NO REAL INCENTIVE

Paying federal prisoners for enrolling in treatment is a loopy idea
that will, if approved, confuse parole boards, which tend to view
participation in rehabilitation programs as an attempt to turn one's
life around. Admirable as the Conservative government's enthusiasm for
treatment might be, it has taken it a little too far with Public
Safety Minister Peter Van Loan's proposal this week.

A reward is already in place for participating in sex-offender,
substance-abuse or a myriad of other treatment programs: It's called
impressing the parole board, to gain early release. There's another
reward, too: moving on to less secure jails. There's even a third,
more notable reward: turning one's life around. Imagine the inmate for
whom none of those rewards is enough. He leaps at the offer of another
couple of dollars a day on his prison pay of $7 or so. Is he really a
good candidate for treatment?

Roughly 20 per cent of federal offenders refuse to take part in
treatment programs, according to Don Head, the commissioner of federal
prisons. Jail, for them, is a revolving door. And more prisoners all
the time are turning up with mental-health problems. Seventy to 80 per
cent of federal offenders have substance-abuse problems. And the
federal system actually has more space in its programs for addicts and
alcoholics than people willing to enroll, Mr. Head told a House of
Commons committee last week.

Those who do enroll tend to have better prospects, once freed, than
those who don't. But they are probably the ones who had the will to
change. And why waste the time of doctors and counsellors on the
recalcitrant 20 per cent who are just there for the money?

The Conservatives say they want to make prisoners accountable for
meeting their rehabilitation plans. Sounds good, but paying them
allows for a sham accountability. As it is, parole-board members too
often confuse enrolment in a program with a desire to change one's
life; it's all too easy to "fake it." If inmates are paid to take
programs, a parole board that continues to reward participation will
be turning the whole process into a sham.

It is good that the Conservative government evinces a belief in
rehabilitation, but it's silly to suggest that prisoners who need to
be led to treatment can be made to change.