OTTAWA WILL EXPAND PRISONS TO SUIT TOUGH CRIME LAWS

The Conservative government has doubled the budget for prison
construction and maintenance as it prepares federal institutions for
an influx of inmates resulting from its suite of new crime laws.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Public Safety Minister Peter
Van Loan revealed the government is leaning toward renovating existing
prisons and building new wings as Ottawa's short-term approach to
managing the increase.

He said cabinet will take another two or three years before deciding
whether there is a need to build large new regional prisons as
recommended in a 2007 advisory report - but the government already has
some land in mind.

The plots are currently being used by inmates for milking cows and
gathering eggs to feed their fellow convicts. It is part of the
prison-farm program the government is phasing out after more than 150
years.

Since coming to power in 2006, the Harper government has introduced
several justice proposals that would increase the use of mandatory
minimum sentences, end house arrests and eliminate a judge's ability
to credit a prisoner with two days served for every one spent in
pretrial custody in calculating sentences.

Mr. Van Loan said he has seen internal estimates that provide a
projected range for prison population growth as a result of government
legislation either passed or before Parliament. However, those numbers
are a cabinet confidence and cannot be disclosed, he said.

"Each bill brings with it a different impact," Mr. Van Loan said. "But
ultimately we anticipate some need for major investment."

Most of the approximately 33,000 offenders now incarcerated are the
responsibility of the provinces or territories, either because they
are awaiting trial or sentencing or serving sentences of less than two
years.

Mr. Van Loan said new minimum sentences and an end to bonuses for time
spent awaiting trial would see more people serving more than two years
and, as a result, ending up in one of Canada's 58 federal
institutions.

"The effect of that bill [ending the two-for-one credit] is
essentially a massive transfer, financially and in terms of custodial
obligations, from the provinces to the federal government," he said.

Mr. Van Loan, who is responsible for the Correctional Service of
Canada, said that until cabinet decides on a long-term plan, the
farm-program lands will be rented out to farmers.

"It wouldn't be prudent to dispose of the land if you may have
potential plans in the future to build super regional prisons," he
said. "We don't know how many we will do. But it just wouldn't make a
lot of sense in protecting the taxpayer's interest to unload all that
land and then decide three, four years hence that you've got to get it
back."

A public campaign is under way to save the prison-farm program, which
teaches inmates at six institutional farms the ins and outs of
agriculture. Proponents, including current prison farmers who are
speaking out in the media, say the program teaches universal skills
like punctuality. They also say caring for animals instills a sense of
compassion.

The government says the program's $4-million budget could be better
spent elsewhere, given that less than 1 per cent of released inmates
end up in agriculture. Mr. Van Loan said the public and inmates are
better served by programs focused on more employable skills such as
landscaping or furniture-making, adding that landing a job after
prison is a key factor in avoiding a return to crime.

He denied any link between the program's end and the government's
expansion plans.

The move to mandatory minimums is in response to the perception among
some that Canada has a "revolving-door" justice system that goes easy
on repeat offenders. The measures are supported by the Canadian
Association of Chiefs of Police, particularly in relation to anti-drug
measures contained in a bill now before the Senate.

Frank Addario, president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, says
the American experience shows mandatory minimums don't work.

"The most law-and-order states in the United States have turned away
from muscular sentencing and mandatory minimums on the basis that no
reasonable state budget can manage the level of incarceration that
those laws require," Mr. Addario said. The annual average cost of
keeping a Canadian inmate incarcerated is $93,030.

The possibility of using the farm land for prisons was first confirmed
by Mr. Van Loan in a written response tabled recently in the House of
Commons replying to a question from Liberal MP Mark Holland. The
minister's response also revealed the annual budget for "corrections
infrastructure" has grown from $88.5-million in 2006-07 to
$195.1-million this year. It is projected to peak at $211.6-million in
fiscal year 2010-11.

Mr. Van Loan has embraced the recommendations of a controversial 2007
advisory report prepared for the federal government by Rob Sampson, a
former minister of corrections in Ontario's Mike Harris government.

Among the report's wide-ranging recommendations was a call to create
large new regional correctional facilities that would house high-,
medium- and low-security prisoners in one location - though physically
separated from each other.

The report said this would lead to administrative savings by sharing
common services like food. While other recommendations from the 2007
report are already government policy, the government until now has
been silent on the call for new prisons.

A report by prisoner-rights advocates Michael Jackson and Graham
Stewart warned last month that some of the recommendations contain
"draconian implications" for human rights, yet are being implemented
with little public or parliamentary debate.

The Jackson-Stewart report acknowledged the need for upgrades to aging
facilities, but said the call for regional complexes was "ill advised"
and not well thought out.

PRISON NUMBERS

Offenders serving a sentence of less than two years, as well as adults
held in custody while awaiting trial or sentencing (known as remand),
are the responsibility of provinces and territories. Ottawa is
responsible for the detention of offenders serving two years or more.

Provincial custody

* In remand: 12,888 * Serving sentences: 9,750

Federal custody

* Serving sentences: 13,304

Incarceration rates

2007/08

* Canada: 117 people in custody for every 100,000 (including youth)
* United States: 762 in custody per 100,000 (not including youth)

Annual budget for prison infrastructure

* 2005-06 $88.6-million
* 2007-08 $103.1-million
* 2008-09 $151-million
* 2009-10 $195.1-million
* 2010-11 $211.6-million
* 2011-12 $163.2-million
* 2012-13 $113.1-million

Farewell to the farms

After more than 150 years, Ottawa is shutting down the Prison Farm
Program, which teaches inmates to take care of animals and provides
products to the prison population. The government notes that of 25,000
offenders released over the last five years, less than 1 per cent
found work in agriculture.

Sources: Responses tabled in the House; Statistics Canada