LET THE SENATE LOOSE ON OUR PRISON PROBLEMS

Corrections Services of Canada ought to strike a reasonable balance between
its goal of rehabilitating prisoners and protecting society. But evidence
increasingly suggests that it is neither successfully reforming criminals
nor adequately protecting the public.

A new book by investigative journalist Michael Harris asserts that Ottawa
spends more than $1.4 billion annually on the federal prison system. It
costs about $66,000 to house a male prisoner and about $110,000 to
incarcerate a female. So why isn't Corrections Services able to deliver on
its goals?

It's a question our politicians must address. And given the increasingly
meaningless role of parliamentary committees, we believe the appropriate
body to examine the problem and recommend necessary changes is the Senate.

Senators like Michael Kirby and Colin Kenny, among others, have proven
themselves to be capable of delivering useful reform blueprints for
Canada's banking, health care and defence sectors. There is no doubt that
they are capable of doing the same for our corrections system.

Mr. Harris, in Con Game: The Truth About Canada's Prisons, lays out some
compelling evidence to suggest that the federal prison system is
dysfunctional and badly in need of repair. He notes that Canada's prisons
are rife with drugs and home-brewed alcohol. Rather than tackling the drug
problem, prison officials have been doling out bleach kits so prisoners can
clean their needles.

Mr. Harris also points out that prisoners live in relative comfort. They
are allowed to keep personal items ranging from cable television to a
computer in their cells.

And in March, The Vancouver Sun reported that Corrections Services decided
to spend $260,000 to provide lighting at the Agassiz prison in British
Columbia so that prisoners could play baseball in the evenings. Kent
prison, which is close by, also has a floodlit field so that prisoners can
participate in evening recreational activities.

After visiting many of Canada's prisons, Mr. Harris concluded that they are
"one of the most dangerous and poorly managed workplaces in the country."
During the past decade, there have been 775 serious, violent incidents in
federal prisons, of which 32 were major assaults on staff and 51 were murders.

More disconcerting, criminals spend on average less than third of their
sentences before getting day parole. And under Ottawa's new "accelerated
parole review," first-time non-violent offenders are let out after serving
just one-sixth of their sentences.

Although Corrections Services has denied it, Mr. Harris says that since
1997 there has been a quota on the number of prisoners who should be on
early parole. This means that even the ones who may not be ready for early
release could be walking our streets.

According to Mr. Harris, 37 convicted murderers who were paroled over the
past quarter century went on to kill another 58 people. In the past 12
years, he says, criminals on parole or statutory release have committed 194
attempted murders and 2,647 other serious offences such as sexual assault
and armed robbery.

Is this stark picture painted by Mr. Harris the true state of affairs in
our federal prisons? Certainly his allegations deserve closer examination,
and the public has a right to know whether the corrections system is doing
its job effectively.

Mr. Harris' previous books -- Justice Denied: The Law versus Donald
Marshall; Unholy Orders: The Tragedy at Mount Cashel; The Judas Kiss: The
Undercover Life of Patrick Kelly, and Lament for an Ocean: The Collapse of
the Atlantic Cod Fishery -- have sparked four commissions of inquiry.

Since public safety, rehabilitation of prisoners and an enormous amount of
public money are at stake, it is time for the Senate to undertake a serious
look at our corrections system.