CROWDED PRISONS CRUCIBLE FOR CRIME

MILLHAVEN PENITENTIARY-Alec Murdoch, a guard and admissions officer at
this maximum-security prison, has seen his share of tough guys break
down when they enter what he calls "the big house."

"I've been actually fingerprinting people here and they're crying on
my shoulder. Or you can see that they're nervous and their hands are
shaking," says Murdoch, standing in front of the wire-meshed holding
cells where new inmates wait to be processed.

"You've got to realize that they might be the tough kid on the street,
but here, we have 525 tough kids," he adds.

Sprawled in a spoked-wheel design behind a double, razor wire
perimeter fence, Millhaven Institution near Kingston is nothing if not
intimidating. A 37-year history marked by infamous riots, notorious
prisoners and tough guards has forged a reputation that confronts all
Ontario criminals sentenced to federal prisons.

The penitentiary has a dual role: It holds up to 150 dangerous
criminals in its maximum-security J-unit and acts as a way station
where all criminals sentenced to more than two years are assessed,
given a rehabilitation plan and then shipped to high, medium or
minimum security prisons.

Last year, 1,300 prisoners were assessed at Millhaven, some held for
months in U-unit, waiting for a spot to open in their assigned
penitentiary. The changing profile of these prisoners is one reason
observers believe the state of Canada's prison system is getting worse.

Crowded maximum- and medium-security facilities are holding inmates
who are more violent, more addicted to drugs and more likely to suffer
from mental illness than in the past. Yet fewer are getting the
rehabilitation programs they need.

"Some of them leave more violent and more addicted to drugs than when
they walked in the place," says Jason Godin, Ontario president of the
Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. "That's pretty scary for the
Canadian public."

Recidivism rates, perhaps the best measure of the prison system's
effectiveness, show at least 40 per cent of inmates are convicted of a
new offence within two years of leaving jail.

The Conservative government is considering a major reform of the
system, but hasn't announced its plans. What it has done is push
through new "tough on crime" legislation most criminal justice experts
warn will further strain the prison system without reducing crime.

The Tackling Violent Crime Act increases the number of gun-related
crimes that automatically result in mandatory minimum sentences,
increases the jail time to be served for those crimes and designates
as a dangerous offender anyone convicted of three violent or sexual
offences, jailing them for as long as they're considered to be an
unacceptable risk to society.

Legislative committees studying incarnations of the act repeatedly
heard experts comparing these provisions to U.S. laws that resulted in
spiralling costs and rates of incarceration, with little impact on
crime.

Officials at Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) acknowledge the
changes will increase costs and further crowd prisons. But they say
some of the cost estimates are considered secret cabinet documents and
can't be made public.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has said the tougher sentences
will cost an extra $240 million over five years, adding 300 to 400
inmates in federal prisons and 3,600 more in provincial jails.

Anthony Doob, a criminologist at the University of Toronto, told a
legislative committee the changes would put a further 1,000 offenders
in prison each year and cost an extra $80 million annually. Many more
will also be imprisoned, criminal justice experts say, by another
batch of mandatory minimum sentences proposed in a bill targeting drug
possession and trafficking.

At the end of the 2006-07 fiscal year, CSC had 13,200 offenders in its
58 penitentiaries and was supervising another 8,400 in communities.
Whether the system can effectively handle the extra load raises some
doubts.

"The system is struggling to keep its head above water. They've been
treading water for a long time and they're running out of energy,"
says ombudsman Howard Sapers, the federally appointed correctional
investigator, who acts as an ombudsman for inmates.

Godin says the government faces a choice: Double-bunk more prisoners -
a recipe for increased tension - or build more prisons.

"There's no room at the inn," he says, adding that dangerous criminals
are already being placed in medium-security jails because maximum
facilities are full.

Recent prison riots in Agassiz, B.C., Edmonton and Joyceville, Ont.,
are the latest manifestations of a prison population that's harder to
manage.

Fifteen per cent of offenders are classified on admission as
maximum-security inmates - a 100 per cent increase in recent years.
One of every six offenders is linked to gangs or organized crime; four
of every five arrive with serious drug or alcohol abuse problems; 12
per cent of men and 26 per cent of women suffer from serious mental
health problems.

Assaults against prison guards are on the rise and drugs flow freely,
smuggled in by visitors or thrown over perimeter fences or walls.

"Tennis balls are wonderful: You just cut a hole in them, stick the
drugs in and throw them over," Godin says. "In one institution, we saw
arrows, believe it or not, from several hundred feet away being fired
into the yard with drugs attached to them."

Says Rob Sampson, head of a federally appointed panel that reviewed the
prison system
and reported in December: "People who read our report say they just can't
believe that
it's probably easier to get drugs inside of jail than it is outside. It
doesn't make any
sense."

Sampson's report, "A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety," made 109
recommendations. They include building massive prison compounds that
have maximum-, medium- and minimum-security facilities within the same
perimeter walls, replacing the mandatory release of prisoners after
two-thirds of their sentence with a system of "earned parole," and
enhancing rehabilitation programs.

The Conservative government gave its first official response in the
February budget. The government gave CSC an extra $122 million "to
ensure that the federal correctional system is firmly on track to
respond comprehensively" to Sampson's recommendations.

The new money is targeted to improve prison security. What's unclear
is how many of the report's recommendations will be adopted.

There's much concern about the cost of the proposed prison compounds -
up to $750 million each, according to the report's estimates. Yet
Sampson, former Ontario corrections minister in the Mike Harris
government, describes them as almost a prerequisite for reform,
providing the space needed to improve security and
rehabilitation.

The Conservative government has already said it's committed to
abolishing statutory release, whereby prisoners are automatically
released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. The John Howard
Society of Canada, which helps offenders reintegrate into communities,
estimates this will boost the inmate population by 2,310 people in the
first year alone.

Where there's full agreement is on the need for more rehabilitation
programs. Twenty studies recently reviewed by CSC all found that
recidivism rates were significantly lower for prisoners who took rehab
compared with those who didn't - as much as an 86 per cent reduction
in violent recidivism for one group that completed an anger management
program.

Rehabilitation is half of the correctional service's dual mandate. The
other is the humane custody of prisoners. Yet only about 2 per cent of
the service's $1.8 billion budget - $37 million - went to the delivery
last year of core rehabilitation programs, such as anger management.
(A further $68 million was spent on employment and education
programs). And, the number of inmates enrolled in rehab has dropped 16
per cent, partly due to "limited resources," according to Ross Toller,
assistant commissioner of corrections.

Says Greg Rogers, head of the John Howard Society of Toronto: "The
politicians get tough
on crime, the public supports that, but nobody wants to see an increase in
their taxes
so that prisoners receive better services while in prison.

"Hence, something's got to go, and the something that goes is a lot of
the programming that was developed and was quite successful in the
'70s and '80s."

Long waiting lists also make accessing programs difficult. Sapers
blames a dearth of personnel to deliver the programs, overcrowding,
and the "inability" of prison officials to move medium-security
inmates progressing in the programs to minimum-security facilities,
where space is available.

The wait for rehab is especially problematic when 60 per cent of
inmates are serving sentences of less than three years. By the time a
spot opens up, many realize they won't complete them in time for
parole, so they either don't bother, or waive their right to a parole
hearing.

Since 1998 the number of inmates taking a pass on parole hearings has
increased 29 per cent, according to a National Parole Board report
last year. Obligatory releases after serving two-thirds of a sentence
accounted for fully 65 per cent of prison releases last year. Only 30
per cent were released on parole, which gives some indication of the
number that satisfied their rehab and correctional programs. The
figures are especially troubling because the rate of violent
re-offending is three times higher for statutory releases than for
parole releases.

CSC officials insist that a large majority of inmates end up in some
kind of programming. But non-completion rates are high - 37 per cent
for sex offender programs last year, 69 per cent for educational
programs and more than 70 per cent for programs designed for women or
aboriginal offenders.

"Our main concern is that people are leaving after serving their
sentence or pieces of their sentence with not much more than they had
when they came, in terms of an ability to become a law-abiding
citizen," Sampson says.

Millhaven warden Bruce Somers acknowledges that the greater number of
offenders serving shorter sentences, coupled with the bottleneck for
rehabilitation programs, "slowed down some of the (prison) releases"
in Ontario. Some inmates would have served less time - and cost less
to incarcerate - "if we had responded earlier to their programming
needs," he adds.

Corrections officials recognized the problem and last year got
Millhaven to start providing rehab programs to inmates sentenced to
less than four years, who have been assessed and are waiting for cells
to open up in other prisons. On May 23, 330 prisoners were in
Millhaven waiting to be shipped out.

Somers says he joined the correctional service 25 years ago "with the
firm conviction that I can change people's (criminal) behaviour."
Millhaven remains a potentially dangerous place - inmates are
increasingly members of Toronto street gangs and makeshift weapons,
from toothbrushes studded with razor blades to food trays moulded to a
deadly point in microwaves, are a constant workplace hazard. Still,
Somers insists Millhaven experienced far fewer "lockdowns" during the
past three years and maximum-security inmates are getting the programs
they need.

Asked if more money should be spent on prevention programs, rather
than incarceration, Somers replies he would rather stay clear of
politically charged issues. "I'm going to tell you that if we could do
more preventative things on the outside, by all means," he says. "If
there are fewer inmates coming into these places, I'll be happy."

PRISON FACTS

13,200 Number of federal offenders in penitentiaries
(2006-07)

58 Number of penitentiaries

8,400 Number of federal offenders being supervised in
communities

COSTS

$235 Daily cost to hold a man in federal prison (2005-06)

$467 Daily cost to hold a woman in federal prison (2005-06)

$1.8 billion Correctional Service of Canada annual
budget

$37 million Amount of budget spent on core rehabilitation programs,
such as anger management

ESCAPEES

114 Number of escapees from federal institutions in
1998-99

37 Number of escapees from federal institutions in 2006-07, all from
minimum security

36 Number of escapees recaptured by April 1, 2007