ELIMINATION OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES NOT THE ANSWER

The Conservative plan to get tough on crime by eliminating conditional
sentences for certain offences does not solve the crime problem -- it
might result in lighter sentences, said Saskatchewan's justice
minister.

"People won't necessarily be going to jail -- they may be put on
probation and/or a suspended sentence," said Frank Quennell. "So this
doesn't necessarily make people safer. They may be having short
custodial sentences followed by probation, which is less
well-supervised than conditional sentences. So again, this
scatter-shot approach doesn't necessarily increase public safety
because it's not focused on those serious and violent offences. And
the result may not be violent criminals serving a greater period of
time in prison, which I think would be appropriate."

The Conservative bill that would see conditional sentences --
sometimes known as house arrest -- eliminated for certain offences was
tabled in the House of Commons Thursday. Should the legislation be
passed, it would affect those convicted of crimes punishable by
maximum 10-year sentences, including some violence, property, fraud
and driving offences.

Quennell said the legislation does not focus on the serious and
violent offences society is most concerned about. He said in the 21/2
years he has held his current portfolio, he and the country's other
provincial justice ministers have been discussing reforms that should
be made to conditional sentencing legislation. The suggestions
resulting from those discussions were not considered by the federal
government, Quennell said.

"What the justice ministers across the country had proposed is that we
take a look at the types of offences where I think the public was
offended that somebody would not be going into custody -- and those
would be offences of intentional violence or organized crime," he said.

Quennell noted the federal plan does not include any way to expand
provincial correctional facilities, meaning they will either become
more overcrowded or it will result in shorter or lighter sentences for
some offences in order to keep people moving more quickly through the
provincial jails.

"There may not be room for some violent offenders to serve more time
in prison because that space is being taken up by people who have
committed property offences who might have been on conditional
sentences before," he said.

Overcrowding is also on the mind of Mike Dunphy, provincial executive
director of the John Howard Society. He said a further problem is that
there are fewer rehabilitation options available in jails than there
are in society. If an offender is serving a conditional as opposed to
a jail sentence, he or she has the chance to take advantage of those
programs while being strictly monitored.

"I think the public is under the illusion that because they're out of
sight, out of mind, that they're better off when they come out, and
that's not true," he said.