Is Harper tough on crime? Not at all!

Harper tough on crime? Not at all

Despite having spent most of last year arguing that his “tough on crime” agenda was urgently needed, Stephen Harper killed off most of it when he prorogued Parliament.

This means the legislation will have to be re-introduced and debated all over again over the next few months.

It is also a second chance for Canadians to see that his initiatives aren’t going to accomplish much, but they are going to cost taxpayers a lot of money.

Harper’s agenda involves increasing the amount of time people have to serve in jail or prison (at taxpayer expense) by imposing more minimum sentences, and making it harder for inmates to get parole.

More time, he argues, should equal less crime. It’s a simple solution and like most simple solutions to complex problems, it doesn’t work.

In real life, there is little correlation between crime rates and sentence lengths. Most people who break the law don’t stop to consider the consequences; they act on impulse, they may be under the influence or they don’t think they’ll get caught. Whatever the case, stiffer sentences do not stop people from breaking the law.

No benefit

And no amount of talk from the government is going to change this fact.

I can say this as a fact, because the U.S. has already tried this strategy.

For the last 30 years they have steadily increased sentences, made it harder for inmates to get parole and have increased the number of people behind bars by 400%. The benefit?

Their violent crime rates dropped a few percentage points but Canada’s crime rate dropped the same percentage without us having to impose stiffer sentences.

The failure of this strategy has now been widely recognized in the States, and even Texas is actively moving to reduce sentences and speed up parole.

And locking individuals up is expensive. On average, it costs Canadian taxpayers $90,000 a year for each person locked up in prison; this is about 10 times the cost of sending a student to school for a year.

Leaky bucket

Schools have long been known to be part of the solution, in terms of crime; and education leads to employment, which is also a factor in keeping people crime free.

But a “tough on crime” approach is so expensive, it ends up taking money out of classrooms to pay for prison cells. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told the LA Times recently that 30 years ago California spent three times more on higher education than prisons, but today prisons get 11% of the total state budget and education only gets 7.5%.

Practical solutions lie in preventing the crime from occurring in the first place. If you don’t try to address the causes of crime, it’s like pouring water into a leaky bucket instead of fixing the leak — eventually you run out of water and end up with an empty bucket.

It’s time to tell our government they need to do their homework and to spend our money on workable solutions to crime not broken ones. Let’s not let Harper sell us a leaky bucket.

The reason I have converted myself to a Liberal approach is for this very reason. I am strongly opposed to Harper's tough on crime approach because of the simple fact that IT DOESN'T WORK! Sending individuals to prison for longer periods does not reduce crime rates nor does it act as a deterrent for other potential offenders. Like the article said, people are impulsive and don't consider the fact that they might get caught and ultimately spend time in prison. Prison has many damaging effects and is a horrible place to be. What we need to do, is find alternatives to prison such as community sanctions, where offenders can learn to be productive members of society and only send to most violent, repeat and high risk offenders to prison, on the basis of incapacitation (so they don't harm anyone else). I also don't agree with mandatory minimum sentences. I feel that Judges should have complete discretion to decide an appropriate sentence based on the unique circumstances of each individual case, and not be bound by MMS. 

Conservatives say justice system "horribly broken"

Conservatives say justice system "horribly broken"

Re-offending rates are staggering

Re-offence rate decried

To many ex-cons re-offend: Tories

- The "revolving doors" of Manitoba's justice system are spinning faster than ever, the provincial Conservatives say.

- Today, they released results of a recent Freedom of Information request showing that "a record" 75 per cent of adult prisoners are back in trouble with the law within two years of their release from the province's jail system.

- Conservative leader Hugh McFadyen called on the Selinger government to examine why the system is failing to rehabilitate prisoners and prevent them from reoffending after they are released.

- "Clearly the model of corrections that we have in Manitoba is not working," he said. "In fact it is horribly broken when 75 per cent of those who leave Manitoba jails are right back reoffending within a short period of time."

If the main objective of Manitoba’s Corrections branch is to rehabilitate criminals, they’re not doing a very good job.
At least according to their own numbers released by the Opposition Tories Tuesday, which show the rate of re-offending in some cases is as high as 100% for young criminals.
The most recent data from the last three months of 2007 shows 75% of adult inmates released from provincial jails were charged with another offence within two years of completing their sentence.
The numbers include charges for new offences and for breaching conditions of release.
It’s an astonishingly high number and it confirms what many of us have observed anecdotally for years — our courts/corrections system has evolved into a revolving door of justice where criminals re-offend over and over again.
The 75% recidivism rate for the last quarter of 2007 is the highest in at least five years, according to the data. Which means the problem is getting worse, not better.
The recidivism rates for young offenders during the same period are even more staggering.
In the three-month period from April to June 2006, 100% of young offenders released from youth custody were charged with another offence within two years.
That means every young offender in Manitoba who completed a youth jail sentence between April 1 and June 30 that year was charged with another offence within the following two years.
That’s an incredible statistic and a glaring example of what a massive failure our justice system is.
What’s equally startling is not once has the recidivism rate for young offenders in custody dropped below 75% since 2002.
Most quarters it ranged between 80%-95%. It’s a horrible record.
The stated objective of the Youth Criminal Justice Act is to rehabilitate young criminals and help them transform their lives.
It’s obviously not working. Even in deferred custody cases — where young offenders serve their sentences in the community with conditions — the recidivism rate is as high as 85%-90%.
There are obviously no easy solutions to bring down recidivism rates for adults and young offenders. But whatever our courts and jails are doing now is not working.
So government needs to at least accept it’s not working and start generating ideas on how to improve it.
To be fair, not all the solutions fall within provincial jurisdiction. Changes to both the federal Criminal Code and the Youth Criminal Justice Act are necessary to effect real change.
But we have to start looking at ideas like wilderness camps for youth, more indefinite sentences for repeat offenders and in some cases, simply imposing longer sentences.
We have a justice system now that releases high-risk offenders into the community who have rejected therapy and other programming and who refuse to seek addictions treatment. No wonder our recidivism rates are so high.
Offenders who fit that category should simply be held indefinitely until they demonstrate a willingness to change.
Naturally, that would require amendments to federal legislation.
But until we make some of those changes, the rate at which criminals re-offend will continue to be 75% to 100%.
And that’s unacceptable.

Up to three-quarters of the men and women released from Manitoba’s provincial jails are charged with another offence within two years, according to data released by the Opposition Tories Tuesday.
The Progressive Conservatives released figures Tuesday they obtained from Manitoba Justice through a freedom of information request. The figures reveal over the past five years, the recidivism rate among adult offenders released after serving a sentence in one of Manitoba’s provincial jails is anywhere from about 63% to 75%, depending on the month in question.
The recidivism — or re-offence — rate for adults serving conditional sentences or probation is much lower, below 40% in most cases. For young offenders coming out of custody in Manitoba, the re-offence rate is often above 80% and sometimes as high as 100%, the same figures show.
“We’ve got an unacceptably high number of people going into Manitoba’s prison system, then getting into trouble again right away,” said Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen. “It means there’s something fundamentally wrong with the system.”
It’s difficult to compare Manitoba’s rates with those in other jurisdictions, as they are not measured in a standard way. Some provinces include only those offenders convicted of new crimes, while others, like Manitoba, count charges instead of convictions.
Statistics Canada has no data comparing recidivism rates across the country.
However, Justice Minister Andrew Swan acknowledged regardless of what’s happening elsewhere, having between two-thirds and three-quarters of offenders getting re-arrested within two years is a problem.
“We know that people re-offending is a serious problem,” Swan said. “It’s a problem that exists across the country and in the United States as well.”
Swan said many offences that count toward the recidivism rate are breaches of release conditions like curfews, alcohol bans or other restrictions imposed on offenders given early release or probation. He said those numbers aren’t necessarily bad, though, because they mean police are “in the faces of offenders” due to programs like the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy.
“If they are breaching we will make sure they’re involved with the court system again. In the short-term that may create challenges but in the long-term, it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
McFadyen suggested wilderness boot camps and drug- treatment prisons could help offenders stay out of trouble once they’re out of jail.
Swan said the province already provides drug treatment in jail and in the community, adding his government has no plans to introduce boot camps, arguing historic evidence suggests they don’t reduce crime.

This is definitely a shocking statistic! What I think we need to do, is stop sending so many people to prison, because it has damaging effects and does not deter crime from others or does not decrease the crime rate. By being in prison, inmates only get more angry and aggressive. Prison is also criminogenic, and causes crime, because of the pro-criminal attitudes, values and behaviours of other inmates. I feel that inmates also need to be equipped with better skills for once they are released. They should be given guidance on finding a job, working with money, etc.