GET-TOUGH MEASURES WON'T HELP

Canada's Conservative federal government is a big improvement over the
Liberal one it replaced. After all, the Tories aren't taking
taxpayers' money and giving it to their friends as the Grits did
during the Sponsorgate scandal.

That said, the Tories are far from perfect. And as Prime Minister
Stephen Harper gets tougher and tougher on crime, he's likely to set
this country back a decade or two when it comes to justice issues.

The Elizabeth Fry Society advocacy group is reporting that the number
of women starting federal prison sentences in Canada has grown by more
than 50 per cent in the past decade even though crime is generally
going down.

According to the advocacy group, many of those women have mental
illness issues and not much education. Plus, the number of aboriginal
women serving federal time has jumped 90 per cent since 2001.

Not surprisingly, the number of incarcerated women is expected to
increase as the Conservatives ratchet up their harsh law-and-order
rhetoric.

And under a Tory government, you can expect the country's
incarceration rate for men to increase, too.

Aboriginal men - many of them afflicted with fetal alcohol syndrome -
in particular, are overrepresented in the prison population.

While other industries stagnate in the current economic downturn, it
appears that the prison business - such as it is - is about to really
take off in Canada.

After all, under a federal drug-sentencing bill revived recently by
the Tories, Canadians growing as few as six marijuana plants in their
dwellings could face automatic jail terms of at least nine months.

The bill - supported by both the Conservatives and the Liberals - has
been given new life even though the American war on drugs, which
depends on mandatory minimum sentences, has proven to be an utter failure.

The drug business is flourishing in the U.S.; yet, there have never
been more people jailed in that country.

Of course, stiffer penalties for pot growers isn't the only change
likely to swell Canada's prison population.

The Tories are also putting a stop to giving prisoners two-for-one
credit for time served before sentencing (the credit was allowed in
recognition of the fact that conditions in remand centres are often
particularly unpleasant).

That change alone could cost taxpayers about $2 billion over five
years, according to Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.

And if the price of the Liberals' gun registry ballooned from $2
million to $2 billion, one can only guess how much an expense that
starts out at $2 billion could increase with government
mismanagement.

Of course, there are some people who are simply too dangerous to walk
free among the rest of society. So, obviously there will always be a
need in Canada for prisons.

But the move by the Tories to see more and more citizens locked up,
with little evidence that doing so rehabilitates any of them, is
indeed troubling.

The answer to crime is partially prison, but it must involve a whole
lot more than that. It must include jobs, addictions treatment, mental
health counselling and education. Until it does, locking up more
people will merely win the Tories a few more votes from hard-liners at
the expense of transforming ordinary criminals into truly depraved and
violent individuals who will someday be released into society at large.

Harper's get-tough measures will not make Canada safer.