PROPOSED DRUG CRIME LAW WOULD BURDEN SYSTEM, SENATE
TOLD

A federal bill that would impose mandatory jail time for serious drug
crimes would increase the workload of the parole system, and the
government intends to inject more than $100 million over five years to
ease the burden, according to the commissioner of the Correctional
Service of Canada.

Commissioner Don Head said at a Senate committee hearing Thursday that
if the bill is passed, CSC will receive an additional $116.5 million
over the next five years to support an expected increase in cases for
the National Parole Board.

The parole board supervises both federal offenders who are sentenced
to two years or more, and provincial offenders in some provinces.

Under the proposed legislation, mandatory sentences would be handed
out to everyone convicted of a serious drug offence, such as
trafficking, production, and possession for the purpose of trafficking
narcotics.

A person who grows five to 200 marijuana plants with intent to sell
would get a minimum six-month sentence.

An addict selling heroin to fellow addicts near a park could go away
for two years.

Head said that while there's no evidence that federal prison
populations will increase with mandatory sentences, provincial
institutions likely will be affected by the proposed changes outlined
in the Conservative government's Bill C-15, which is now being debated
in the Senate.

"There's going to be some impact in terms of (provincial) sentence
populations and (the provinces) will have to re-visit their approach
to providing programs to provincial offenders," Head said after his
testimony.