TOUGH ON CRIME CAN BE PRETTY TOUGH ON CHILDREN

How would Canada's criminal justice system look if conservatives
fully transformed it? And more importantly, what would those changes
do to Canadian society? With the Harper government pushing more
tough-on-crime legislation, and preparing to dismiss the statistics
and campaign on crime in the next election, these are important questions.

We got one answer this week.

The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that as of
2007, 1.7 million American children younger than 18 had a parent in a
state or federal prison. That's 2.3 per cent of all American children.

"Since 1991, the number of children with a mother in prison has more
than doubled, up 131 per cent," the bureau states. "The number of
children with a father in prison has grown by 77 per cent."

But even these numbers do not tell the whole story of what right-wing
justice policies are doing to American families and neighbourhoods.
For one thing, these statistics exclude county jails, which house
one-quarter of America's 2.2 million prison population. They also
obscure the fact that incarceration is concentrated in certain communities.

Hispanic children were more than two-and-a-half times more likely
than white children to have a parent in prison.

Black children were seven-and-a-half times more likely to have an
incarcerated parent: Almost seven per cent of all black children have
a parent in state or federal prison. Add in county jails and that
figure is likely around 10 per cent.

Just try to fathom that. One in 10 black children has a parent behind
bars at this moment. And how many had a parent locked up in the past?
How many in the future? How many boys and girls will know what it
feels like to talk to a mother or father through a plexiglass shield?

It is wonderful that a black man is now a serious contender for the
presidency. It is horrifying that incarceration is as much a part of
black childhoods as birthday cakes.

Of course we rarely think of prisoners as people, much less mothers
and fathers. We think of them as criminals.

And we think of criminals as violent, anti-social, drugged-out,
altogether nasty creatures.

As appalling as it may be to imagine all those children losing
parents to prison, it's tempting to conclude it may be for the best.
Imagine the harm these loathsome people could do to their children if
they weren't safely locked away.

Every prisoner is different, of course, and there are undoubtedly
cases in which this reasoning holds. But for the most part, it's
nonsense built on nothing more than crude stereotypes and ignorance.

More than half of American prisoners with children were incarcerated
for non-violent crimes. And plenty of incarcerated parents are not
the deadbeats we may imagine.

One-third of fathers and almost two-thirds of mothers reported living
with their children prior to being imprisoned. Three-quarters of
incarcerated parents reported being employed at the time of their
arrest and one-half of parents were the primary source of support for
their children.

Seventy per cent exchanged letters with their children while in
prison. Half spoke on the telephone.

Four in 10 had personal visits -- a figure which would undoubtedly be
higher if it weren't for the widespread adoption of right-wing
policies restricting prison visits and the construction of prisons in
distant rural regions, which makes it hard for poor family members to
see their loved ones.

And remember, all these numbers are skewed because county jails,
which generally hold less-serious offenders, are excluded.

Of course, convicted criminals, whatever their crimes, are far from
ideal parents. But mothers and fathers don't have to be June and Ward
Cleaver to contribute to the development of a child. And even the
loss of flawed parents can damage children in ways that last a lifetime.

One widely cited study found that the children of incarcerated
parents are six times more likely to be incarcerated. Granted, there
are many factors involved in that conclusion other than the
incarceration of the parent. But we have to realize that an
incarcerated parent means a child who has lost a parent -- and that
loss may be even more traumatizing than other forms of parental loss
because it also comes with the deep stigma of having your mother or
father declared a criminal.

Incarceration must always be a last resort; sentences must always be
as short as justice and safety permit. If we go beyond these limits,
if we embrace incarceration, if we see prisons as a magic cure for
crime, if we make a fetish of punishment --as the United States has
done over the last 30 years -- the damage to children and communities
will be profound.

The transformation of Canadian justice sought by conservatives in
this country comes entirely from the American playbook. If we want a
country in which one in 10 aboriginal children has a parent in prison
- -- if we like the idea of more aboriginal children staring at mothers
and fathers through plexiglass shields -- then we should copy that playbook.

If not, we must toss it aside and write our own.