DO WE NEED TO GET TOUGH ON CRIME?

For the record, a 1988 parliamentary committee, co-chaired by Rob
Nicholson (who was then a backbencher in the Mulroney government),
found that based on the American experience, mandatory minimum jail
sentences don't work. They don't act as a deterrent and only serve to
swell the prison population. How things have changed.

This government's crime legislation, which includes mandatory minimum
sentences for drug crimes and sexual offences, is ideologically and
politically driven, not evidenced-based. As usual, the legislation
will end up hurting the socially, culturally and economically
disadvantaged, especially aboriginals and the mentally ill.

Correctional Services of Canada already manages over 50 facilities and
employs more than 20,000 people, up from 14,000 in 2005. Likewise, it
has an annual budget of $3-billion, which has increased from
$1.6-billion '05. The cost of keeping a male inmate in a federal
prison rose from $88,000 per year in 2006 to $109,000 in 2009. The
cost incarcerating a female exceeds $180,000 per year. The
government's proposed legislation will increase these costs even
further and do little to reduce crime.

Emile Therien

volunteer, John Howard Society

Ottawa.