’t return to because of his latest trouble with the law.

On a recent, sun-scorched day, Cromwell and his girlfriend, Sarah, 20, did what they do every day: they killed time by walking around, sitting in parks and availing themselves of free food provided by places such the Good Shepherd Centre on Queen St. E.

“You can go homeless, but you can’t go hungry down here,” says Sarah. “There’s always food.”

There is also crack cocaine. The two try to avoid the temptation of downtown dealers.

Sarah, too, has been in and out of jail, or the “Hilton in Milton” as she calls the Vanier Centre for Women.

She says she has been on the streets since she was 12 and receives no social benefits, because she has neither identification nor a mailing address. She has made money turning tricks and has just finished two years of probation. One of the conditions she had to abide by was to stay out of the front passenger seat of cars.

The two sit in the shade on the grounds of the Metropolitan United Church at the corner of Queen and Church. Other homeless people doze nearby on the grass. Three police officers on bicycles stop and rouse one of them and ask questions. Two of the officers know Sarah by name.

Eric says he feels fortunate because he has a support worker, but he knows of many men who cycle in and out of jail and are homeless. He says often they land back in because they have violated conditions of their release, such as being out after curfew. “I say the system is effed-up.”

Says Sarah: “They don’t care where you’re going to go when you get out; they just care about keeping you in.”

Time to move on. They walk north and east. Eric bends to tie Sarah’s shoelace and as he often does, lifts her tiny frame into his arms and carries her for a block, kissing her along the way.

They find more shade under a tree in an empty schoolyard on the edge of Regent Park, where Eric spent some of his childhood. Sarah pulls a fork and microwaveable meal of red curry chicken from her purse and digs in. They face the street and watch life go by.

“Yeah,” says Eric with a smirk, “so this is the life.”

He steps away and points to a building off in the distance. It’s the apartment building where he lived, where his belongings remain, and to which he cannot return. From his 12th floor balcony, he could see the “three Dons — the Don River, the Don Valley Parkway and the Don Jail.”

“Right now, I’m paying rent for a place I can’t stay,” he says.

His support worker is trying to find him a new home that will bring relief from the streets and shelters.

“For me, it’s freedom. I can go and I can lock the door. I have no worries.”

Homeless prisoners: By the numbers

22.9 - per cent of prisoners who had no fixed address before going to jail

32.2 - per cent of prisoners who said they had no home to return to

12.4 - per cent who didn’t know where they would go

43.3 - per cent of homeless prisoners with serious health issues

22.3 - per cent who are 50 years old or older

2 months - average stay in jail of respondents

Source: Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless, John Howard Society of Toronto

Canada's prisons see 50% spike in older inmates

2010-08-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

Canada's prisons see 50% spike in older inmates

The number of federal inmates older than 50 surged by almost half in less than a decade as prisons undergo a demographic trend with wide-ranging implications for Canada's correctional system.
Figures provided by Correctional Service Canada peg their number at 2,379 of the 13,286 total inmates in 2009 — a 45 per cent hike from the 1,646 out of 12,663 people locked up in 2002.
The numbers will rise even further if the Conservative government passes its tough-on-crime agenda that aims to lock up convicts for longer periods, says Canada's federal prison ombudsman.
“We will see more people spending more time in prison,” Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, told The Canadian Press.
The trend carries cost implications.
The federal government estimates that inmates age about a decade faster than other Canadians, due to hard-living lifestyles and health problems acquired in prison.
As a result, Correctional Service Canada defines prisoners aged 50 and over as “aging offenders.”
Mr. Sapers notes that some penitentiaries have responded to the aging demographic by retrofitting cells, improving wheelchair accessibility and installing handrails.
“From age 50 on, we begin to see some fairly serious health impacts on the offender population,” said Mr. Sapers, whose office reviews thousands of inmate complaints each year.
He indicates that not only are prisoners at risk of problems like dementia and limited mobility at a younger age, they also live in jailhouses where HIV rates are 10 times higher than in the general population. He said one-third of inmates have hepatitis C.
Mr. Sapers also says the federal government has been slow to react when it comes to separating older, more vulnerable inmates from their younger, rowdier cellblock mates.
“You cannot create a correctional environment at the federal level based on the philosophy of one-size-fits-all — it doesn't work,” he said.
Correctional Service Canada says it doesn't calculate the cost of incarceration by age, but experts insist the price tag of housing older prisoners is steep.
“Certainly,” Pierre Mallet, head of Canada's correctional officers union, answered when asked if cellblock greybeards cost more to house than their younger counterparts.
“It's a legitimate problem.”
The average annual cost of keeping one person locked up jumped 22 per cent — from $83,276 to $101,666 — between 2003-04 and 2007-08, Public Safety Canada says. In other words, the average daily cost rose to $278 per prisoner.
Due to shortages in medical staff at some institutions, guards are sometimes called upon to juggle their security duties with basic caregiving, Mr. Mallet said.
“We deplore the lack of medical resources that they have in establishments,” Mr. Mallet said.
“But at the same time, is the population ready to assume the costs that this could all bring? You know, to have more nurses, to have more doctors, to have more people to help them, there's a cost attached to this.”
Mr. Sapers said an internal review conducted 10 years ago by Correctional Service Canada identified elderly prisoners as a priority.
The department set up a task force to examine needs such as palliative care, reintegration and accommodation, but the group was eventually disbanded.
Still, the federal government is aware of the problem.
“Delivering adequate health care is an ongoing challenge with major implications for public safety,” said briefing notes prepared last spring for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, obtained by The Canadian Press through an Access to Information request.
A spokeswoman for Correctional Service Canada said the department evaluates the care given to prisoners based on their individual needs, not by age.
“It's really hard to have a specific old-age offender (program) in place,” said Christelle Chartrand.
“We adapt with the population that we have.”
She said the department takes physical limitations into consideration for housing and penitentiary placement.

Inmates stuck in cycle of imprisonment and homelessness

2010-08-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

Inmates stuck in cycle of jail and homelessness

More than one in five of those in Toronto jails were homeless when arrested, and many plan to return to a shelter, according to the John Howard Society of Toronto

The path to prison often begins in homelessness, and the path back to freedom tends to leave former inmates homeless once again. It’s a vicious cycle of failed reintegration that leads to recidivism, according to a new report from the John Howard Society of Toronto.
The report found that more than one in five inmates in the Toronto area were homeless when they were arrested. And there was little sign their prospects for integration were smoothed by their time in jail. One-third of inmates said they planned on living in a homeless shelter when they were released, and a further 12 per cent said they had no idea where they would go.
The report, Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless, based on interviews with 363 people in jail, highlights the difficulties many former prisoners face when they are returned to the community. It concludes that current incarceration policies are adding to the problem of homelessness in Toronto.
“The number of homeless being released from prisons is growing and we have identified a pattern where they are returning to resource-poor neighbourhoods that are ill-equipped to provide employment opportunities, good housing or adequate support services,” said Greg Rogers, executive director of the John Howard Society of Toronto, an organization that advocates on behalf of former prisoners.
“When we calculate the high financial and human costs of the current tough approach to crime we see that diverting spending from prisons to community services is a more effective way to ensure community safety and reduce recidivism.”
Mr. Rogers’ statement comes amid other criticism of the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime agenda. Their proposal for “truth in sentencing” has been projected by federal Budget Officer Kevin Page to cost an additional $5-billion a year, taking the cost of jailing Canada’s prison population from $4.4-billion to $9.5-billion. All this at a time when crime rates are dropping, according to Statistics Canada.
Amber Kellen, co-author of the report, offered two key recommendations. The first is that prisoners should receive assistance in planning for life after release from the moment they arrive in the prison system. Currently, most prisoners are discharged at the remand stage with little advance notice, and without access to the programs offered to more serious offenders with longer terms in the federal prison system, Ms. Kellen said. The second is that there should be some form of assisted housing to lodge these former inmates while they piece their lives back together. Almost all will have lost jobs or apartments or social assistance while they were locked up.
“This isn’t about soft on crime. This is about being smart on crime,” Ms. Kellen said. “Often [former inmates] will end up back in custody before they even have a chance to make plans. Even individuals I’ve talked with that have the best of intentions.
“Without [a more comprehensive system] in place not only are people more likely to re-offend but it also is a community safety risk. Having people in various states of desperation creates a bunch of desperate people.”

Often inmates are released from prison with little assistance and support in reintegration. They often suffer from financial difficulties, unemployment, lack of education and life skills, lack of rehabilitation, addicts, more entrenched in the criminal lifestyle, homeless, little support from family and friends, living in poverty, etc. Inmates need to be provided with more assistance and support after release and be connected to resources and programs in the areas of employment assistance, and housing assistance. Otherwise, there is a good chance that they will resort back to crime in order to survive.

Prison Justice Day Awareness and Past Events

2010-08-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Prison Justice Day Events

Prison Justice Day (PJD) emerged as a prisoner-initiatied day of non-violent strike action to commemorate the August 10, 1974 death of Eddie Nalon in the segregation unit of Millhaven maximum-security penitentiary. It was first observed in 1975, and in 1976 the prisoners of Millhaven issued a communication "To All Prisoners and Concerned Peoples from across Canada", calling for one-day hunger strikes in opposition to the use of solitary confinement and in support of prisoners' rights, in memory of Eddie Nalon as well as Robert Landers, who also died along in solitary confinement (see www.prisonjustice.ca).

Since that time individuals and groups on the outside have used PJD not only as a day to bring attention to deaths in custody, but also other prison justice issues such as facility overcrowding, mental health, the overrepresentation of Aboriginals in our penal institutions, and broader social justice issues in our communities.

Below is a snapshot (albeit incomplete) of PJD events taking place across Canada.

MONTREAL

Criminalizing Risk:

Discussion and Presentations on the Criminalization of HIV Transmission

Thursday, August 12, 2010

6:30pm - 8:30pm

Association sportive et communautaire Centre-Sud

2093 rue de la Visitation (between Sherbrooke East and Ontario)

This community dialogue and panel discussion will bring together a host of people involved in HIV prevention and HIV legal issues to discuss the recent legal shifts in Canada that have seen the deepening criminalization of HIV transmission, risk, and nondisclosure. The panel will speak to the costs and harms to HIV positive communities brought about these shifts, as well as how we might confront - and reverse - this trend. Speakers will present in both French and English. Whisper translation in both directions will be provided. This event will take place as part of PJD efforts across the country, an annual commemoration of the lives of all prisoners who have died while in custody, including the many Canadian prisoners who have died from AIDS related illness while in prison.

Event Sponsors:

Prisoner Correspondence Project

Politi-Q

AIDS Community Care Montreal

Contact: Prisoner Correspondence Project (info@prisonercorrespondenceproject.com)

Prison Radio Coverage of PJD

Friday, August 13, 2010

11:00am - 12:00pm

CKUT 90.3 FM

Visit CKUT

OTTAWA

Prison Justice Day:

A Time to Reflect Upon Deaths in Custody and Other Issues Inside Our Prisons

Tuesday, August 20, 2010

12:00pm - 1:15pm

Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch - Auditorium

120 Metcalfe Street

Speakers include Kim Pate (Executive Director, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies), Susan Haines (Volunteer and Consultant), Michelle Mann (Lawyer and Consultant), and Peter Collins (Federal Prisoner).

For those who are not fasting as one of the ways some memorialize deaths in custody, please bring your lunches. Coffee, juice and water will be provided by the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons.

For more information visit Tracking the Politics of 'Crime' and Punishment in Canada.

Justice Symposium

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

2:30pm

Bronson Centre Theatre

210 Bronson Avenue

Keynote speaker for the Justice Symposium, Anne Marie Hagan, is an insightful and knowledgeable motivational speaker, known for her ability to captivate an audience and effectively deliver a message of forgiveness and hope. Having faced the incredible obstacle of the murder of her father, she challenges and empowers us to look beyond our anger to find the ability to forgive.

Registration: $30 ($15 for students)

Contact: Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa (info@efryottawa.com)

TORONTO

Prisoners' Justice Day Radio

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

12:00pm - 6:00pm

CHRY 105.5 FM

Histories, interviews and music dedicated to PJD.

Visit CHRY

Prison Justice Day Fast

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

11am - 6pm

Holy Trinity Anglican Church

10 Trinity Square (Bay & Queen, behind the Eaton Centre)

For those who chose to fast in solidarity with those inside, we will break our fast with dinner at 6:00pm.

RSVP by August 6.

Prisons Kill

2010-08-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

Prisons Kill

By Justin Piché

To be presented at the Ottawa Public Library (Main Branch) - Auditorium

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

12:00pm

[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY]

Hi folks,

Thank you for coming.

Today we have four speakers, including Kim Pate (Executive Director, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies), Susan Haines (Volunteer and Consultant), Michelle Mann (Lawyer and Consultant), and Guy Ritchie, an ex-prisoner. Each will focus their presentations on Prison Justice Day (PJD), deaths in custody and related prison justice issues. Excerpts from a piece written by Peter Collins, a federal prisoner, published in the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons will also be read. Following the presentations, we will open the floor for discussion.

Before we begin I would like to comment briefly on why we are here today.

Prison Justice Day (PJD) emerged as a prisoner-initiated day of non-violent strike action to commemorate the August 10, 1974 death of Eddie Nalon, who died alone in the segregation unit of Millhaven maximum-security penitentiary. It was first observed in 1975, and in 1976 the prisoners of Millhaven issued a communication “To All Prisoners and Concerned Peoples from across Canada”, calling for one-day hunger strikes in opposition to the use of solitary confinement and in support of prisoners’ rights, in memory of Eddie Nalon as well as Robert Landers, who also died alone in solitary confinement (see www.prisonjustice.ca).

In the last 35 years, individuals and groups on the outside have also used PJD as a day to bring attention to deaths in custody, as well as other prison justice issues such as facility overcrowding, mental health, the overrepresentation of Aboriginals in our penal institutions, and broader social justice issues in our communities.

This advocacy work continues today and will persist as long as there are prisons as promises to ‘reform’ these monuments to our collective failure to address the conflicts and harms in our communities that we call ‘crime’ either ring hallow or fail because you cannot transform the violence that is incarceration. Indeed, it is in the so-called softer and gentler Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener – one the facilities that replaced P4W – that prison staff failed to respond when Ashley Smith hung herself in solitary on October 19, 2007.

In letters obtained through Access to Information (ATI) sent by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to a number of concerned citizens on the issue of deaths in custody (see copy of original following the text), he made the following remarks:

Let me start by saying that every death in custody represents a tragedy. The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is fully committed to implementing appropriate and effective measures to help prevent deaths in custody.

Following [redacted] death, CSC acted quickly to investigate, report on the circumstances surrounding the incident, identify weaknesses and take corrective action where necessary. This is a very complex matter that has reinforced the need for CSC to further strengthen its approaches to managing offenders, particularly those with serious behavioural and mental health concerns.

I feel it is important to mention that CSC did take corrective measures. An action plan has been developed to respond to recommendations of investigations into this incident, and CSC has already implemented a number of measures. If you would like additional details on the action taken, you may wish to consult CSC’s Web site at www.csc-scc.gc.ca. The action plan is updated on a quaterly basis.

Finally, it is important to note that CSC is working closely with the federal government’s recently established Mental Health Commission of Canada, which has been mandated to develop a national mental health strategy and share knowledge and best practices for the benefit of Canadians.

Based on the statement made by Minister Toews, one would assume that deaths in custody would be a thing of the past in our federal penitentiaries. However, in the years since death continues to be a central feature of incarceration with 25 occurring in 2007-2008, 65 in 2008-2009, and 40 in 2009-2010 according to figures compiled by the Office of the Correctional Investigator (see below). When looking at long-term trends, Howard Sapers has noted that one can expect between 50 and 60 deaths in Canadian federal penitentiaries in a ‘normal’ year.

Deaths in Custody:

CSC Facilities

2007-2008:

Unknown causes (n=1)

"Natural" causes (n=16)

Homicide (n=1)

Suicide (n=4)

Overdose (n=3)

2008-2009:

Unknown causes (n=5)

"Natural" causes (n=48)

Homicide (n=2)

Suicide (n=9)

Overdose (n=1)

2009-2010:

Unknown causes (n=7)

"Natural" causes (n=24)

Homicide (n=1)

Suicide (n=8)

Overdose (n=0)

While a significant percentage of these deaths are attributed to “natural” causes, it should be noted that there are a number of studies that have shown that the process of incarceration is emotionally, psychologically and physically damaging, and thus, contributes to the on-set or the exacerbation of health conditions. In the case of CSC institutions, the OIC has noted that the organization lacks the resources to adequately monitor the health of prisoners which can contribute to “natural” deaths in custody.

With a system that is already overstretched, the Conservative Party of Canada has embarked upon a legislative path that aims to place more people in our prisons for longer periods of time with fewer chances of release into the community. One means of coping with the influx of new prisoners deployed by the Government of Canada has been to increase double-bunking – the practice of placing two prisoners in a single prison cell.

When critiqued for adopting this approach, Minister Toews has stated that there “is not something that is inappropriate or illegal or unconstitutional or violates international standards". He has also insisted that the practice is “ humane” (see 18 March 2010 post).

Although it may be legal to double-bunk prisoners, the use of this practice does contravene the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which states:

9. (1) Where sleeping accommodation is in individual cells or rooms, each prisoner shall occupy by night a cell or room by himself. If for special reasons, such as temporary overcrowding, it becomes necessary for the central administration to make an exception to this rule, it is not desirable to have two prisoners in a cell or room.

The use of double-bunking is also at odds with CSC Commissioner's Directive 550 that states:

6. Single accommodation is the most desirable and correctionally appropriate method of housing offenders.

Despite the existence of these standards that are intended to guide federal prison accommodation approaches, Minister Toews has even gone as far as to say "It's not a big deal… It's an absolutely important aspect of facilities, it's constitutional, it's legal. Many western democracies do that. There's nothing inappropriate about that” (see 4 May 2010 article by Janice Tibbetts). And while Toews has repeatedly insisted that double-bunking is appropriate, advice from his own Senior Deputy Commissioner of CSC, Marc-Arthur Hyppolite, sent to him in a 16 February 2010 Briefing Note (see copy of original following the text) concluded:

For any double bunking, other than emergency management, institutional heads are required to have an exemption authorized, in advance, by the Commissioner. This exemption sets the maximum level to which an institution can normally be double bunked... It is important to note that the increased use of double bunking places significant stress on the staff and infrastructure of an institution. Further expansion of double bunking increases the risk to staff and offender safety in an institution.

There are a number of reasons why high ranking officials within CSC are concerned about overcrowding, and double-bunking specifically. We only have to look back to the 1970s and 1980s where penitentiaries across the country – KP, BCP, Archambault – were overcrowded and incompatible prisoners were placed on the same ranges or in the same cells, which contributed to riots erupting and violence to surge in these facilities.

Prisons kill. No matter how much we dehumanize and demonize those we criminalize and imprison, it does not change the fact that they are someone’s brother or sister, son or daughter, father or mother, who in the majority of cases will feel a great degree of loss when their loved one has died in prison.

The minority Conservative Government of Canada needs to abandon its punishment agenda, not only because it will not make our communities safer, not only because they will bankrupt my generation with prison mortgages we will be paying until we retire, but because it will likely result in more deaths in custody.

CSC to expand 35 institutions-- waste of money!

2010-08-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

Report: CSC expanding 35 institutions

According to a blog post by Rob Tripp of the Kingston Whig Standard (read 6 August 2010 post), Chris Price - Assistant Commissioner, Correctional Operations and Programs, Correctional Service of Canada - has compiled a list of federal penitentiaries where new units will be built.

The report states that "Price says new units will be built at the following men's prisons: Springhill Institution, Westmorland Institution, Atlantic Institution, Montée Saint-François, La Macaza, Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Cowansville, Federal Training Centre, Donnacona Institution, Frontenac Institution, Fenbrook Institution, Pittsburgh Institution, Bath Institution, Beaver Creek Institution, Collins Bay Institution, Rockwood Institution, Bowden Institution, Riverbend Institution, Drumheller Institution, Drumheller Institution (Minimum), Edmonton Institution, Bowden Institution, RHC/Pacific Institution, Pê Sâkâstêw Centre, Mission Institution, Willow Cree Healing Centre, Kent Institution, Ferndale Institution, [and] William Head Institution" (see Map of Canadian Federal Penitentiaries).

The blog post also notes that facility expansions will occur at "all six women's prisons: Nova Institution for Women, Joliette Institution, Grand Valley Institution for Women..., Edmonton Institution for Women, Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge, [and] Fraser Valley Institution for Women".

If the details in this report turnout to be accurate, it would signal that for this round of penitentiary expansion, CSC and the current federal government have adopted "pre-designation" and "closed-siting" as the strategies to construct and select locations for what, given the scope of the overall initiative and the new units being established, will essentially be new facilities.

According to Secherest (1992: 96), pre-designation "involves identification of sites in advance of need by using exclusionary or suitability criteria to screen out areas or to evaluate potential sites". This strategy is usually used when planning to build new facilities in areas where there are already penal institutions. While it is unknown whether CSC had developed such a list prior to the manufacturing of the need for new prisons as part of the Conservatives' punishment agenda, by building facilities on existing "penitentiary reserves" - large parcels of land owned by the Government of Canada where penitentiaries are often housed - they will likely be able to circumvent the usual resistance that is encountered when they have tried to establish facilities in towns and cities that don't have a large prison in their backyard (for a recent example, see CSC article on the siting of Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener).

In the case where a host community has not been consulted about the looming expansion of one or more federal penitentiaries in their backyard, it can be argued that CSC and the Feds have also employed a closed-siting strategy "which places the local community in the position of reacting to a government proposal in an adversarial fashion at the time that permits are requested" should they oppose a prison construction initiative (Secherest, 1992: 97).

Taken together, these "decide, announce, defend" approaches (Chambers, 1989) represent the minority Conservative Government of Canada's unwillingness to consult with key stakeholders prior to implementing their policies, let alone developing them. We can now add another checkmark in the column of 'transparent' government.

What a complete waste of money. Prisons are a quick fix to crime, not a long term solution. To effectively reduce, and prevent crime we need to address the root causes of crime through community programming. Prisons fail at addressing the root causes of crime due to the negative environment, subculture, pro criminal attitudes and behaviours, drugs, gangs, etc. The courts need to rely less on imprisonment and more on community alternative sanctions for criminals.

Former Hells Angels secures immediate release

2010-08-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Former Hells Angels gets deal in bar homicide

A former Manitoba Hells Angels member struck a deal with justice officials Wednesday that saw him admit to killing a man inside a Winnipeg bar in exchange for his immediate freedom.

Billy Bowden, 34, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to two years of time already served, which was given double-time credit of four years. He was expected to be returned to the community by the end of the day.

Bowden admitted to playing a role in the November 2007 stabbing death of 24-year-old Jeff Engen inside the Empire Cabaret. A co-accused, Matt Wegier, remains before the courts and is set to go on trial in March 2011.

Prosecutor Daniel Chaput told Queen’s Bench Justice Rick Saull there were several problems with the Crown’s case against Bowden that prompted the plea bargain for a much lighter sentence than usual. Although there were more than 50 potential witnesses to the killing, Chaput said "surprisingly very few had much to say about what happened."

As well, there are no witnesses putting the knife in Bowden’s hand and the Crown can only prove he participated in the group attack.

"It was the unknowns the Crown struggled with. We couldn’t say who stabbed the victim. We couldn’t say Mr. Bowden knew a knife was present or that the victim was being stabbed," said Chaput.

He said the Crown would have sought a longer sentence against Bowden if he were convicted at trial.

"Equally, he could have been acquitted. This way, the Crown secures a manslaughter conviction and a sentence we recognize is on the low end of the spectrum," said Chaput.

Engen, a bodybuilder, was in the basement lounge of the Empire when he got into a dispute with several men about Bowden’s ex-girlfriend, court was told.

Engen was stabbed four times, including one which pierced his heart. He then climbed the stairs to get help, but collapsed near the dance floor. Despite efforts by a patron of the club to revive him, Engen died.

Witnesses said they were surprised a weapon got past the club's new security measures -- including a full-body metal detector -- which had been put in place after four people were shot and wounded there a month before Engen's stabbing.

The club's owner, Sabino Tummillo, closed the Empire's doors shortly after the stabbing and it never re-opened.

Bowden joined the Hells Angels in July 2004 but was kicked out of the gang in 2006 following an internal dispute, according to sources.

He has a lengthy criminal record which includes being caught by police with a loaded gun just two months after Engen’s slaying. He eventually pleaded guilty and was given six months of time in custody spent in custody plus a fine. Bowden admitted in court he had been carrying the gun "for his own protection."

Bowden also made headlines in March 2005 when he was shot in the leg by a gang associate in the Dirty Laundry bar at 720 Corydon Ave. The shooter was also shot and wounded by someone returning fire, but no one was ever charged. Dirty Laundry closed shortly after the incident.

This article is biased in that it says little to nothing about the defence lawyers' statements and does not mention anything relating to the defendant's background or childhood. Most often, people join gangs because they are are living in poverty and feel the need to have a sense of belonging and identity which they receive in a gang. A plea bargain is better than an acquittal though and is there is insufficient evidence as to whether this man held the knife or not. I believe that gang members need more community supports and resources, not prison.

Ottawa's prison plan and tough on crime approach, won't work

2010-08-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

Ottawa's prison plan won't work, critics say

Canada’s $10 billion campaign to put more people in prison for longer periods of time will not make this country safer and may backfire by creating a larger criminal underclass, corrections critics warn.

“I don’t think they’re looking at the evidence,” Anthony Doob, a leading Canadian criminologist, told the Star.

Despite historically low crime rates, Canada is expected to spend $9.5 billion to build new prisons and retrofit old ones — a figure that has Conservative politicians scrambling to justify the cost. Last week, Treasury Board Minister Stockwell Day suggested Canada needs more prisons because of an “increase in the amount of unreported crime.” The federal government later cited a six-year-old Statistics Canada survey it said supported his comments.

“The real problem is crime policy is usually reduced to a slogan,” Doob said. “You’re simply increasing the cost to Canadians with no benefit. In the long run, you’re ending up with other kinds of secondary costs. These people are going to get out of prison, they’re going to be less likely to find jobs and they’re going to be burdens on society in a variety of ways, including crime.”

Even if the rate of crime were trending upward, building more prisons would not suppress the crime rate, said Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada.

“To suppress the rate of crime, you have to frontload your welfare system so all your children have adequate nutrition, they live in non-violent, non-traumatizing environments — because that’s where your violence originates,” Jones said.

What’s staggering for many critics is that Canada seems to be moving toward an American-style prison model that’s being scaled back in favour of cheaper, more effective community-based programs.

Responding to the fiscal crisis and mounting evidence that high incarceration rates don’t result in safer communities, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Florida and California are now backing out of their penal state.

“As much as you can get political capital for looking tough on crime by putting people behind bars, you can’t sustain it in terms of budget,” says Justin Piche, a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa researching prison expansion in Canada.

The average annual cost of maintaining a single female federal offender is $343,810. Maintaining a male inmate in a maximum security prison costs $223,687. These figures, which represent the 2008-2009 fiscal year, were released in a report from the Parliamentary Budget Office in response to legislation passed earlier this year that will dramatically change the corrections system in Canada.

Bill C-25, the centerpiece of the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime agenda, could double annual prison costs from $4.4 billion to $9.5 billion in five years, according to Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. The bill ends the practice of judges awarding two-for-one credit to offenders for time served in pre-sentence custody.

Page released a report in June that examined the economic impact of implementing the Truth in Sentencing Act.

Under the new legislation, Ottawa would have to build new and bigger prisons to house an expected increase in inmates, the report says. That would cost an additional $618 million a year in operational and maintenance costs, and another $1.8 billion for construction over five years.

The report says changing the law would lengthen the average time in custody from a year and a half to just under two years. Longer stays would mean an average of 17,058 inmates at any given time compared to an average of 13,304 inmates in fiscal 2007/08.

The report estimates that would require an additional 4,189 cells, at a cost of $363 million a year over the next five years to expand existing prisons and build new ones.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews disputed the figures, standing by his earlier claim that officials at Correctional Services Canada told him the initiative would cost $2 billion over five years. (He originally said the price tag would be $90 million.)

His office did not respond to the Star’s interview request.

The correctional service has begun rolling out plans to accommodate more prisoners by retrofitting dozens of institutions across Canada. The service has a three-year plan to add spaces for more than 2,700 offenders nation-wide. This figure does not apply to the construction of new prisons, plans for which have not yet been released.

“Construction is taking place at institutions and locations where we expect the greatest increase of offender populations and where there’s the greatest need,” said Melissa Hart, a Correctional Service of Canada spokesperson.

The overhaul begins in the Maritimes with Springhill Institution, a medium-security facility in Nova Scotia. It opened in 1967 and accommodates 355 inmates but has been operating over-capacity for some time. It currently holds 456 offenders. The project will see 192 spaces added by 2012, Hart said.

“All of the parties need to give their heads a shake and really critically examine how these laws that are being passed are going to negatively impact the entire country,” said Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.

Correctional investigator Howard Sapers, who recently submitted his latest annual report on systemic problems plaguing Canada’s prisons to the Public Safety Minister, paints a troubling picture.

“We’re already seeing the (correctional) service not be able to deliver programs in a timely way,” he said. “We’re already seeing offenders not being prepared properly for release at their parole eligibility dates. We’re already seeing recruitment issues and unfilled positions.

“All of these issues are just going to be made worse if the service is expected to simply house more people without more resources.”

I agree. Imprisoning more people for longer periods will not make communities or the public safer as research shows that longer sentences increase the risk of re-offending and decrease the chances for successful reintegration. This is due to the negative prison environment, subculture, prevalence of pro criminal attitudes and behaviours and the fact that many offenders are released from prison with little assistance, support or guidance in reintegration and are often not rehabilitated and are lacking in life skills, employment, and housing. To reduce crime, the government must focus their resources and efforts on crime prevention programs and at reducing poverty in impoverished communities. That is where crime originates. They need to address the root causes of crime. Prison does not do that. Come out with a policy.ex. Legalize mari! Save on prisons and police. Allow all married couples or couples with kids to split their income=reduced need for day care spaces, plus raise deduction for kdis to half adult rate till they are 21. ...Just a start keep it simple. Cancel all faith based exemptions thats private entertainment, and tax the property so cities/municipalities would be less reliant on gov.
Lets start!

Marijuana should be legalized, not considered a "serious offence"!

2010-08-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

New serious offence language includes marijuana

The 'Regulations Prescribing Certain Offences to be Serious Offences' came into effect July 13, 2010, and was publically enacted by the Federal Government early in August 2010. Regulations, unlike legislation, do not need to be approved by Parliament. Regulations are the specifics of legislation; in this case it is what particular offences are included as a 'serious offence'. The Criminal Code sets out that the federal government has the power to include activities into the definition of 'serious offences' without Parliamentary debate. These regulation changes were made to the Criminal Code and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

The new regulations expand the definition of 'serious offence' under the Criminal Code. By designating an offence a 'serious offence', someone convicted would potentially face a longer period of time than if caught under the offence generally. The new regulations include a number of new offences which, if carried out in relation to organized crime, carry a 5 year prison sentence. The designation also increases police powers during investigation, such as wiretaps and warrants. There is also greater seizure of proceeds and assets provisions, as well as changes to bail provisions. It has been said that these regulations bring Canada's criminal laws closer to that of the United States. The new offences target 'signature activities' of organized crime, and involve gambling, betting and bawdyhouse related activities, as well as changes to drug trafficking laws which are discussed more below. Organized crime, or a 'criminal organization' under the Canadian Criminal Code is: three or more people inside or outside Canada; and these people are together mainly to either commit 'serious offences' or materially benefit from them being committed.

The new regulations cover trafficking and production in Schedule IV substances (includes Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines, Anabolic Steroids, and related). Importing and exporting any substance in Schedule IV and V is also included as a 'serious offence'. As well, trafficking cannabis (including hashish) amounts under 3 kilograms has been included as a 'serious offence'.

So if three or more people are trading a few grams of marijuana amongst themselves, this is now potentially a 'serious offence', and these people are facing 5 years in jail.

Not surprisingly, the federal government claims these regulations are targeting 'kingpins', head honchos, the leaders of organized crime. Unfortunately, none of this adds up to 'safer and healthier communities', as the government likes to put it. These tough on crime regulations are not going to make a dent in the drug trade. The only effective way to remove drugs as a source of revenue for organized crime is to regulate them.

These regulations instead increase the criminalization of drugs and drug users in Canadian communities. Low level, non-violent offenders are the easy prey of these regulations. Prisons are not treatment centers. Prisons are not where we want young people to receive drug education, as they fulfill their prison terms from these regulations.

The fact is these regulations are in effect. There is always the unpredictable question of how the law will be enforced. Will the law be used to keep 'kingpins' off our streets? Or will it be used to threaten medical marijuana compassion centers and co-ops? Will the new regulations be used selectively and meaningfully, or will they be used to further marginalize people already on the fringes of our society?

The federal government's 'tough on crime' approach to drugs and drug-related crime is making our communities less safe. They are pretending we can simply enforce our way out of our problems, and in the process starve social programs, diverse treatment options, and harm reduction strategies. The drug market needs to be effectively regulated, not inefficiently enforced. The prohibition of drugs creates more harm than the drugs themselves. CSSDP continues to call on all political parties to take a stand, and recognize that we need to end the criminalization of drugs and drug users, and implement a public-health based approach to drugs in our society.

Prostitution should not be criminalized. It is an activity between two consenting adults and should be legalized and regulated to improve safety and working conditions for those women. Also, non violent drug offenders should NOT be imprisoned. Prison serves no purpose and they will be negatively impacted by the environment and subculture. Those individuals need drug treatment and we need to legalize and regulate marijuana possession and use. Drug use should be a public health issue not a criminal justice issue. Plus, these new laws will further marginalize and disproportionately impact the already socially disadvantaged members in society, who may be selling drugs to help their family earn extra money in order to survive, those living in poverty, immigrants, etc. That is absolutely ridiculous! Marijuana should be decriminalized and possession of small amounts should NOT result in criminalization whatsoever. It is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco! Imprisoning drug offenders serves absolutely no purpose, as they are rarely dangerous or violent. The Conservatives need to give their heads a shake and stop ignoring the research!

We don't need more prisons. They fail to deter, prevent or reduce crime

2010-08-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Corrections plans expansion of 35 prisons

KINGSTON, Ont. - The federal prison service plans to build new cells at 35 penitentiaries across the country to make room for an exploding inmate population.

A total of 60% of the country’s 58 federal prisons will see expansion, according to internal Corrections Canada information obtained by QMI Agency.

A list compiled by senior officials shows that new units will be built at six federal prisons in Ontario, including four in the immediate Kingston, Ont., area — Collins Bay, Frontenac, Pittsburgh and Bath institutions.

All six federal prisons for women will see expansion, according to the information.

Corrections Canada would not provide specific comment on details obtained by the newspaper.

“The Correctional Service of Canada is implementing a multi-faceted accommodation strategy to address the increase of the offender population expected to result from the Truth in Sentencing Act,” agency spokesman Melissa Hart wrote in an e-mailed response to a request for an interview.

Hart wrote the government is providing the money to create 2,700 spaces in the next three years.

It’s estimated that the construction spree will cost roughly $2 billion.

Corrections and the federal government have refused to make public specifics of the unprecedented expansion scheme.

The cancellation of two-for-one pre-trial credit is expected to add roughly 4,000 inmates to the federal inmate population by 2015, requiring construction of 13 penitentiaries, according to a report released in June by the parliamentary budget officer.

The government’s plans have been condemned by criminologists, advocates, and many social agencies as an ideologically driven desire to appear tough on crime, despite decades of research that shows mandatory minimums and longer sentences do little or nothing to improve community safety or deter crime.

“This is basically pouring money down a rat hole,” Craig Jones, the Kingston-based head of the John Howard Society of Canada has said.

-------

Expansion

A list of 35 federal prisons where new units will be built to accommodate a surging inmate population:

Men’s prisons

(six Ontario facilities listed first)

Frontenac

Fenbrook

Pittsburgh

Bath

Beaver Creek

Collins Bay

Springhill

Westmorland

Atlantic

Montée Saint-François

La Macaza

Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines

Cowansville

Federal Training Centre

Donnacona

Rockwood

Bowden

Riverbend

Drumheller

Edmonton

Bowden

Pacific

Pê Sâkâstêw Centre

Mission

Willow Cree Healing Centre

Kent

Ferndale

William Head

Women’s prisons

Nova

Joliette

Grand Valley

Edmonton

Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge

Fraser Valley

The new prohibition

The Harper government, fresh from botching its alleged pander to the libertarian wing of the Conservative party with its voluntary census plan, appears to be having no problem steamrolling over the libertarian wing's sensitivities on crime. In back-to-back performances this week, two Cabinet ministers invoked harsh tough-on-crime motives that show the Tories' concern about individual rights to be a fleeting interest compared with their enthusiasm for escalating the bonkers American war on drugs, gambling and sex.
Under the guise of fighting "organized crime," a global economic sector created largely by government laws and regulations, the Conservatives — with hardly a peep from the opposition or critics — this week expanded the Canadian division of the monstrous U.S.-led war on drugs. For a government allegedly concerned about the "intrusiveness" of a pollster extracting personal information under threat of fines and prison, the Conservatives are disturbingly unconcerned about a massive increase in police power to meddle in the lives of its citizens in the name of fighting crime.
The government's bizarre crime declarations began Tuesday, when Stockwell Day, as Treasury Board Secretary, defended a budget plan to spend $9-billion building prisons at a time when crime rates are declining. Mr. Day, reaching for an explanation, tried to link the prison expansions to "the increase in the amount of unreported crimes that surveys show clearly are happening." This was an obvious head-scratcher for reporters: If the crimes are unreported, how will the criminals perpetrating those crimes end up in the expanded prison system? And, moreover, what is an "unreported crime"? Mr. Day rambled around the subject, ending with the usual Tory calls for tougher sentences and a warning that you can't take a "liberal view" of crime.
"We don't think serious crime should be treated lightly," he said.
It turns out the unreported-crime story may have some legitimacy as a contact sport for the statistical statists who are otherwise at war over the voluntary census. The Crime Victimization survey, conducted by StatsCan, asks Canadians about car and bicycle thefts, residential burglaries, pickpockets, robbery, unwanted sexual assault or harassment, and other physical assaults. The survey, a voluntary non-census effort, shows a discrepancy between the number of crimes people say they experience in real life and actual crime statistics. So what's real: The crimes reported, or the crimes not reported? Are people getting robbed, raped and assaulted but not taking the crimes to police?
Before Canada's vociferous stats community could sort any of this out, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson appeared the next day with a plan that could generate the criminal numbers to justify the prison spending. The government will apparently fill Mr. Day's prisons with thousands of new criminals to be convicted under an expansion of the definition of "serious crimes" under the Criminal Code.
Mr. Nicholson was accompanied by some of Canada's top police chiefs as he explained how the government needed to escalate its war on organized crime. The government, he said, had enacted regulations that, effective immediately, would give police new powers to crack down on a long list of activities that are already covered under criminal law as relatively minor offences.
The list of crimes now considered serious is worth a close look, especially in the context of Mr. Day's concern about unreported crimes. They include:
- Keeping a common gaming or betting house;
- Betting, pool-selling and bookmaking;
- Keeping a common bawdy house;
- Trafficking in barbiturates and other chemical drugs;
- Trafficking in any quantity of cannabis;
- Importing, exporting, producing barbiturates.
Under the new get-tough regulations, keeping a common bawdy-house or selling a couple of ounces of marijuana will now bring maximum prison sentences of "at least" five years in prison. A low-level operator of a bawdy-house could also face five-year prison terms.
More important for police and prosecutors, under the organized crime umbrella, the full force of the gang-war and drug-war crime-fighting machine will be unleashed on small-time players who may appear to have organized-crime connections. These include wiretaps, tougher bail regimes, the ability to seize the proceeds of crime, sentencing conditions and parole rules.
One of the noteworthy characteristics of the new regulatory effort is that it does not include any of the "unreported" crimes — thefts, burglaries and sexual assaults — that Mr. Day seems to think will soon be the source of an expanding prison population.
Take, for example, keeping a common bawdy-house. The sex trade is a booming business in Canada. Nobody sees the transaction between a prostitute and a john as an "unreported crime," mainly because there is no underlying crime to report. There are no criminal victims. The same goes for the thousands of Canadians who smoke dope and take barbiturates or ingest steroids. Bookmakers and hockey-pool organizers ply their trade across the country, but they are not the unreported criminals Mr. Day said exist in "alarming numbers."
The people who are going to fill Mr. Day's jails are thousands of small-time bookies, prostitutes, drug traffickers and others who are seen by government to be a branch of the "organized crime" industry, even though their crime is to deliver a service to Canadians who are willing to pay for it.
Organized crime through the centuries has been the creation of government law. A business gets organized as a crime because government declares it to be illegal. Alcohol trade became an organized crime under prohibition, and disappeared after alcohol was legalized. Pornography was once controlled by organized crime, but now the industry is legitimate and the criminal behavior — smuggling, guns, violence — that once surrounded it is gone. Want porn? Turn on the TV, where it's available 24/7 on cable.
The criminalization of gambling over the decades created a major outlet for organized crime syndicates — until governments came along and organized the crime themselves, in the form of national lotteries and government-owned casinos. Still, private gambling among citizens who like to bet on outcomes other than lottery draws is a continuing business. Governments' war on private book-making and private poker dens is more to protect their own monopolies than to eliminate crime.
Canada's Criminal Code definition of organized crime, adopted as part of an international policing campaign a few years ago, is an open door to extreme law enforcement. An organization "composed of three or more persons in or outside Canada" is a criminal organization if it "has as one of its main purposes or main activities the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences [see above], that, if committed, would likely result in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit, including a financial benefit, by the group or by any one of the persons who constitute the group."
With that wide-open definition, the organized-crime enforcement juggernaut already has spawned a largely futile attempt to curb biker gangs, and an expensive and wasteful money-laundering data agency — whose bureaucracy, incidentally, is to get a new $9-million budget increase this year under the Conservatives.
There is no space or need here to review the already well-documented grotesque criminal culture and social deterioration spawned by the U.S.-led war on drugs — a war the Conservatives are now bringing to the streets of Canada. The enforcement of these new regulations, aimed a low-level providers of services that have willing buyers, will be as effective in curbing genuine criminal activity as the other organized crime measures have been, which is not at all. They are likely to make things worse.

Tough on crime measures are completely ineffective at preventing, reducing and deterring crime. What purpose does prison serve for a sex trade worker or a drug user?! None!! These people do not pose a threat to society or the public's safety and therefore, there is no need to imprison them. Prison is a negative environment which is likely only to have negative and damaging impacts on these groups of individuals. We need less reliance on prison, not more. Drug use should be a public health issue not a criminal justice issue and sex trade workers need assistance and support to overcome the barriers to meaningful employment and education and to overcome poverty. Prison does not address the societal factors leading to prostitution and drug use.

Mandatory Minimum sentences (MMS) and longer prison sentences have been proven in research not to deter, prevent or reduce crime in the long term. They actually have been shown to increase the chances of re-offending and decrease the chances of successful reintegration because of the negative prison environment and subculture which counteracts any programming from being incorporated into an inmates' life. As a result, many inmates are released with little assistance, rehabilitation or support in the community and they resort back to crime. This does not improve public safety at all. Prisons fail at addressing the root causes and contributing factors to crime such as poverty, addictions, mental illnesses and unemployment. We must focus our attention and resources on crime prevention and rehab/reintegration programs for offenders and at risk populations in order to effectively reduce and prevent crime. Prison is a quick fix, not a long term solution. Most crime occurs as a result of social and societal factors, not personal choice. Society sets up the crime and the criminal commits it. The main emphasis should be on crime prevention initiatives instead of focusing on punishment and retribution. To reduce prison overcrowding we need to abolish MMS, place less reliance on prison as a sentence, grant more offenders bail divert more offenders to alternative and community sentences. The mentally ill, addicts, drug offenders, property and non violent offenders should not be imprisoned. Only the most dangerous offenders should be in order to protect society and the public. We dont need more prisons. What we need is for society to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty, unemployment, mental illness and addictions among others. More prisons will not solve the societal causes of crime. The overcrowding situation could also be reduced by the courts relying less on imprisonment as a sentence and more on alternative sanctions. Plus, there is no need to get tough on crime when crime rates are decreasing and have been for the past 25 years. We dont need more prisons. What we need is for society to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty, unemployment, mental illness and addictions among others. More prisons will not solve the societal causes of crime. The overcrowding situation could also be reduced by the courts relying less on imprisonment as a sentence and more on alternative sanctions. It's a stupid legal system we have when they want to send "low-level criminals, non-violent, non-h...armful people like pot smokers, sex trade workers, shoplifting youth, drug addicts, the mentally ill, and so on" to PRISON of all places. NONE of those crimes warrant a prison stay!

"We shouldn't be under any illusions that they're in some way protecting people... their crime agenda laws are actually very harmful — particularly when it comes to people who are in vulnerable positions, such as sex workers or people who use drugs." -- Libby Davies

Prostitution should NOT be illegal. Those women often need help and assistance in their lives and face many barriers to securing other forms of employment and they should not be criminalized. Criminalizing sex trade workers puts them in an even more vulnerable situation. Police, prisons and punishment are not an effective way to help sex trade workers. Criminalization creates conditions where prostitution fosters in the underground market, where it is unsafe and dangerous. If it was legalized and properly regulated, safer working conditions could be created and implemented. Punishment and prisons are not the answer. Criminalization of the sex trade only results in more harm falling upon sex-trade workers.

Whatever your feelings about the morality of the sex trade, police, prisons and punishment are not the solution, they are indeed part of the problem in this case. Sex trade workers need help and assistance to overcome their situation, not prisons and punishment. Completely ineffective.

Accused killer was out on bail, sought by police

2010-08-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Accused killer was out on bail, sought by police

A Winnipeg woman accused of a violent weekend rampage that left one man dead and another person seriously injured has a long history with the criminal justice system.

Mary Ellen Thomas was let out of jail just last month -- despite objections from the Crown, who noted her extensive record -- and was wanted on arrest warrants at the time of the attacks for allegedly breaching her conditions within days of release.

Thomas, 30, was arrested July 31 and charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault. The single mother of a young child is accused of killing 62-year-old Michael Allan inside his Nassau Street South home, then randomly stabbing an 18-year-old girl at a nearby convenience store.

None of the allegations has been proven and she is presumed innocent.

Court documents obtained by the Free Press show Thomas was previously arrested on July 20 after allegedly using a shovel to smash a truck that belonged to a British Columbia man she'd recently met online. She spent three nights behind bars until provincial court Judge Mary Curtis agreed to free her on bail.

The Crown fought to keep her locked up, noting she had more than two dozen prior convictions for crimes spanning nearly 15 years including prostitution, theft, assault and breaching court orders. Thomas also had her statutory release from prison revoked in 2008 for violating terms of her release. The Crown noted there is a common theme to many of Thomas' prior offences -- they involve meeting men, consuming large amounts of alcohol and then turning violent.

"I've changed a lot," Thomas pleaded with the judge during her July 23 bail hearing.

"When I look at your record, the inclination is to say nothing's changed," Curtis replied. "But, in this particular set of circumstances, I am going to authorize your release."

Curtis ordered Thomas to abide by conditions including an order to abstain from alcohol and observe a nightly curfew. However, a warrant was issued for her arrest on July 28 after she allegedly failed to report to bail supervision. It wouldn't be executed until police arrested her inside Allan's home three days later.

Parole board documents show Thomas was diagnosed in 2006 as a schizophrenic prone to hallucinations and paranoia. There were also concerns about alcohol and crack cocaine use.

Allan's family told the Free Press this week he was a lonely, sick alcoholic who was allegedly killed by a woman he'd met earlier that night and agreed to bring home for drinks after purchasing beer from a vendor. They also believe Allan was targeted for his bank card. Mervin Forbister, the victim's brother-in-law, said Allan was a well-educated man who recently came back to Winnipeg from Saskatoon so his family could help care for him as he grappled with a lung disease wracking his 6'2, 112-pound body.

Forbister questioned how the accused killer was not in jail when the attack occurred.

"If I have any gripe, it's with the justice system," he said.

Help sought for troubled teen

2010-08-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Help sought for troubled teen

One of the country's top advocates for girls in jail was contacted about a troubled teen at the Manitoba Youth Centre before the 15-year-old girl took her life last week.

Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, said she was contacted by someone concerned for the girl's safety who said she needed counselling. Calls and emails increased after the girl hanged herself last week, went into a coma and died three days later in hospital.

Pate said she has had contact with about five people who knew the girl, including those who work at the youth centre. She has information from "within the system" about concerns the girl was suicidal a year ago.

Pate said she believes there's a "real fear of people speaking out" about the incident, which she said points to "probably a much bigger series of systemic issues here around transparency (and) accountability."

She is an expert on women in prison and is helping examine the circumstances behind the death of Ashley Smith, 19, who died in 2007 after guards watched her choke herself in a Kitchener prison.

The Winnipeg girl hanged herself while she was alone in her room in one of the youth centre's cottages.

"We think this, as in the case of Ashley Smith, really highlights the need to look at not (normalizing) prison as an option for youth, particularly those who are most vulnerable and marginalized," Pate said. "We need to be ensuring that there are adequate social services, health care and supportive environments for youth. Jails are not places to raise children."

Separate sources have told the Free Press about the need for more mental-health programming and services for residents at the Doncaster Street jail. They say the jail needs better facilities for observing high-needs youth and that some teens should be getting hospital treatment, not jail time. A source told the Free Press two more girls have attempted suicide at the youth centre since the girl's death.

Staff are doing more checks of youths at the institution, said the source, but there are limits to what they can do. They describe the youth centre as overcrowded and outdated.

"We're not addressing where they come from or what they've gone through, we're just trying to teach them maybe to get along better while they're there," said one source.

The Manitoba Youth Centre has mental health nurses who work in the jail but they don't staff the facility 24 hours a day. "They have trouble keeping people in the position because it's obviously very stressful," said the source.

On Wednesday, there were 189 youths in a facility ideally meant for 150 people.

The province's medical examiner said he'll call an inquest into the death shortly.

"The child should have been looked after more carefully," said Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra.

The suicide was the first at MYC in 35 years.

Manitoba Justice officials have refused Free Press interview requests to discuss mental-health services at the institution.

Cora Morgan, executive director of Onashowewin, works with aboriginal youths and adults who have been arrested and charged, then diverted to programming at the non-profit organization. In the last six months, three teenage girls who went to Onashowewin programs attempted suicide. One died.

"Many of our clients have come from extremely tough circumstances and are not emotionally equipped to cope with their realities," said Morgan.

These teen girl should have never been in prison. Those with mental illnesses should never be in prison, but instead in mental health facilities where they can receive proper treatment and counseling and programs.

New rules give police more power to combat gangs

2010-08-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

New rules give police more power to combat gangs

OTTAWA -- Prosecutors and police will have enhanced powers to tackle prostitution, illegal gambling and drug trafficking activities by organized crime under new measures announced Wednesday by the Conservative government.

The new rules expand the list of what constitutes a serious crime in the Criminal Code -- meaning offences punishable by five or more years in prison -- to activities such as keeping a common bawdy house, keeping a gaming or betting house and exporting, importing or producing illegal drugs.

Although the new rules were welcomed by police organizations, defence lawyers described them as overkill, and said the government should carefully monitor their implementation.

They are using a very blunt object, painting with a very broad brush, said David Anber, a criminal lawyer in Ottawa, arguing a lot of nickel-and-dime crooks with no links to organized crime could wind up being branded as serious offenders.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who unveiled the changes at a news conference in Montreal, said the crimes being targeted are often signature activities of organized crime rings.

The new rules, quietly approved by cabinet last month, will allow police and prosecutors to more easily use tools such as wire taps while investigating those crimes, the Justice Department said in a statement.

They also will be able to seek stiffer sentences, block bail and parole eligibility and seize assets that are the proceeds of crime, it said.

The Criminal Code defines a criminal organization as three or more people acting together in criminal ventures, and the federal government estimates 750 organized crime groups are operating across the country.

David Deutscher, a University of Manitoba law professor, said the changes are part of a Conservative effort to appear "tough on crime."

"There's no indication that anybody's been clamouring for these type of amendment(s)," he said.

Deutscher said he believes the changes are a "political move." He noted the offences that will now be treated as serious aren't the "ones that attract the most severe penalties in the Criminal Code."

"I think it's generally part of a political agenda," he said.

We do not need to get tough on crime. It's unnecessary and ineffective at reducing, preventing and deterring crime. Marijuana possession and prostitution should be legal and regulated so safer conditions could be created. These people do not belong in prisons and criminalizing these activities only clogs up courts and jails unnecessarily. Crime has been decreasing and there is no need to get tough. We need to get smart and start addressing the root causes and underlying contributing factors to crime and placing less reliance on imprisonment.

A peek inside the Hells Angels' home

2010-08-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

A peek inside Hells' home

The Manitoba Hells Angels clubhouse -- now under provincial government ownership -- was both a Las Vegas-style party pad and a powerful, heavily fortified symbol of the gang's dominance in the criminal underworld.

Court documents obtained Wednesday by the Free Press provide a rare and detailed glimpse into the inner-workings of the notorious outlaw bikers and the place they called home.

The 2,865-square-foot Scotia Street home, currently assessed at $357,000 on the open market, was taken over by Manitoba Justice officials last week after filing a claim under the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act. It is the first time such a step has been taken in Manitoba and mirrors similar seizures in Ontario and British Columbia.

"The clubhouse serves as a symbol to rival criminal organizations of their presence and domination over unlawful activity in the area," Det.-Sgt. Ken Downs wrote in an affidavit filed in support of the court application. "It provides a base of operations, a place to make social ties and recruit new members, is a safe area to conspire about the commission of unlawful acts... and allows the Hells Angels to commit unlawful activities in secrecy."

Downs is a member of the Thunder Bay Police Service with extensive knowledge of the Canadian biker scene. He said the Manitoba chapter specifically began using the property, located behind the Kildonan Presbyterian Cemetery, because it was the last home on a dead-end street.

"This deters surveillance by rivals and police," said Downs. He said the Hells also had the home registered under the name of Leonard Beauchemin, a resident of Keewatin, Ont., with previous ties to the gang.

"This is a purposeful act done to disassociate the organized crime group from illegal profits. They are aware... it presents challenges for effective law enforcement," Downs wrote.

Beauchemin now has a month to appeal the interim order, which cites the clubhouse as a hub of criminal activity such as drug trafficking and money laundering.

Police also make the case the clubhouse had a "frat house" type atmosphere meant to build strong bonds between bikers. In several hundred pages of affidavits and photographs, police document various features of the home including an elevated stage and stripper pole where exotic dancers routinely performed, a well-stocked bar that included a running tab for all members, two full-sized video arcade games and a pool table.

The walls were covered with photographs of other Hells Angels members and chapters around the world, and crude signs including one that read "NO RATS, NO FAT CHICKS, NO GUNS." A huge portrait of founding Hells member Sonny Barger also hung above the fireplace.

There was also a VIP "Members Room" that was only open for full-patch bikers, not prospects or hangarounds. The room contained a chalkboard to allow bikers to "write out their conversations instead of speaking them for fear law enforcement had installed listening devices."

The Manitoba chapter also had a large supply of "support wear" T-shirts, hats and tuques which carried slogans such as "Silence is golden, duct tape is silver"; "When in doubt knock ' em out"; "Three can keep a secret if 2 are dead"; and "Shoot rats not drugs."

Police also provided written documentation that show the collection of monthly dues, minutes taken from monthly gang meetings known as "Church" and even lists of rules and regulations that all Hells members and associates must follow. Police say there was also an "extraordinary" surveillance system surrounding the property, which included nine hidden exterior cameras that would be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by designated members assigned to work "The Shift." Some of the cameras possessed "night vision" that would allow the bikers to clearly see images in the dark.

Police included extensive details of the Hells Angels history around the world, including details on the 35 existing Canadian chapters that include an estimated 476 active members.

There are also lengthy summaries of previous surveillance done on the Manitoba bikers, including a blow-by-blow account of observations made by police monitoring their 2009 Halloween party at the clubhouse.

Besides the clubhouse, police seized two motorcycles and four vehicles on the property, plus all contents of the house such as furniture. However, most Hells Angels-related paraphernalia was already gone, seized last December during Project Divide, a major police sting operation that used a former biker associated as a paid informant who captured dozens of drug and weapons deals on audio and video surveillance.

A total of 35 people were arrested, and 22 have already pleaded guilty and received lengthy prison sentences. Police launched two similar projects in 2007 and 2005 which have left the Manitoba chapter reeling.

www.mikeoncrime.com

STRICT CODE OF CONDUCT: A list of rules to be followed

Like any clubhouse, the Hells Angels had a strict set of rules that all members, associates and visitors were expected to follow. Police detailed many of these in court documents obtained Wednesday by the Free Press. They included the following:

HAVE ON YOU AT ALL TIMES:

Your house key and gate opener

Pens and a note pad

Lighter and rolling papers

Condoms and gum

Rolaids and Tylenol

Winnipeg phone list and phone or pager

TO DO:

Learn to roll a smoke.

Wear your vest at all times to parties, every time you're on your bike or at the clubhouse.

Never leave your vest lying around, hang it up and show respect. Never leave it in an unsafe area like your truck or car.

Take pride in yourself and your club.

Shake every member's hand right. Don't rush. Repeat names. Get to know your members, including their smoke brand, coffee size and what they want in it.

Sex offenders should not be in prison

2010-08-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

Offender back to prison

A high-risk sex offender who once told parole officials he gets "a thrill out of terrorizing women" is headed back to prison for leaving a Winnipeg halfway house after failing a drug test.

Christopher Murdock, 46, has been designated a long-term offender who must remain under strict parole-like conditions for a 10-year period expiring in late 2015. He has a lengthy history of sexual assault convictions, including a 1990 attack where he broke into a home, terrorized a family at gunpoint and raped a woman while her children were present.

Murdock was also convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, only to be granted statutory release after serving two-thirds of his four-year sentence and then breaching conditions on two previous occasions leading to additional jail time of 18 and 24 months respectively.

In his latest crime, Murdock was back at the same halfway house he'd previously fled from in March 2010 after once again being given statutory release. He failed a urine test which showed marijuana in his system, then ran away from the facility and spent two days on the run. RCMP issued a public alert and found him hiding inside a home on the Fisher Branch First Nation. His statutory release was revoked and he was ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence, which expired last month.

Provincial Court Judge Sid Lerner ordered Murdock to spend an additional 18 months behind bars for the charge of being unlawfully at large. The maximum allowed by law is two years.

"He has a very serious, very disturbing background. He is a danger," Lerner said Tuesday. "Knowledge of his whereabouts at all times is a prerequisite for managing his risk in the community."

Lerner said there needs to be "serious consequences" for Murdock's latest breach, even if he didn't commit any new crimes while being sought by police. The Crown had asked for the 18-month penalty, while Murdock's lawyer was seeking something in the range of three-to-six months, court was told.

One of Murdock's conditions is to reside at all times under a community correctional centre, which includes mandatory drug testing and a nightly curfew. Such a provision is rare in Canada and usually reserved for the most prolific offenders. He must also have no unsupervised contact with any children or attend places where they may gather. Murdock's risk to reoffend remains high because he is deemed an "untreated sex offender."

I do not believe that sex offenders should be in prison in most cases, because the negative environment of prison often worsens their "mental illness". There should be separate facilities for sex offenders which emphasize treatment and rehabilitation and risk management strategies and life skills, along with successful reintegration.

Conservatives blasted after suggesting more prisons needed

2010-08-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Day blasted after suggesting more prisons needed

OTTAWA -- A senior cabinet minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government came under fire Tuesday for suggesting Canada needs to build more prisons in part because of a rise in unreported crimes.

"We're very concerned... about the increase in the amount of unreported crimes that surveys clearly show are happening," Day said at a news conference. "People simply aren't reporting the same way they used to."

The comments were immediately contradicted by the government's main statistical agency -- and inspired a rapidly spreading Internet video that mocked the minister for not being able to identify the source of his arguments.

Day made the remarks as Harper's cabinet and caucus returned to Parliament Hill for a series of meetings to review the government's agenda and economic policies. He said the government was committed to winding down stimulus spending programs to eliminate the deficit, but added planned multibillion-dollar investments in new prisons would be needed to replace aging facilities, deter violent criminals and cope with what he claimed is a rise in unreported crimes.

"Those numbers are alarming and it shows that we can't take a liberal view to crime (or) suggest that it's barely happening at all," said Day. "We still have situations, too many situations of criminal activity that are alarming to our citizens and we intend to continue to deal with that."

Day is not the first minister or Conservative MP to suggest the police-reported crime rates are an inaccurate picture of crime in Canada.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, in an email missive to supporters July 22, blamed statistical dishonesty and soft-on-crime apologists in the media and Liberal caucus for suggestions the crime problem in Canada is getting better.

"No amount of statistical manipulation is going to dissuade Canadians from what they know to be true: in this great country, we have a crime problem," Toews wrote.

He went on to say Canadians are no longer reporting crimes, in increasingly large numbers, to the police.

"Whether it's in respect of serious sexual assaults or more commonplace property offences, the argument that Statistic Canada's "police report" statistics show that the crime rate is falling, is seriously flawed," he wrote. "As with all statistical measures, it depends on your point of reference -- and often, your level of honesty."

During an appearance before a parliamentary committee in March, Toews pointed to 1999 and 2004 victimization surveys by Statistics Canada as evidence crime rates have gone up 15 to 19 per cent. He said crime rates in cities like Winnipeg and Vancouver exceed those in most U.S. cities.

Those surveys, conducted once every five years, suggested the proportion of crimes reported to police dropped from 42 per cent in 1994 to 37 per cent in 1999 and 34 per cent in 2004. The proportion of violent crimes reported went up slightly from 31 to 33 per cent between 1999 and 2004.

The percentage of people who had been the victim of a crime in the previous year went from 26 per cent in 1999 to 28 per cent in 2004. The rate of most violent crimes, including sexual assault and physical assault had stayed the same or gone down. The rate of household crimes, including robbery and vandalism, had gone up.

The surveys suggested most people who didn't report crimes kept silent because they dealt with the crime another way or because they didn't think the crime was serious enough to report. Victims were more likely to report the crime if they were injured or had lost property worth more than $1,000.

Statistics Canada quickly shot down Day's assumption, saying this data cannot be compared to police-reported crime statistics, since it only surveyed eight types of crimes as opposed to the hundreds of crimes investigated by police.

"So for example, you can't ask somebody: Have you ever been a victim of a homicide?" said Warren Silver from the agency's centre for justice statistics.

"It's just not possible to do. So what (the Statistics Canada research) does do is track some of the types of crimes that people might not report and might report and some of the reasons why."

NDP MP slams Tories over new organized crime regulations
NDP MP Libby Davies says it's "outrageous" that the Conservative government has quietly enacted new organized crime regulations — which include making bawdyhouse offences a "serious crime" — while Parliament is on summer break.

As part of its plan to crack down on organized crime, the federal government put through several regulatory changes to the Criminal Code in the middle of July. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced the changes on Wednesday.

"The fact that an offence is committed by a criminal organization makes it a serious crime," Nicholson stated in a press release. "These regulations will help ensure that police and prosecutors can make full use of the tools in the Criminal Code that are specifically targeted at tackling organized crime."

While most of the regulatory changes announced to the Criminal Code affect gambling, betting or drug trafficking, the government also included "keeping a common bawdyhouse (subsection 210(1) and paragraph 210(2)(c))."

Bawdyhouse laws have been repeatedly used by police to target gay bathhouses and raid them, as recently as 2002 in Calgary and 2004 in Hamilton.

NDP MP Libby Davies, who has studied the country's laws around bawdyhouses and sex work, is concerned.

"It's outrageous that they do it in the dead of summer," Davies says. "This is such a characteristic now of the Conservative government — they bring about manoeuvres and policy changes and announce them when they think no one's paying attention.

"To have changes to the Criminal Code that are regulatory and to do it outside of Parliament, when there's less chance of scrutiny because everybody's away, is terrible. It means that we can't hold the government to account because everyone's away, because Parliament's not sitting."

"We shouldn't be under any illusions that they're in some way protecting people," says NDP MP Libby Davies of the Conservative government's crime agenda.

As to the specific bawdyhouse provisions, Davies feels this is little more than the government maintaining the illusion that it is cracking down on organized crime when she feels the existing laws are tough enough.

"If their intent is to put a tighter grip around bawdyhouses, then that will affect sex workers, and it will affect their safety and their rights. We should be very concerned about what they're up to here."

Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland has also raised red flags. "When you do legislation as a political weapon, when you do legislation in the middle of the night with no consultation, no utilization of Parliamentary committee, and you just whip it together to try to change the channel politically, it has all kinds of unintended consequences," he says.

Justice officials state in the release that making these provisions serious offences will make it easier for police and prosecutors to take full advantage of specific Criminal Code offences dealing with organized crime.

Davies begs to differ.

"We shouldn't be under any illusions that they're in some way protecting people because the story is, is on their crime agenda, their laws are actually very harmful — particularly when it comes to people who are in vulnerable positions, such as sex workers or people who use drugs."

We do not need more prisons. The prospect of punishment and imprisonment fails to deter, prevent or reduce crime in Canada. What we need to do is stop over-relying on imprisonment as a sentence and start imposing alternative sentences such as conditional sentences and others that take place in the community. Prison is a negative environment which harbours pro-criminal attitudes, values, beliefs, gangs, drugs, and fails to facilitate or encourage rehabilitation or reform. Prisons increase the chances of re-offending and decrease the chances of successful reintegration. We must place more emphasis on rehabilitation and address the root causes and contributing factors to crime, such as poverty, addictions, mental illness, etc.

So, the Cons want to build more prisons to house unidentified perpetrators of unreported crimes? And they want to base their decision on surveys that are at least 6 years out of date? Hmmmmm.

So to be clear....we are going to spend billions on new jails for unreport crimes? First - how do you charge, much less convinct, someone for an unreport crime? Second - even if we could convinct someone of a crime that went unreported, Mr Day's own "evidence" says that these crimes are not the type of crime that you go to prison for.

This is the worst case of Karl Rove/George Bush "scare the crap outta people" politics we've ever seen. Harper and his social conservatives what people to believe that crime is getting worse in this country because they believe it's a good campaign issue for them. This is just twisted. This is why the Tories want to make Stats Canada useless - so they can make stuff up, and no one will have the data to disprove them.

Just as Day didn't know which way a river flowed, he demonstrates he doesn't know if crimes are being committed, but wants more prisons built.

The crimes being committed are crimes of stupidity that are perpetrated upon us

This is the same guy who said humans walked the earth with the dinosaurs. Is it any wonder he think it's a good thing to spend billions building new jails when the stats prove the crime rate to be dropping? Perhaps if he spent any money on prevention programs, the jails would not be necessary and there would be less victims.

If crime goes "unreported" what are we building more prisons for?

Surely if no one reports a "crime", nobody can be brought to justice for a crime that was not "reported' so how can we imprison anybody?

By the way, when incidents are "reported" that by definition takes them our of the realm of being "unreported": Hence an investigation can be initiated (depending on circumstances; whether it is a serious crime, and whether or not the police force is at Horton's ejoying their do-nut.)

The point is, only "reported" crimes can be "punished". Unreported crimes go unpunished, because . . . well, you figure it out from there.

Geez, these Conservatives: Dumb, dumb, dumb and dumber . . .
First; if the crimes are unreported there is no police investigation. If there is no police investigation there are no suspects to arrest. If no one is arrested and charged there is no one to send to prison. So what is Day really saying here? We are going to put people who do not exist in prison? What an idiot!

Did any of the commentators actually read the report here. The reference to crimes that go unreported as one commentator put it "If crime goes "unreported" what are we building more prisons for?" completely misses the point. This is made in reference to people who believe crime rates are decreasing when in fact a portion of crimes do go unreported thus skewing peoples perspective of what is truly happening.

To suggest Stockwell Day is calling for jailing non existent criminals and thus justifying his call for more jail cells is both fatuous and ridiculous, get a grip folks!

If the reason we need more jails is that the ones we have are full, say that. Not some mumbo jumbo about unreported crimes. If you read the last paragraphs of the story, crimes go unreported when damage is minimal (as in less than insurance deductibles) or if there were no injuries. That's unlikely to change with new prisons.

Crime requires more complex solutions than either the neocon iron fist or the liberal namby-pamby "forgive the poor little (insert some socioeconomic or racial identifier here) for he knows not what he does."

The solutions have to span the range, from dealing with root causes to providing legitimate economic activity and sufficient childhood activities (community activity centers, etc.) to a justice system that toughens up the process of punishment and rehabilitation. Progressive mandatory sentences, as in mandatory sentences that increase with each offence, jails where prisoners are actually expected to work and abide by accepted protocols (a military protocol, perhaps) (which makes the idea of re-offending less and less attractive), and providing skillsets so that prisoners don't leave prison only to find crime is all they know.

Another typical Con ideological tempest in a teapot. Using "unreported" crimes to support justice initiatives. It would be laughable if it wasn't from the mouth of a minister. A Con's view of the world is that anyone who breaks a law should be put in jail for a long time. It's all part of the nasty Con view of the world, just like the people who constantly lament how bad our justice system is. To them the sky is falling, the sky is falling....

Canada doesn't need more tough on crime legislation

2010-07-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Our country doesn't need mroe tough on crime legislation

There are liars, damn liars and statisticians who never tire of pointing out anomalies such as Abbotsford-Mission being Canada's murder capital.
It recorded more homicides per capita than any other metropolitan area in 2009 -- oh, my!
Nine. There were nine murders in Abbotsford-Mission.
Still, with only 160,000 residents, that works out to a lot "per capita."
If I lived out there, I don't think I'd be rushing to sell my house.
The volume of 2009 police-reported data released Tuesday by Statistics Canada revealed yet again we are a nation managing to combat evil without the federal Conservatives' ultraexpensive tough-on-crime program.
We should all take heart that the trend of the last decade has produced a greater than 20-per-cent drop in criminal offences. That's amazing.
For the sixth year in a row, from sea unto sea unto sea, the number of crimes fell dramatically -- 43,000 fewer than in 2008, which saw a decrease of 77,000 from 2007.
And we're talking about significant reductions in the kind of crimes that affect everybody and leave all of us feeling violated and vulnerable -- 17,000 fewer motor vehicle thefts, 10,000 fewer mischief offences and 5,000 fewer break-ins.
Still, some of the quirky statistical facts that surface among the data, such as the killing fields of Abbotsford, remain counterintuitive.
Much-celebrated centres of Prairie neighbourliness -- Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg -- look like violent outposts, Toronto a peaceable place.
Hogtown's seemingly as safe as pastoral Guelph or Disneylike Quebec City.
Hardly. When you focus on mathematical ratios, you can often get a distorted picture because of the small numbers involved in the violent-crime categories.
The numbers, nevertheless, shed a lot of light on the effectiveness of existing public safety policies and dispel the darkness of Tory fearmongering to support more prisons and tougher mandatory jail sentences.
Even kids have not escaped Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's anachronistic wrath: Spare the rod and you know what happens seems to be his rationale for stiffening juvenile penalties.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, too, is touting the end of two-for-one credit for time served in pre-trial custody as a great achievement.
The cost of that popular but controversial change is estimated to be at least $2 billion over five years, up from the original estimate of only $90 million over two years.
The price of the entire Conservative plan is simply sky-high -- perhaps $10 billion or more in increased policing, prosecution and corrections expenses.
"It does cost money to incarcerate people and I believe that Canadians have been willing to pay those costs up to this point and they'll continue to do so," Nicholson responds.
"What's the cost to victims when violent individuals are out on the street that shouldn't be?"
The government insists the Opposition is "soft on crime" and has delayed the Conservatives' most controversial measures. There are good reasons for such delays.
This package of solutions to a faux problem is a recipe for uncontrollable spending that will make the gun registry spree look prudent.
That's why -- with the feds trying to stir up emotions to support a tougher approach to crime and punishment -- the StatsCan report was refreshing, hopeful news.
If nothing else, it exposes the scofflaw-and-disorder legerdemain.
As the figures indicate, over the last decade, this country has become a safer, more civilized place.
We don't need to spend billions building more prisons to accommodate mandatory jail terms and 19th-century sentences. Our laws are working just fine.
It also explains why the Tories might want to eliminate the long-form census -- it's dreadful when political discussions get clouded by facts.

Province apologizes for timing of announcement on Li

2010-07-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

Province apologizes for timing of announcement on Li

More guards, but no fence for Li's walks on grounds of mental health centre

The province apologized this morning for releasing, on the anniversary of Tim McLean's death, information on new security measures that will allow his killer, Vince Li, to walk the grounds of the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

"If the timing of this information has caused one ounce additional pain to the McLean family, I certainly want to offer my profound regret for that," Health Minister Theresa Oswald told reporters this morning. She said the timing of the announcement was inadvertent.

"This is a family that has endured pain (that), thankfully, very few of us will ever know and no family should ever know," Oswald said. "And so if more information about the development of Mr. Li’s treatment on this day, or any day, hurts that family further, I think we should all feel regret for that. And certainly I do."

Li was found not criminally responsible last year for the July 30, 2008 beheading of 22-year-old McLean on a Greyhound bus near Portage la Prairie. He admitted responsibility for the attack, but a judge found him to be suffering from hallucinations and untreated schizophrenia at the time, which left him unable to appreciate or control his actions.

His doctors have said Li has made tremendous progress in the past two years at the centre, and two months ago the Criminal Code Review Board ruled that Li could begin taking two brief supervised outdoor passes a day.

A public uproar ensued and the province announced that Li wouldn’t be allowed to leave the centre’s secure forensic unit additional security precautions were in place

Friday, the province issued a press release describing the new measures, adding that it would take an additional two months before they would be in force and Li would begin his strolls.

The new plan does not include the construction of a fence around the grounds that some in the community had called for.

Two more full-time security officers have been hired and will be dedicated to escorting forensic patients, including Li, when required under disposition orders. A clinical staff member will also escort patients in such cases.

The walks will be restricted to periods when staff numbers are at their peak.

All risks will be assessed by the treatment team before Li — or any other patient requiring such security measures — is given a pass to walk the grounds.

The Selkirk centre says it has shared its security plans with the RCMP and will advise the Mounties when the walks begin.

The majority of the public is ignorant and uneducated regarding the severity of Li's mental illness. They are advocating for execution, deportation, imprisonment and denial of human rights, which are all merely revenge, not justice. Li's actions were unintentional and his disorder is to blame. He should not be deprived of his human rights. Fresh air and sunshine are beneficial to his treatment. Confinement can often worsen mental illnesses. Being allowed 15 minute walks outside, escorted by two security guards, would not pose a risk to anybody. Where is the compassion and sympathy for the mentally ill?! Obviously what Li did was horrific and gruesome, but he was experiencing a psychotic episode and was unaware of what he was doing at the time, therefore, he cannot and should not be held responsible. Legally, he is not a criminal and he should not be treated worse than one. Here in civilized societies, we don't fence in and deprive the mentally unstable of their human rights. That is completely inhumane, cruel and barbaric. Public opinion should never trump knowledgeable opinion and decisions made by the review board who considered public safety in their decision to allow Li walks. Forgiveness is the only way to move past this horrible experience. Certainly, not an easy thing to do, especially in a society that worships revenge and retribution.

The reason he's not behind bars is because he has schizophrenia. I would suggest you do some hard research on mental illness, as you admit you don't know anything about why he's not behind bars.

Were he in jail, without meds and/or therapy, he would most definitely hurt a staff member or another inmate. Do you want that? I should hope not. I believe he should never be released, but for goodness sakes it's just an escorted walk. Maybe there should be a fence, but if he's taking his meds, and has increased security guards, then I'm not too worried about anything happening.

There's a reason why we're proud to be Canadian. Because we value a little thing called human rights. We are also supposed to be evolved enough to recognize mental illness, although some of us seem to still be down there in medival times.

Vince Li to be allowed supervised walks in unfenced yard

2010-07-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Vince Li to walk in unfenced area

There will be more guards but no fence at a Winnipeg-area mental health facility where beheader Vince Li has been granted escorted walks.

Li is being held at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre after being found not criminally responsible for stabbing and beheading Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus exactly two years ago, on July 30, 2008.

The Manitoba NDP government stated in a news release issued Friday that two more full-time security officers have been hired and will be dedicated to escorting "forensic" patients.

All security staff members at SMHC are equipped with handcuffs and radios and designated special constables with special police tactical training from Manitoba Sheriff Services, according to the release.

About $400,000 has recently been spent on security upgrades, which include more video surveillance and access controls throughout the property.

A clinical staff member will also be present for the walks, which will only take place when staff levels are at their highest and will not occur until all risks have been assessed and security measures are in place.

Shortly after the press release was issued, Manitoba Minister of Health Theresa Oswald apologized to McLean's family.

"If the timing of this information has caused one ounce additional pain to the McLean family, I certainly want to offer my profound regret for that," she said.

The Criminal Code Review Board, which examines Li's care every year, decided this spring that he should be allowed walks with two staff members on the unfenced grounds.

Soon after that decision was made, the Opposition party Progressive Conservatives called on the government to transfer Li to a fenced-in facility outside the province.

Attorney General Andrew Swan rejected that idea because decisions about Li's custody and similar cases are made by the review board — an independent body that operates under federal guidelines — not the province.

2 months before Li gets walks

The government news release, which does not name Li specifically, stated it will take about two months to get all the security arrangements implemented.

Other recent enhancements include external and internal security reviews that led to policy and procedure changes, including increasing the detail and frequency of searches of rooms and people in the forensic area, the news release noted.

The measures were designed to ensure public safety and take into consideration the needs of the general population at SMHC who are there solely for health care, the release stated.

The SMHC provides long-term mental health and acquired brain injury in-patient treatment and rehabilitation services to residents of Manitoba whose treatment and rehabilitation needs cannot be met by other services in the province.

The security plan has been shared with the RCMP and they will be told when the walks begin.

Tim McLean, 22, was on his way home to Winnipeg when he was slain on a Greyhound bus on July 30th, 2008.

Vince Li was declared not criminally responsible last year for the killing of Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus in 2008.

Security measures to be followed when Vince Li strolls grounds
Province sorry about timing of announcement
The province apologized Friday for announcing, on the anniversary of Tim McLean's death, the conditions under which convicted killer Vince Li will receive escorted passes from the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.
Health Minister Theresa Oswald said she was sorry for the gaffe, while the Conservative Opposition said it was a sign the Selinger government was more concerned for Li than the feelings of McLean's family.
The family had just returned from a morning visit to McLean's grave Friday when it learned through the media the province had approved a security plan so Li could begin taking two 15-minute strolls on the grounds of the mental health centre. The passes, which are expected to begin in two months, were ordered by the Criminal Code Review Board in early June.
Amanda Corrigan, McLean's sister, said she didn't appreciate learning about the new security procedures from a Free Press reporter. The province should have given the family notice before the information was released to the media, she said.
"I just think it's in bad taste (the way the situation was handled)."
Li was found not criminally responsible last year for the July 30, 2008 beheading of 22-year-old McLean on a Greyhound bus near Portage la Prairie. He admitted responsibility for the attack but a judge found him to be suffering from hallucinations and untreated schizophrenia at the time, which left him unable to appreciate or control his actions.
But over the past two years, Li has made great progress, his doctors said earlier this year. They convinced the review board to authorize the escorted strolls, prompting a public uproar. Justice Minister Andrew Swan said at the time the province would bar Li from walking outside the centre's locked forensic unit "unless and until" new security measures were in place.
On Friday, the province issued a press release setting out those new measures -- before it dawned on the minister or her staff the timing couldn't have been worse. "If the timing of this information has caused one ounce (of) additional pain to the McLean family, I certainly want to offer my profound regret for that," Oswald said. She said the timing of the announcement was inadvertent.
"This is a family that has endured pain (which), thankfully, very few of us will ever know and that no family should ever know. And so if more information about the development of Mr. Li's treatment on this day or any day hurts that family further, I think we should all feel regret for that. And certainly I do."
Conservative justice critic Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach) said Oswald's apology, while welcome, speaks to the fact that "everything about this decision is driven toward Mr. Li, and there has not been any consideration (given) to the victim's family."
He said his party still believes Li should be taking his escorted walks in a secure area or be transferred to a more appropriate institution.

Two security officers with 40 hours of police tactical training as well as non-violent crisis intervention training and one clinical staff member will escort Li on his walks.
The walks will be restricted to periods when staffing at the centre is at its peak. The centre has hired two new full-time security officers, bringing its complement to 12. There is also a full-time security manager.
Li's treatment team will assess all risks before issuing each individual pass.
No pass privileges will be approved until all security measures are in place in about two months. For instance, the centre is still consulting security experts about how much distance guards should give Li while he is out on his strolls.
The centre recently installed $400,000 in security equipment upgrades, including more video surveillance and access controls throughout the property.

Beheader could begin outdoor walks in 2 months
Vince Li could begin escorted walks with security staff around the Selkirk Mental Health Centre in about two months.
Exactly two years ago Friday, Li killed and brutalized Tim McLean aboard a Greyhound bus near Portage la Prairie.
Coincidentally, the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, where Li is being treated after being found not criminally responsible for the killing, released its plan Friday for upgrading security to accommodate a Criminal Code Review Board ruling that he be granted escorted walks around the unfenced grounds and to other areas of the complex like the gym, chapel and library.
McLean's father Tim Sr. slammed the timing of the announcement.
"We're very saddened by waking up to that news on Timothy's anniversary (of his death)," he said. "It's very insensitive."
Health Minister Theresa Oswald said the plans were made public Friday because that's when they were finalized.
"We have committed to keep the public informed. (The Selkirk MHC staff) were ready to go with their information today," Oswald said. "If the timing of this information has caused one ounce of additional pain to the McLean family, I want to offer my sincere regret."
The plans for Li's walks include the hiring of two more full-time security officers who will be dedicated to escorting Li and other forensic mental health patients on walks.
The centre's plan for Li also includes allowing the walks only at times when staffing levels are at their peak and assessing the risk before each walk is granted.
The RCMP has been advised of the plans and will be notified when the walks begin.
The new measures should be in place about two months from now, the centre said Friday. The walks can begin once the measures are in place.
Oswald said no fence will be installed around the complex for several reasons, including the fact that the next step in Li's treatment plan specified that he be allowed to walk in an unconfined environment and that it wouldn't be fair to the vast majority of the 230 or so patients at the centre, most of whom are not there as forensic patients.
"Selkirk Mental Health Centre is not a prison and ought not be treated like one," Oswald said, noting doing so would set mental health back 100 years. "The uniqueness of this case has people afraid but we need to be really careful about the stigmatization of mental illness."

Plans for Li to walk
Vince Li could begin escorted walks with security staff around the Selkirk Mental Health Centre in about two months.
Exactly two years ago Friday, Li killed and beheaded Tim McLean aboard a Greyhound bus near Portage la Prairie.
Coincidentally, the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, where Li is being treated after being found not criminally responsible for the killing, released its plan Friday for upgrading security to accommodate a Criminal Code Review Board ruling that Li be granted escorted walks around the unfenced grounds and to other areas of the complex like the gym, chapel and library.
The new measures should be in place about two months from now and the walks can begin once the measures are in place.
The plans for Li’s walks include the hiring of two more full-time security officers, who will be dedicated to escorting Li and other forensic mental health patients on walks.
The walks will only occur at times when staffing levels are at their peak and risk will be assessed before each walk is granted.
The plans do not include the installation of a fence, which Health Minister Theresa Oswald said was due to several reasons.
One is that the next step in Li’s treatment plan specified that he be allowed to walk in an unconfined environment. The other is that it wouldn’t be fair to the vast majority of the 230 or so patients at the centre, most of whom are not there as forensic patients.
“Selkirk Mental Health Centre is not a prison and ought not be treated like one,” Oswald said, noting doing so would set mental health treatment back 100 years. “The uniqueness of this case has people afraid but we need to be really careful about the stigmatization of mental illness.”
Oswald said it would be “foolhardy” not to acknowledge that part of the reason for the security is for Li’s own protection, but that the primary concern is public safety.
Danah Bellehumeur, CEO of the Selkirk facility, said no specific threats to Li’s safety have been received, although they have received some “concerns.”
“It’s just people who didn’t like the decision the (Criminal Code Review) board made,” she said.
Bellehumeur said her facility has tailored its security plans to the specific needs of other patients in the past, but said the level of security being imposed on Li is higher than other patients.
The RCMP has been advised of the plans and will be notified when Li’s walks begin.

Measures announced on tragic anniversary
The fact that security plans for Vince Li’s escorted walks were made public on the two-year anniversary of his crime did not go unnoticed Friday.
Tim McLean Sr., whose son Tim Jr. was brutally killed by Li on July 30, 2008, found out about the plans Friday by reading about them on an online news site shortly after he’d returned from visiting the cemetery where his son was laid to rest.
He was not impressed.
“We’re very saddened by waking up to that news on Timothy’s anniversary,” he said. “It’s very insensitive.”
Tory justice critic Kelvin Goertzen also took issue with the timing.
“I think it’s shameful we’re talking about this today,” Goertzen said Friday. “I think it’s indicative of how all the attention has gone to Mr. Li and not to Tim McLean’s family.”
Health Minister Theresa Oswald said the plans were made public Friday because that’s when they were finalized.
“We have committed to keep the public informed. (The Selkirk MHC staff) were ready to go with their information today. The Selkirk Mental Health Centre committed to come forward with it as soon as possible,” Oswald said Friday. “If the timing of this information has caused one ounce of additional pain to the McLean family I want to offer my sincere regret.”

I completely agree with Li being allowed to have walks outside. He is not legally a criminal, but a mentally ill individual and therefore, should not be deprived of his basic human rights, that even prisoners are entitled to. He is still entitled to his human rights. Confinement can hinder treatment and have adverse effects whereas walking outside and getting fresh air can be beneficial to Li's treatment and mental condition. He deserves that right. He did not kill McLean intentionally and was in a completely different mind state 2 years ago than he is today. He does not pose a danger to the public, especially being escorted by two security officers. He should not be punished for actions which were unintentional. This man is mentally sick and needs help and treatment to overcome and manage his illness. Further depriving him of his rights would not be beneficial. That is merely revenge. This man is mentally ill. Justice has been served. Why would Li run away? He is in a completely different and improved mindset and knows what the severity of his crime was. Society should not be advocating vengeance, execution, deportation or imprisonment of the mentally ill. It appears as if our society lacks any sort of compassion and sympathy towards the mentally ill. What Li did was unintentional. He did not understand the consequences or nature of his action at the time and he was not mentally present. He was completely out of touch with reality and his logic and reason were impaired.

Apparently someone who has a chemical/electrical imbalance in the brain needs to be kept in a dark cell and never allowed out. Perhaps all people who post thoughts like that should give simular consideration to anyone suffering from a mental impairment, such as Alheimers, certain forms of stroke, Autism,etc, any of which can manifest into violent behaviour.

Sticking your head in the sand, or other places only serves to never change your perspective.

This man needs constant help for the rest of his life, its tragic the events that happened, but that doesn't mean we get to make Mr. Li societies punching bag for something he has no control over. And before anyone says 'he should have stayed on his meds' do a little reading on the matter of compliance and the mentally ill, then you'll understand why he went off his meds.

I can't believe folks who say Li is a criminal.

Li was suffering sever mental illness of the worst kind.

it can happen to anyone.

as disgusting as the comments are, I still pray schizophrenia does not strike someone in your family.

Tim McClean's death was a tragedy. And a failure of our HEALTH services.
there are Thousands of mentally ill persons walking free, free to not take their meds, because YOU, Society cried aloud about the costs....

Well, now the costs are a lot higher because of the willful blindness of society

What's the difference between this case and the case where someone had a seizure while driving and killed someone? Nothing, but I am guessing most of you wouldn't have a problem if the driver was allowed to be free. Double standard here. Mental illness VS physical illness - same thing.

The comments here all point to exactly why there is no respect for people with serious mental illnesses, whether you like it or not, the guy had no idea what the hell he was doing, and its that attitude i.e. the ignoring of his mental illness, that led to him being out in the community in the first place without treatment and to his actions on that bus. He may be seriously mentally ill, but it amazes me at the inability for people who are not to actually think before they open their mouths. If we treated mental health seriously, he would have been treated along time ago and most likely nothing would have happened that night.

You people are over the top. If you want to live somewhere with strict "tough on crime" retribution, why don't you move to Texas? They have it there. They also have a HUGE crime rate. Go figure. It's been repeatedly proven that "tough on crime" does NOT equal "less crime". The cover of this week's Economist is precisely about how prison's in the US are overflowing.

And while you're at it, please, for the love of god, count your blessings that you weren't born with a defect that causes such a horrific mental illness. This man probably lives in his very own personal mental hell every day of his life. Four guards and an occasional walk is fine, IMO. He clearly needs to be kept under guard the rest of his life (barring some miracle cure). But I'm sorry, this was not some heated crime of a vindictive, angry individual. It was the crime of a seriously mentally unwell person. It's not black and white. I am just so grateful that I don't have such horrible fortunes.

I also express the utmost sympathies to the victim's family. Nobody wins in this situation. No matter the outcome of retribution.

I think we need to separate our anger and revulsion at the act that Li committed while psychotic, from the fact that he is ill and needs humane treatment and rehabilitation.

Even as I write this, I feel overwhelming anger and disgust at the tragedy and want to blame somebody. But the rational and educated part of me reflects on the nature of the incident, and feels glad that we are an enlightened society that recognizes and treats illness.

Sorrowful as I feel for the McLean family, I think these walks are the right thing to do.

you miss the main point in our legal system. Li commited no crime. A delusion commited the crime. Li had no intent, murderous or otherwise to cause harm.

The events that unfolded were beyond Li's control. Only meds would have helped, and the Liberal and liberal society has said we cannot force them to take medicine..... Therefore, Society initiated the events that happened.

Society needs to take a look in the mirror and decide how they want to deal with mental illness. Cause Mental Illness is on the rise, and things are gonna get a lot worse if we don't deal with it now

The man is mentally ill, he is not a monster even though he did a monstrous, horrific thing. I would assume he is on some kind of medication and surely this is not the same as him walking free down Portage Avenue.

I agree that this should be left to the experts and not a lynch mob.

What is wrong with you people? I never once dreamed in my life that I lived in a country where so many people were intolerable towards the mentally ill. Have you never come into contact with these people before? He's not responsible for his crimes, he's schizophrenic. You might want to look it up, then perhaps visit a mental hospital and see for yourselves. I really hope that you along with your family does not get diagnosed, but if it happened.. then you'd understand.
I wish Tim didn't have to die, it's a very very disgusting and sad way to go, but it happened and he's not criminally responsible.
Grow up, get a grip, and get educated. The public is so ignorant and uneducated about mental illnesses.

"In his written ruling, the judge said those who are profoundly ill do not have the mental capacity to intentionally commit a crime. "It is clear that since the 19th century the law has distinguished between those persons who commit criminal acts because of a mental disorder and sane persons," Scurfield said."

He was found to be not criminally responsible due to his illness. Read the article.

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by a disintegration of the process of thinking, of contact with reality, and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction.

Imagine suffering this on a daily basis. Imagine someone you love having to live through this. I bet you'd be a little more sympathetic.

He's a very sick man. Yes, what he did was beyond horrible, but lynching him won't help anyone.

good for him to get this walk .all mentally people should have rights for their health under supervision by guards. we don't act like barbarians to stop the ill people for better treatment in this country. nobody wants to be sick and insane,they deserve a 2nd chance to get back on their feet ( heathy )

I bet everyone on here has family and friends that suffer from mental illness, Yes they vary in degrees of severity, but can any of you actually say you know what it's like to suffer from severe schizophrenic episodes? Get a grip you're all starting to sound a lot like the Republican band wagon.

For those who seem to want Li hanged, drawn and quartered or burned at the stake:

Whether he's mentally ill or just a menace to society, criminally responsible or not, this doesn't happen for two good reasons:

1) Punishment in the justice system is supposed to serve as a deterrant to those who might otherwise wish to commit a crime. This only works on criminals who are "rational" thinkers in the sense that they will weigh the risks and benefits of said crime before deciding whether or not to commit it. This clearly does not apply to a man who lives an entire life in normality, and then suddenly, for no apparent reason and for no personal gain, commits suich an atrocity and then asks to be killed afterwards.

2) So you disregard my first point, and say you'd like to see him pay for what he's done proportionately. In your mind, the justice system is all about vengeance. One doesn't need to know very much history in order to understand why this rage-driven, "burn em at the stake" mob mentality can be problematic. The justice system is supposed to protect citizens first and foremost (although you might argue it hasn't done this well enough as of late), it's purpose is not to enact revenge and fulfil our bloodlust.

To those suggesting that he be deported to China: he can't be. He was a already a Canadian citizen when the crime was committed. AFAIK Canada has no provision for stripping citizenship for committing a crime. They may deport non-citizens, but once you're accepted as a citizen you are the responsibility of Canada...for better or for worse.

Lots of ignorant people on this board putting their two cents in on someone who a legitimate mental health illness. So if your son or daughter was psychotic or hearing voices to do it and killed someone, you would throw them away like a piece of trash? We are in the 21st century , people. Get informed, read something about mental illness. I am sorry for the young man's family but i have a little compassion for what Vince Li is going through too.

According to the courts, this man is a patient, not a criminal. As such, he has been treated not as a criminal, but rather as a high-risk patient. It seems that he is now considered to be not so high-risk a patient. This is a medical evaluation by experienced professionals.
Cases like this are taken very seriously. There is no pressure for patients to progress through a system towards release. Their treatment, restrictions and potential release are guided by medical evaluation, and it doesn't matter to the doctors if the whole process takes 6 months or 142 years. So there is no reason for laypersons to suggest that the patient is not ready fro whatever step if the people responsible for his care think otherwise.
Yes, he did psychopathic things while in a psychotic state. This does not mean that he is some kind of Hannibal Lecter just waiting for the opportunity to strike again. He was very sick and did horrible things. It may that he never gets released and that he lives the rest of his life in a psychiatric institution.
But that doesn't mean he needs to be treated like a rabid animal. As long as he is supervised and he is taking the appropriate medication or other treatment, he is likely not a significant risk to anybody.
Also, I doubt the Selkirk facility is in the middle of town. If he did try to run AND got away from those guarding him, he would not get far - especially when all the people looking for him know the area and he does not.

This man's medical history is no one's business. Bi-Polar doesn't work the way you people think. Things just happen, rage, sorrow, grief, anxiety, happyness, sexual urges, shame... ALL the emotions that all of you have that are normal are exagerated in a bipolar person as much as 10 times. They cannot help it, it just happens. Agreed he is dangerous when there is no one monitoring his meds, but since this can 100% be controlled with the proper meds, as long as someone is monitoring it he is perfectly safe.

It's a wonderfull thing that Canada isn't like the US where they execute Mentally ill 13 year olds for killing the person that sodomized them since they were little.

This man has to live with what he did the rest of his life, he will be in that prison, everytime the guild phase of the emotions cycle in, he relives every evil rotten thing he has ever thought and done since he can remember over and over and over. Don't sit there on your high horses and think that you know what is best for this man. Remember in the Bible it says judge not, unless ye be judged.

After reading a couple pages of comments, it is suddenly easier to see why the treatment of the severely mentally ill is left to trained medical professionals instead of the consensus of a town hall meeting.

Maybe the RCMP should have done something at the time of the attacks. But their lack of action, whether the best decision at the time or not, is not the fault of Mr. Li or the people charged with his care.

Li committed horrifying acts. But a court found that he had no choice in the matter - he did not have the capacity to choose between right and wrong, if he even had the capacity to choose at all. Paul Bernardo was found to have chosen to commit his horrifying acts. That is why Li is treated differently than Bernardo.

For those who think a few walks outside in a limited area under the close supervision of three people for a short period of time before being back behind locked doors again is equal to the freedom most people enjoy, well, they have a funny way of looking at things.

If Li was on the criminal side, and was subjected to involuntary medical treatment and detention for an indeterminate period of time, this would be found to violate the Charter of Rights, and might well be classified as abuse, if not torture. Psychiatric detention is only "getting off easy" to those that have never experienced it.

Most people's definition of justice is extremely frightening.

It may comfort people to know that the plea of not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder (NCRMD) is very rarely accepted by the courts. Also, on average a person found to be NCRMD is confined for longer in a mental institution than they would have been confined in a jail if they were simply found guilty.

The fact that the act this person committed was so horrifying seems to be a good indication that he really was suffering from a serious mental disorder when he killed. There could be no reason why a sane person would kill a stranger in such a disgusting fashion while on a bus full of witnesses for no apparent reason.

I expect Li will probably be locked up for the rest of his life. If he is released and harms someone else, not only would the entire NCRMD system be condemned by the general public, but I'm sure that the members of the Criminal Code Review Board would feel a tremendous guilt. The Review Board has no incentive to release Li unless they are positive that he poses zero risk to reoffend.

The system is not broken. Li's act was horrifying and he will not be released in the near future. Allowing him to go on heavily supervised walks will not lead to disaster.

Pretty routine progressive procedures afforded MANY seriously disturbed mental health-violent cases. Some psychiatric hospitals have the means such as high security forensic wards designed to control against harming others/self. As some patients get better or if their risks are reduced, they may earn more privileges.

Canada has a pretty progressive stance in that people like Li will get sentenced under Lt Governor warrant to be seconded to mental health facility instead of a prison.

Many other countries might simply pack him away in a prison without intervention. Its a tough thing to accept given the terrible injustice delivered to the victim, but this kind of approach tends to separate civilized societies from barbaric ones.

Psychiatrists just understand that there's no point in severely punishing someone who can't even understand why they did what they did. It would be like punishing a rabid animal to try to stop it from attacking.

Once a patient has such a serious mental break, it is unlikely that they return to acceptable standards for safe public behaviour. Unfortunately, he'll probably get out and be re-arrested. That's the way, though. The victim in the justice system is always the criminal."

First, you are wrong. Most people return to full functionality. Cite your source, because mine is in interviews with his pyschiatrist which were broadcast.

Second, he is not a criminal, deemed not mentally competent. He is a shizophrenic.

And you, along with 90 others, have commited an offense under the Charter of Rights & Freedoms and Manitoba Human Rights Code.

Discrimination on basis of real or perceived mental disability.

This makes you a criminal, and I would say with your internet anonymity you are highly likely to re-offend.

This man does not deserve to be punished. He is entitled to any human rights as you or I. He is being held in a mental institution because there is a potential for harming himself or others. He did not choose this disease and he is not to blame for not taking his meds because he had not been prescribed any. He had not been diagnosed with schizophrenia prior to this incident because he had not shown symptoms.
He deserves our sympathy.
And yes so does Tim Mclean and his family.

This is a mentally ill human being. You guys are a bunch of barbarian savages with bloodlust in your posts. The man needs walks. Leave it be.

What is mind boggling to me is the ignorance shown on this board. I am not talking about malicious ignorance, but just the amount of people who don`t even understand the first thing about mental illness and the way people are sentenced when they are found to be *not criminally responsible*.

Most don`t even seem know what `psychotic` mean. I have seen it confused with `psychopathic`in the past!

Vince Li is schizophrenic and was expedriencing a psychotic episode when he killed Tim. He is therefore not criminally responsible. He was insane at the time. He is still being held responsible (obviously, he did it) but not *criminally* responsible.

Only people who are found criminally responsible are sentenced to the death penalty.

Mentally ill people who are found `not guilty by reason of insanity` or as they call it here `not criminally responsible`are not killed. They are treated, not punished which is as it should be.

My blood runs cold at the brutal and verbose hatred of the ill that I see here. Any one who has a brain can become mentally ill at any time. Pray to God that you do not ever have to face this in yourself or those you love. Maybe when you are isolated because your family and everyone you know curses you and walks out you will learn some compassion. Until then, you cannot consider yourselves decent or ethical. The inabllity to feel empathy is one of the first signs of psycopatholgy.

If this man had been identified and helped when he first started to come apart...If our system put as much into helping the mentally ill as it does other kinds of disorders...If the mentally ill were not bullied with these kind of comments and all the ones that are supposedly funny, maybe...

Li is not legally a criminal, but a mentally ill individual who should is still entitled to his basic human rights. The majority of the public is seeking only revenge, not justice. Li should not be punished for actions which were unintentional. Li needs mental treatment and counseling, not punishment and further deprivations. We cannot blame Li for what happened; we can only blame schizophrenia. This man needs humane treatment and rehabilitation. The public appears to be largely ignorant and uneducated regarding mental illnesses, which is sad.

Hells Angel's clubhouse raided and seized

2010-07-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

Hells' clubhouse raided, seized

It looks like it's the end of the road for a haven for Hells Angels after the clubhouse on a serene stretch of Scotia Street was raided.

Manitoba Justice officials, with the support of Winnipeg police, moved in Thursday morning to take control of the well-known biker hangout after the province obtained a court order allowing the property to be seized.

Manitoba Justice filed an interim court order, which triggered the raid. Early in the day police had blocked off the entire street, located behind the Kildonan Presbyterian Cemetery. Later, only the property itself was off-limits.

The house has allegedly been used as a site to plan and carry out criminal activity such as money laundering. That makes it liable for forfeiture under the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act.

No arrests were made related to the seizure, said Gord Schumacher, director of the province's criminal property forfeiture unit.

"We go after property, not people," he said.

"It pretty much looks like a clubhouse. It's a bar, basically," said Schumacher, describing the inside of the house, which he said had a "decent layout."

"It's a place where the Hells Angels hang their hats."

A source said the two associates of the biker gang in the clubhouse at the time of the raid were told to leave.

Besides the clubhouse, police seized two motorcycles and four vehicles on the property, plus all contents of the house such as furniture. However, most Hells Angels-related paraphernalia was already gone, seized in December during Project Divide, a major police gang operation, and two previous projects as well.

Schumacher said the property owner, Leonard Beauchemin, has 40 days to file a statement of defence to refute the province's allegations.

Beauchemin lives in Ontario. He is not a full-patch Hells Angels member, Schumacher said.

The legal trigger for Thursday's raid allows for proceeds from unlawful acts and property used in an unlawful acts to be forfeited to the government. The property at 2679 Scotia St., which contains a large one-storey building set far back into the well-kept yard, is at the end of the quiet, tree-lined street, flanked by a clearing to the north and the Red River to the east.

The Hells Angels do not own the Scotia Street property, said Winnipeg defence lawyer Jay Prober.

Prober said he is representing a client involved with the seizure though he could not specify who. He has put calls in to Manitoba Justice officials regarding the action.

"We'll have to see whether it's an illegal or a legal seizure," said Prober, who is trying to retrieve items of clothing belonging to his client he said were taken in the raid.

Neighbours, who did not wish to be identified, said they are relieved about the raid but doubt it will be the end of the ordeal. One neighbour said property values on the street have fallen as much as 20 per cent because of the biker gang clubhouse.

Hells clubhouse seized

Manitoba Justice officials and Winnipeg police seized the Hells Angels Winnipeg clubhouse Thursday.

The property, located at 2679 Scotia St., has been seized under the provincial Criminal Property Forfeiture Act, a civil law that allows property used in unlawful acts to be seized by the government.

The law is often used to seize houses that served as marijuana grow operations, but in a statement released Thursday, Manitoba Justice said it alleges the Scotia Street clubhouse was being used by the biker gang "as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity."

The allegations have not been proven in court, but the clubhouse was seized Thursday under an interim court order.

Hells Angels' clubhouse seized in Winnipeg

The Manitoba government has temporarily seized a Hells Angels clubhouse in Winnipeg and is seeking court permission to take it over permanently.

Manitoba Justice has filed a statement of claim in the Court of Queen's Bench for the forfeiture of the property and its contents at 2679 Scotia St. in the city's Rivergrove area.

Justice Department spokesman Gordon Schumacher said the property has been used as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity.

"There are a number of offences that we are alleging took place here, including money laundering, breaches of the Liquor Control Act, proceeds of crime, amongst others. And it's based on those charges that were here today."

Police said the Scotia Street home has been a Hells Angels Clubhouse for just over a decade.

An interim order has allowed the province to seize the property immediately, according to a news release issued by the province.

The claim alleges the property was used as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity. That makes it subject to forfeiture under Manitoba's Criminal Property Forfeiture Act.

According to the legislation, proceeds from unlawful acts and property used in an unlawful act may be forfeited to the government by order of the court. Along with real estate, items such as cash and vehicles can also be forfeited.

Proceeds from the sale of forfeited property are placed in a fund to support activities such as:

Compensating victims of the unlawful activity.
Remedying the effects of the unlawful activity.
Promoting safer communities by funding programs that reduce or prevent crime or enhance the practices and training of law enforcement agencies.
Covering the costs of the court application and seizing, managing and selling property ordered forfeited by a court.

Property ordered forfeited by a court can be sold, donated or destroyed.

The province hasn't indicated what it plans to do in this case.

A total of 35 statements of claim have been filed since the legislation was enacted in 2004.

Seized clubhouse PR
Taking away the clubhouse of the Hells Angels’ Manitoba chapter — at least temporarily — isn’t going to eliminate the outlaw motorcycle gang’s presence, a street source says.
Hells Angels members won’t have an official hangout if they lose the clubhouse but it won’t put an end to the chapter, the source said.
“It’s good PR for the police but the band will still march on even without a place to chill,” the source said.
A Hells Angels clubhouse in Oshawa, Ont., was seized by that province’s government and demolished in March. Similar seizures have occurred in other Canadian cities.
The Manitoba government’s move to take control of the biker club’s lair is the latest chapter in the back-and-forth saga between organized crime and law enforcement in Manitoba.
Lately, law enforcement seems to be coming out on top against Hells Angels members and associates.
Police have had tremendous success in finding trusted people to flip and become paid informants to infiltrate the Hells Angels or Zig Zag Crew, its so-called street crew.
Many Hells Angels members and associates are serving lengthy prison sentences or are in custody awaiting the resolution of charges.
The number of Manitoba Hells Angels members on the street is unclear.
Three long-term undercover projects — Defence, Drill and Divide — by the Manitoba integrated organized crime task force resulted in charges against more than 60 people between 2006 and 2010. The clubhouse was raided each time.
Manitoba Justice officials and Winnipeg Police Service officers moved in and temporarily seized the clubhouse at 2679 Scotia St. on Thursday under the provincial Criminal Property Forfeiture Act, a civil law that allows property used in unlawful acts to be seized by the government.
In court documents the government alleges the clubhouse was being used “as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity.”
The province has started legal proceedings to take over the secluded property. The property’s legal owner, Leonard Beauchemin, has 40 days to file a statement of defence.

Just because the house was raided and seized, does not mean the Hells Angels will disappear. They will find another house where they can plan their criminal activities. This is not the end of the Hells Angels.

The clubhouse was ALLEGEDLY used to plan and carry out criminal activities. Shouldn't the state have to PROVE the property was used as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity, instead of simply "allege"? There should be a court decision prior to a seizure. This is a clear invasion of civil liberties. Plus, it has not been proven that ALL the individuals who lived in the house were involved in this so-called planning, yet all of their items are being seized!

I have trouble with the logic here.

The house is owned by some guy that lives in Ontario.

I'm guessing that he rented the house out.

Now he has 40 days to file a statement of defence??? For what??? Charging too much rent??

To me, this is no different if I rent a property that I own to a person or persons and they do something illegal inside that house....does that mean I forfeit my house??? Makes no sense as the landlord has very little control over what is done behind the closed doors of his rented property. He/she cannot just walk in unannounced to look at what is happening at any given time. They have to give notice to the tenant.

The article states that the house has a nice layout and the yard is well kept. If I'm the landlord I would think of this as a model tenant. Rent is paid, yard is maintained.

I dunno...

I wonder if the government would have tried this if the house the Hells Angels rented was some $20,000 hovel on Magnus and not maintained....I think not.

Does this mean that if any level of government passes a law that is clearly an invasion of Canadian civil liberties (found to be criminal) their offices can be seized and sold? haha.

Are people losing their homes they unknowingly rent to people who turn around and used them for grow operations? did the HA actively plan criminal activity from the house or were they somewhere else? How does one prove that?

Some other questions.

I see many (including the press) state that the Hells Angels is a criminal organization and that they are all committing crimes. This is derived from the theory that some of the Hells Angels are in prison for crimes. Therefore all of them are active in that endeavour.

Okay. Based on that theory.

[Take] Winnipeg Police Service officers ... charged or convicted of serious crimes. .

The question I have is this. Did they plan those crimes in their homes and cars? Did the government seize their "stuff". Based on the logic for the seizure of the HA clubhouse the law should have taken the stuff of these officers. Also, because they were WPS officers does that mean that all WPS officers are criminals?

My point being that just because one person from a group of friends or co-workers commits a crime does not mean that everyone else is guilty too.

I know...people will not like what I say here. However, I ask these questions in an effort to get people thinking. If we let the government tread on the rights of one group, what group is next?

Freedom is important...many good people fought and died for us to have it. [edited]

"The claim alleges the property was used as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity. That makes it subject to forfeiture under Manitoba's Criminal Property Forfeiture Act."

Shouldnt the state have to prove the property was used as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity rather than just 'allege'?

I am no fan of HA, but there should be a court decsion prior to seizure?

"The claim alleges the property was used as a place to plan and carry out criminal activity. That makes it subject to forfeiture under Manitoba's Criminal Property Forfeiture Act."

With the same rationale , most political offices , lawyers offices ,police stations and churches should be seized under this act as well.

This legislation is awful. They don't have to prove anything to take your property, just have a suspicion and your house and car are seized. How does this stuff stand up against the charter ?

They will just move to a new place.

are we living in Canada, the Governments can just walk in and take what they want under these conditions?....I am not a Hell's Angel fan by any means but the way this is happening doesn't seem right...

The Crown alleges that criiminal activity were carried out here so the property is to be forfeited?

There, but for the Grace of God , go you or I.

Nothing proven, but alleged.

Seriously, what kind of legislation is this?! Complete invasion of civil liberties, if the government is under no obligation to prove anything before seizing property! They just have to "allege" something! How does that stand up against the Charter? That is wrong. Nothing has been proven, merely alleged.

One of Phoenix Sinclair's killers appealing to Supreme Court

2010-07-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

Phoenix Sinclair's killer appealing to high court

One of Phoenix Sinclair's killers will appeal his conviction to the Supreme Court, but Karl McKay's lawyer says the case shouldn't delay a long-planned inquiry.

Along with Phoenix's mother, Samantha Kematch, McKay was convicted of first-degree murder in the child's gruesome 2005 death, a killing that highlighted failures in the province's child-welfare system.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal rejected appeals by Kematch and McKay, and earlier this week, Kematch's lawyer said she had decided not to appeal her conviction to the Supreme Court.

But lawyer Mike Cook said it has always been McKay's intention to appeal to Canada's top court. Cook said he's hoping to file the paperwork in September. The holdup is related to wrangling over funding for the appeal from Legal Aid.

Cook said he will argue that the trial judge erred by allowing a too-broad definition of forcible confinement. Under the Criminal Code, someone is deemed to have committed first-degree murder instead of second-degree murder or manslaughter if they forcibly confined the victim at the time of the slaying.

Cook said Phoenix was never physically confined at the time of her death.

An appeal could again delay a long-planned inquiry into Phoenix's death and the role the child welfare system played in failing to protect her. The inquiry was first promised four years ago by then-premier Gary Doer, but the province has said all court proceedings must be completed before the inquiry can start.

Earlier this week, when Kematch abandoned her appeal, the province said an inquiry could start as early as this fall.

Cook said there is no reason McKay's appeal should delay that process.

"I personally think (the inquiry) can proceed. We're arguing a very narrowly construed point of law and it's not dependent on the facts," Cook said. "I don't think it's a bar at all."

Kematch and McKay neglected, confined and repeatedly beat Phoenix and forced her to eat her own vomit.

The girl's stepbrothers testified she was often hit, choked, shot with a BB gun and forced to spend days and nights lying naked in the basement of the family's home on the Fisher River First Nation north of Winnipeg.

Phoenix had been in and out of care and her death highlighted failures in the province's fractured child-welfare system.

I agree with Karl McKay's lawyer, that Phoenix was not physically confined at the time of her death, therefore, McKay's conviction should be reduced to second degree murder from first degree murder.

Suicide attempt at Manitoba Youth Centre, raises alarm bells

2010-07-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Suicide attempt raises alarm bells

A suicide attempt at the Manitoba Youth Centre that's left a 15-year-old girl in critical condition is raising alarm bells about mental health services for kids in custody.

"We're not the place for these kids," said the source, who said staff at the MYC are "really, really shaken up" after the girl's attempted suicide.

The source said the girls at the jail come to staff as "used and abused," and treated as if they're disposable. Boys aren't immune either. "I just think (jail is) really damaging a lot of these kids further," said the source.

"Most of these kids should not be in a jail... it's just the wrong place."

MYC staff knew the girl was grappling with depression and had previously tried to kill herself. Those same staff are the ones forced to scramble to deal with many of the centre's population who suffer from mental health issues. The source said girls at the MYC -- who usually number from about 40 to 45 -- especially need attention in a hospital setting, not a locked institution. The last suicide death at the facility was in December 1975.

Manitoba Justice has launched a review into the circumstances surrounding the girl's suicide attempt. An official confirmed she was by herself in her own room in one of the jail's 15-room cottages when the incident occurred.

After a staff member found the girl at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, she was rushed to hospital and the facility went into lockdown for hours.

The girl had attempted suicide four to six times before she reportedly harmed herself Tuesday, a source told the Free Press.

The girl had been assessed as a medium risk for suicide and wasn't allowed to have sheets in her room for fear she'd harm herself, said another source. She used an article of clothing to hang herself.

The source said the suicide attempt points to larger issues about the need for more intensive counselling for kids who present a risk.

The source said nurses at the facility are stretched too thin by the many high-needs teens, adding there has to be a dedicated mental health facility to properly treat them.

"They're just overwhelmed... they're all stretched to the limit," said the source. "We're not the place for these kids."

The facility should look at having rooms with better visibility, said the source, so staff can supervise youths more effectively.

The source also recommended a higher number of observation rooms -- specialized rooms where staff monitor youth on surveillance.

There are only four observation rooms right now.

No Manitoba Justice officials would speak to the Free Press Thursday about mental health programs for youths in custody.

Corey La Berge, a Legal Aid Manitoba lawyer who represents young offenders, said MYC staff are excellent and pointed out youth at the centre receive treatment from nurses and psychologists. However, he said, the "criminal legal system" is a "dumping ground" for people who've fallen through the cracks of the mental health system.

He said he dealt with a teenage female client this week who was at the Manitoba Youth Centre but should have been at a hospital.

Bonnie Kocsis, the province's acting Children's Advocate, said her office isn't involved in looking at the tragedy at this point but provincial officials will be.

"I'm sure that everybody out there is going to be asking questions," she said.

The girl was in the care of a Child and Family Services agency and had a troubled family history that included the death of her sister last year. A source who knows the girl well described her life as an "injustice," which included struggles with addictions and repeated trauma.

A hospital official said Thursday afternoon the girl remained in critical condition.

Individuals with mental disorders should never be placed in prisons, as the negative environments often worsen mental illnesses or create new ones. People with mental disorders need treatment and counseling, not prisons, especially teens. Prison for teens are the like the schools of crime, where less violent offenders learn new crime skills and how to avoid detection from other, more high risk/experienced offenders. Prisons are negative environments which do not facilitate rehabilitation or reform. They are damaging, especially for teens. Only the most dangerous and high risk offenders should be in custody; nobody else.

This girl had attempted suicide before her latest attempt and the staff knew she was struggling with depression. Those should have been warning signs and she should have been moved to the observation room, not kept in her secure room. She also should have been receiving mental health treatment and counseling, as opposed to being locked in a cell. I agree there should be a separate mental health facility to properly treat teens and other prisoners with mental disorders. This girl has also struggled with addictions, the death of her sister and repeated trauma which need to be addressed through counseling and treatment as well.

People with mental illnesses should never be imprisoned as the negative environments and lack of mental health services/resources often worsen their disorders. Mentally ill offenders need more intensive treatment and counseling, not prison. Prisons do not facilitate rehabilitation and they are damaging, especially for the mentally ill.

This teen had previously attempted suicide before the latest attempt and the MYC staff were aware of her struggle with depression. She should have been moved to the observation room with better visibility or better yet, to the mental health hospital. She should have been receiving mental health treatment and counseling as opposed to being locked in a cell with limited access to those services.

Man, 48, accused of abusing teenage stepdaughter

2010-07-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

Man, 48, accused of abusing teenaged stepdaughter

Winnipeg police have seized videotapes and explicit emails they say show a 48-year-old man sexually abusing his teenaged stepdaughter and secretly recording her on camera.

The accused -- who can't be named to protect the identity of the 16-year-old girl -- was recently arrested on charges of voyeurism, making child pornography and sexual assault. None of the allegations have been proved and he is presumed innocent.

Police began investigating in January after the teen told her mother she woke up in their West End home to find her stepfather molesting her.

The woman also discovered numerous email messages her husband of five years had allegedly been sending to her daughter for the past several months.

She went to court and obtained a restraining order against the man, filing copies of the emails with the courts. She also filed for divorce.

In the emails, the man is accused of offering his stepdaughter cash, electronics and even allowing her to skip school and keep it a secret. But he indicates there will be a price.

"You know that your mom will be mad at you skipping school and you keep asking me to do things for you, I don't ask anything in return but this time I think that you owe me for doing this for you!

"If you agree to my terms I will continue to keep your secrets. My term is this you will agree to do what I ask of you with no questions," he allegedly wrote in an April 2009 email.

In May 2009, the girl received an email stating: "I want that we can spend some quality time together and I would like to see you the way your mom does."

Further emails included invitations for the girl to spend time with him in exchange for money, an iPod and a cellular phone.

"Would you like me to give you $300 tomorrow? All you have to do is one simple thing and I will give you the money in cash. All you have to do is come into the room. Let me know you got this email and say yes," reads an August 2009 email.

Police arrested the man in March 2010 and initially charged him with sexual assault and sexual interference. He was released on a promise to appear in court with conditions not to have any contact with the girl or his estranged wife.

The investigation remained open and took another turn when police recently discovered a series of videotapes which contain nude images of the girl. She apparently had no idea they had been taken. Police say the recordings were made between September 2007 and December 2009, beginning when the girl was just 13. There are no allegations they had been sold or distributed.

Police rearrested the man earlier this week on the additional charges of child pornography and voyeurism. He has been detained in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre. The investigation is ongoing.

These are pretty serious charges but I do not feel that this man should be held in custody, causing further overcrowding in the remand facility, which has adverse effects on all inmates. Only the most dangerous individuals who pose a high risk to the public safety should be detained, but the majority, should be granted bail. I do not believe this man poses a great danger to society or the public, and therefore, should not be held in custody. He should have been released on bail in the community with strict conditions.

Shooting suspect accidentally released from jail

2010-07-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

Shooting suspect accidentally released from jail

WINNIPEG - Police waited 48 hours before letting the public know they were searching for a Winnipeg gang member who was accidentally released from Headingley Jail earlier this week while awaiting trial for a shooting.

And no such alert was ever given about a second inmate who was mistakenly freed on Tuesday, then recaptured two days later.

Brian Moran, 20, is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after being given his walking papers on Wednesday afternoon. He is pending on a charge of discharging a firearm with intent stemming from a January 2008 attack that left a man seriously injured.

The Free Press learned about the incident Friday morning through justice sources who couldn’t understand why police hadn’t already notified the public. No alert was issued by police until 3 p.m. Friday following inquiries from a reporter – despite the fact Moran knows he is wanted but has apparently refused to turn himself in.

In the news release, police included a photo and described Moran as aboriginal in appearance, six feet four inches tall weighing about 270 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and several tattoos on his hands and neck. They described Moran as potentially violent and warned people not to approach him.

The mix-up began after Moran appeared at the downtown Winnipeg Law Courts Wednesday morning to plead guilty to previously breaching his bail conditions and was sentenced to time already spent in custody. Crown attorney Mike Desautels told provincial court Judge Marva Smith that Moran was still pending on the shooting charge and was to remain in custody.

Smith made sure to note that Moran’s bail had been revoked and there were no grounds for his release. However, something clearly got lost in translation and Headingley officials – noting his sentence of time already served in custody on the breaches – let him walk out of the provincial jail just hours later.

Efforts to locate Moran since then have failed.

Moran was initially charged with attempted murder for the shooting, in which an 18-year-old man was attacked while driving his car over the Chief Peguis Trail bridge. The victim's vehicle was chased, police said, and several shots were fired at it, hitting the victim in the upper body. The victim suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.

Moran was released on bail in April 2009 with several conditions, including a curfew. He was re-arrested in May 2010 after violating his bail and had been in custody ever since. He went to a preliminary hearing later that month for the shooting and was ordered to stand trial on reduced charges of discharging a firearm with intent. No dates have been set.

Police and justice officials also confirmed Friday that a second Headingley inmate was mistakenly released on Tuesday, only to be re-captured on Thursday. A news release was never sent out about that case, either.

Trevor Ballantyne was being held at Headingley while pending on charges including sexual assault, assault and failing to comply with court orders. Justice officials say an "administrative or clerical error" was responsible for the mistake.

Ballantyne is now also charged with escaping lawful custody on the basis he didn’t willingly turn himself in despite knowing he wasn’t supposed to have been freed.

Violent prisoner wrongly released from jail
A prisoner was inadvertently released from Headingley Correctional Centre, just west of Winnipeg, and now police are trying to find him.
The Winnipeg Police Service is asking the public to keep an eye out for Brian Michael Moran, 20.
He is described as being about six feet four inches tall and about 270 pounds.
Moran has black hair, brown eyes and several tattoos on both hands and his neck.
"This male is known to be violent and should not be approached by the public," police warned in a news release.
Moran is awaiting a court date on a shooting charge but had been free on bail.
However, he was arrested this week for breaching those bail conditions and was in court Wednesday.
He was ordered behind bars but there was miscommunication when he arrived at Headingley and Moran was allowed to leave, according to Winnipeg police Staff Sgt. Gordon Gold.
It wasn't until later that afternoon that authorities realized the mistake.
The reason the public wasn't alerted until Friday was because the Winnipeg police and RCMP couldn't agree on who was responsible for issuing the news release, Gold said.
The charges against Moran fall into Winnipeg police jurisdiction, but Headingley jail is in RCMP jurisdiction.
Anyone who happens to see Moran is asked to contact Winnipeg police at 204-986-6222 or the local RCMP detachment.

Inmate accidentally set free
Police and justice officials waited 48 hours before letting the public know they were searching for a Winnipeg gang member who was accidentally released from Headingley Correctional Centre earlier this week while awaiting trial for a shooting.
And no such warning was ever given about a second inmate who was mistakenly freed, then quietly recaptured two days later.
Brian Moran, 20, is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after being given his walking papers Wednesday afternoon.
He was being held on a charge of discharging a firearm with intent stemming from a January 2008 attack that left a man seriously injured.
The Free Press learned about the incident Friday morning through a justice source who couldn't understand why police hadn't already notified the public. An alert was finally issued by police at 3 p.m. Friday following inquiries from a reporter. In the release, police included a photo and described Moran as aboriginal in appearance, 6-4, weighing about 270 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and several tattoos on his hands and neck. They said Moran is potentially violent and warned people not to approach him if spotted.
The mix-up began after Moran appeared at the downtown Winnipeg Law Courts Wednesday morning to plead guilty to previously breaching his bail conditions and was sentenced to time already spent in custody. Crown attorney Mike Desautels told provincial court Judge Marva Smith Moran was still facing the shooting charge and was to remain in custody. Smith made sure to note Moran's bail had been revoked and there were no grounds for his release.
However, something clearly got lost in translation and Headingley officials -- noting his sentence of time already served in custody on the breaches -- let him walk out of the provincial jail just hours later. He hasn't been seen since.
Police and justice officials also confirmed Friday a second Headingley inmate was mistakenly released on Tuesday, only to be recaptured on Thursday. A news release was never sent out about that case.
Trevor Ballantyne is now charged with escaping lawful custody on the basis he didn't willingly turn himself in when he knew he wasn't supposed to have been freed. Ballantyne was being held at Headingley to face charges including sexual assault, assault and failing to comply with court orders.
"These were cases of human error and involved a complex set of multiple proceedings," Justice Department spokesman John Thorpe said Friday. "We have procedures such as double-check systems in place to protect against human error, but mistakes still occur on rare occasions. When they do happen, the error is considered a significant event and is given highest priority. The appropriate police agency is notified immediately after a release in error is identified."
The provincial Tories jumped on the incidents, saying they show the NDP government is failing the public. Justice critic Kelvin Goertzen released figures earlier this year showing 15 inmates had accidentally been released from provincial jails since 2007, including six already in 2010. This week's incidents bring that tally to 17.

Get out of jail free cards
Two inmates were accidentally released from the Headingley Correctional Centre in a two-day span this week.
One is back in custody, while the other was still on the lam Friday.
Police are still looking for 20-year-old Brian Moran, who was released in error Wednesday after returning to the Headingley jail following a court appearance.
“I don’t know whose fault it was,” said Crown prosecutor Mike Desautels. “They were under the impression he had bail.”
Winnipeg police asked for the public’s help Friday in nabbing Moran, who is described as aboriginal, about 6-foot-4, 270 pounds with tattoos on his hands and neck.
Moran is awaiting trial for his alleged role in a January 2008 shooting incident on the Chief Peguis Trail bridge that injured one person.
Desautels said the confusion might relate to the fact Moran pleaded guilty Wednesday to some breaches and was sentenced to time served, but was still supposed to be in custody on the shooting charge.
Meanwhile, a second man has been charged with escaping lawful custody after he was released from Headingley on Tuesday, also by mistake.
Trevor John Ballantyne, who has outstanding charges for assaults, a sexual assault and failures to comply with court conditions, was accidentally released Tuesday due to a clerical error but was taken back into custody Thursday.
A Crown prosecutor working on the case said Ballantyne reported to his probation officer while he was out of jail earlier this week.
The prosecutor said the escaping charge was laid against Ballantyne because he ought to have known he wasn’t supposed to walk free, especially given that he was scheduled to apply for bail Friday.
A spokesman for Manitoba Justice said both Ballantyne’s and Moran’s releases were due to human error.
At least six people have been released accidentally from Manitoba prisons so far this year.
Tory justice critic Kelvin Goertzen said that’s symptomatic of overcrowded facilities, adding each incident should be publicly disclosed, which is not currently the case.
Justice Minister Andrew Swan was unavailable for comment Friday.

We are humans and and are subject to errors. We all make mistakes at some point. There was a misunderstanding about this man's charges and mistakes happen. Clearly this case illustrates a misunderstanding. It was an accident that he was released. I am sure the police have a reason for not releasing the information about this man's mistaken release, although if he is a danger to society, I am not sure why they would not notify the public. Maybe police believed he did not pose a high risk to the public. Who knows, but I am sure they have an explanation for not releasing this information promptly.

Brian Moran, 20, was accidentally released from Headingley Jail

Crime and Justice

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