A BAD PRISON SITUATION IS ABOUT TO GET WORSE

Conservatives Aim To Put More People Into Failing Facilities With
Epidemic Levels Of Psychiatric And Drug Disorders

The extraordinary thing about the federal Conservatives is not their
counterproductive approach to criminal justice, which involves putting
more and more people in jail for longer and longer periods of time.

No, the extraordinary thing is that Conservatives have somehow
convinced a good number of people that this ill-advised strategy will
make Canadians safer, when in reality it will do just the opposite.

After all, it doesn't take an expert to tell you that dramatically
increasing the stresses on a system that can't handle current
pressures is a recipe for disaster. And as two recent reports detail,
the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is experiencing significant
difficulty coping with the pressures the current crop of federal
inmates is placing on the system.

The two reports -- from federal correctional investigator Howard
Sapers and the Correctional Service of Canada review panel -- reveal a
system in crisis, with a crumbling infrastructure and a staff that is
expected to do more with less -- to supervise ever higher needs
offenders with dwindling resources and support.

Sapers -- whose previous calls to repair the system have by and large
fallen on deaf ears -- notes, among other things, inadequate treatment
for the increasing number of inmates with psychiatric disorders,
saying that "[d]espite some short-term funding and a reorganization,
little has changed for mentally ill offenders. The level of mental
health services has not significantly improved, and front-line
institutional staff have yet to receive training to appropriately
respond to mental health-related behaviour."

Sapers also notes the difficulty many inmates have in accessing
programming in penitentiaries. In addition to long waiting lists for
programs -- which help inmates develop employment and life skills, as
well as avoid substance abuse -- Sapers suggests that the problem is
particularly acute for aboriginal and female inmates. Indeed, in one
institution for aboriginals, "none of the programs were delivered
either at all, or according to schedule, last year."

Sapers further discusses the epidemic level of blood-borne diseases
among the prison population, noting that "inmates are 7 to 10 times
more likely than the general Canadian population to be living with HIV
and 30 times more likely to have hepatitis C."

Transmission of such diseases occurs largely through injection drug
use in prisons, yet Sapers notes that despite CSC efforts to eliminate
drugs, use declined by less than one percentage point between 1998-99
and 2006-07. Given the failure to eliminate the problem, Sapers argues
that the CSC must emphasize harm reduction programs -- something the
Conservatives are dead set against -- for the safety of both inmates
and staff.

The review panel's report echoes many of these concerns. In
particular, it notes that the number of male offenders with mental
health problems increased by 71 per cent between 1997 and 2006, and
that 12 per cent of male offenders now suffer from psychiatric
disorders. The number of female offenders with mental health problems
similarly rose 61 per cent during the same period.

The situation with respect to addiction is even worse, as the review
panel found that an astonishing four out of five federal inmates now
suffer from substance abuse problems.

Given this epidemic level of psychiatric and substance abuse
disorders, the CSC is understandably overwhelmed. Canada's prisons are
being forced to fill the role once played by psychiatric hospitals and
addiction treatment centres, and the result is predictable: The
panel's report notes that the CSC programs aimed at ensuring inmates
are employable when they leave prison "have been eclipsed as a
priority" by programs addressing "other core needs" such as substance
abuse.

This has resulted in an increased level of unrest in penitentiaries,
which jeopardizes the safety of all inmates. Now, Conservatives might
not be concerned about the welfare of inmates -- recall Public Safety
Minister Stockwell Day's celebration of jailhouse murder when he
advocated placing killer Clifford Olson in the general population so
"the moral prisoners will deal with him in a way we don't have the
nerve to do."

Yet the lack of services in prisons also jeopardizes the safety of
prison staff and, ultimately, of all Canadians, because most inmates
will eventually be released, and many of them will be in worse shape
than when they were first incarcerated.

Not surprisingly, then, Conservative reaction to the two reports has
been muted, although Day did manage to display his well-developed
ability to deny reality when he recently told CBC Radio that any
inmate "wanting and asking for a program will get one."

As if that weren't bad enough, the two reports only detail the current
state of Canada's penitentiaries. Things are about to get much, much
worse, thanks to the Conservatives' efforts to, as they say, "protect
Canadian families and communities."

Two Conservative bills making their way through Parliament -- the
Tackling Violent Crime Act and Bill C-26, which deals with illicit
drugs -- will add mandatory sentences to many crimes and therefore
increase the prison population exponentially.

In particular, Bill C-26, which just passed second reading, will lead
to the imprisonment of an unprecedented number of drug addicts and
people with mental illness. Although spun by the Conservatives as an
attack on drug dealers since it provides for mandatory sentences for
drug trafficking, we have abundant evidence that many addicts --
particularly the lowest-functioning users, who are often mentally ill
- -- begin dealing as a way to gain income and ensure a steady supply of
drugs.

Further, these low-level, low-functioning street dealers are the most
likely to get caught and be subject to mandatory sentences. High-level
dealers, on the other hand, are good at insulating themselves from law
enforcement; even if they get caught, they're typically able bargain
their way down to lesser charges because they have valuable
information to share with prosecutors.

Evidence from the United States bears this out. The U.S. began
implementing mandatory sentences ostensibly targeting drug kingpins in
1986, yet according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission only 11 per cent
of federal drug offenders are high-level dealers.

Further, according to the U.S. Center on Juvenile and Criminal
Justice, mandatory sentencing regimes -- which the U.S. has begun
dismantling -- increased the number of Americans imprisoned for drug
offences from just 38,000 in 1986 to 458,000 in 2000. The total price
tag for housing American drug offenders now stands at $9.4 billion.

This is what awaits us. Yet the Conservatives last year promised only
$102 million over two years in new prison spending, which isn't even
enough to remedy current defects. Indeed, the Conservatives better be
ready to earmark billions more dollars per year to the prison system,
in perpetuity, if they wish to follow the U.S. example, which the U.S.
itself isn't even willing to follow any more.

Otherwise, the problems will only get worse: We will see more and more
people with serious addiction problems, and more and more mentally ill
people who self-medicate with illicit drugs, in jail. And fewer and
fewer inmates will be properly prepared for their release into the
community, thereby placing us all in jeopardy.

Yet the Conservatives have somehow managed to hoodwink many people
into believing that their counterproductive measures protect Canadian
families and communities, and that anyone who objects to these
measures is uninterested in the safety of Canadians.

This is a truly Machiavellian strategy. And it will continue until
people rise up and tell the government, in no uncertain terms, that
Canadians aren't as stupid as the Conservatives believe.