ATTORNEY GENERAL TALKS ABOUT FIGHTING GANGS

VICTORIA - Three out of four B.C. residents believe the province's
high crime rate is because judges are too soft on criminals, but a
new study says sentencing statistics don't support that.

The study by University of Toronto and University of Ottawa
criminologists is billed as the first comparative examination of
sentencing in Canadian provinces.

It notes that both crime rates and public perception of weak
sentencing are higher in Western Canada, and in B.C. in particular.

The study was completed in November, but B.C. Attorney General Wally
Oppal released it Monday in the wake of the latest rash of
gang-related shootings in Metro Vancouver.

Oppal dismissed the idea that harsher sentences would deter violent
gang members.

The heaviest jail sentencing of any western democracy is a proven
failure in the United States, producing the democratic world's
highest urban crime rates, he said. And the theory implies that drug
dealers would flip through Martin's Criminal Code to assess their
risk before shooting up the streets, when criminals typically assume
they won't be caught, the former judge added.

"These guys are not rocket scientists, but at the same time, they are
dangerous," Oppal said.

Asked why gang associates with multiple charges pending can still get
out on bail, Public Safety Minister John van Dongen said the
government is trying to overcome opposition to building a new remand
facility in Burnaby that would ease overcrowding in a system that has
seen an increase of 600 inmates in custody. A proposed jail for
sentenced inmates north of Kelowna is also on hold after the local
aboriginal community objected.

Premier Gordon Campbell said the integrated police task force on
organized crime is focused on homicides and gang-related activities
in the Lower Mainland.

"To suggest that we'll have a new label called regional policing,
actually doesn't recognize what's already been done," Campbell said.
"Unfortunately, we've got to do more."

The sentencing study's authors, U of T's Anthony Doob and U of O's
Cheryl Webster, concluded that sentencing statistics don't show a
consistent pattern from province to province, crime to crime and
judge to judge.

The average and median sentence length for all offences in 2003 is
about the same for B.C. and Canada as a whole, the professors found.

"However, approximately 40 per cent of cases in British Columbia
resulted in a prison sentence, as compared to about 35 per cent of
cases in all of Canada," the report says.

A similar split showed up when examining sentences for the crime of
uttering threats. More people convicted in B.C. were sentenced to
jail time than the national average, but the average length of
sentence was shorter, 61 days compared to 83 days nationally.