POLICE AND CITIZENS SUFFER THE JAILHOUSE BLUES

Most of us do what we can throughout our lives to steer clear of
jailhouses, never venturing near or caring to know what goes on inside them.

But a new book on Canada's correctional system opens wide the steel-barred
doors and takes the reader deep inside these dormitories of hell.

The book sheds light on what taxpayers are getting -- or rather not getting
- -- for their money.

Some $1.4 billion a year is spent on the federal corrections system; $2.5
billion when costs of the provincial system are added in.

"Canada's prison system is in crisis," writes Michael Harris, longtime
journalist and author of Con Game: the Truth about Canada's Prisons. "It
neither reforms criminals nor protects the public.

"Despite ritual public denials, one of the key corporate priorities of
[Corrections Canada] is to reduce the length of time convicted criminals
spend in jail."

That priority surely stems from the fact it costs $66,300 per year to lock
up a male prisoner in a federal prison, $14,500 to supervise him on parole.
=46or women, the annual incarceration cost is $110,400.

Oddly, as the number of prisoners has been declining -- down from 129 per
100,000 in 1997 to 118 per 100,000 in 2000 -- the costs of running the
system keep on rising.

In the four-year period 1996-2000 the corrections budget jumped from $1.1
billion to $1.4 billion, even though nearly 2,000 fewer prisoners were kept.

Cost aside, is the trend away from incarceration a good thing?

How legitimate is it to give convicts prison sentences, then allow them to
fly the coop before completing them?

Incredibly, Canadian criminals serve, on average, less than a third of
their sentences before winning day parole. And, since 1999, Ottawa has
instituted a system of "Accelerated Parole Review," under which
non-violent, first-time offenders can be back on the street after serving
one-sixth of their sentences!

Mr. Harris describes this as "a mockery of justice that left the police
community demoralized and angry;" not to mention the public, ultimately
left exposed to these offenders.

How seriously can citizens be expected to take the judicial system when so
many offenders can avoid serving the bulk of their prison terms?

A 1999 National Parole Board report revealed 37 convicted killers paroled
over a 24-year period went on to murder another 58 people.

Mr. Harris, who in his research, interviewed hundreds of prisoners, prison
guards and corrections officials and visited several of Canada's 69 federal
institutions, concludes our prisons are "one of the most dangerous and
poorly managed workplaces in the country."

=46or those who have always wondered how the heck prisoners get drugs in
heavily guarded prisons, the author explains: "The majority of drugs come
in with visitors, especially during private family visits." Prison
authorities since 1999 have been supplying drug-using prisoners with bleach
kits to sterilize their needles.

Mr. Harris also notes some prisoners use prison kitchenettes to concoct
their own home brew.

How can this go on? Cells are indeed spotchecked for contraband -- but each
individual cell is searched only once every 60 days. So, there are 59 days
of relative immunity for most prisoners.

=46urther, Mr. Harris writes, "illegal weapons are a fact of life in any
prison."

The author says that writing the book on prisons "has been the most
difficult task of my journalistic career." He says the system is
unaccountable and bureaucrats and administrators running it are secretive
and blinkered.

Corrections Canada has come under relatively little scrutiny by
parliamentarians in recent years.

The public hears the odd story about a prisoner who threatens to sue
because he can't sleep for all the noise going on, or a prisoner in a snit
because he has had trouble getting his vegan diet.

But for the most part, little of what goes on inside gets to the outside.

Canadian Alliance MPs, long advocating tougher criminal justice laws, have
expressed the most interest in probing the situation. They've asked
questions in the Commons about prisoners being pampered with opportunities
to play golf or go horseback riding.

With all the new artillery in Mr. Harris' book, it's likely Corrections
Canada will become the target of renewed examination. Sounds like it's long
overdue.