POT IN JAIL NOT HARMFUL, JUDGE SAYS

Sentence Reduced For Man Who Smuggled Marijuana Into
Prison

There is nothing to suggest that marijuana inside prisons causes any
particular harm, a B.C. Appeal court judge noted Thursday.

In ruling to reduce the sentence of a Vancouver area man caught
smuggling a half-ounce of marijuana to a friend inside a Fraser Valley
prison, Justice Mary Southin decided to allow the appeal of Paul Scott
Charlish and reduce his six-month jail sentence to a four-month
conditional sentence, to be served in the community.

"The learned [trial] judge rested on deterrence, but there is nothing
in the record that visitors are frequently taking or attempting to
take marijuana into prisons, for that matter, if marijuana is getting
into prisons, that any particular harm thereby results," Southin noted
in written reasons for judgement released this week.

Southin said it was a non-violent crime and felt "more harm than good
will be done to this applicant by locking him up. On the material
before the Court, I doubt that he will ever again be so foolish as to
do what he did on the occasion in question."

Charlish, 31, was charged with trafficking marijuana after he was
caught on Aug. 11, 1998, passing 14 grams of pot to his friend, Curtis
Bradley Rabochenko, a prisoner of Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford
serving a two-year sentence for a robbery conviction.

"There is no evidence that this was a commercial transaction," Southin
noted. "I proceed on the footing the marijuana was a gift."

She added: "I infer that the accused committed this offence because he
believes there is some merit in the old adage that a friend in need is
a friend indeed."

Charlish had no previous criminal record, works full-time and had been
a friend of Rabochenko since before high school. The incident
occurred in the visitor's room of the prison.

The Crown prosecutor in the case had asked for a three-month sentence
but the trial judge felt that would be inadequate, so imposed a
six-month jail sentence with a recommendation that it be served on
electronic monitoring.

Southin also suggested judges should stop making such recommendations
because they have no statutory authority to do so.

"While I should like to think that those in charge of classification
respect judicial recommendations, I am doubtful about the worth of
such recommendations because if the recommendation is not honoured,
not only will a prisoner have a legitimate sense of grievance, but
also the judicial office is demeaned."