CHRONIC CRIMINALS NEED HELP

No Resources In Provincial Correction System

The lack of rehabilitation programs in the province's jails is
contributing to continuing property crime sprees by drug-addicted criminals.

That's the belief of Terry La Liberte, a Vancouver Police Board
member and defence lawyer, who aired his frustration about the
provincial corrections system at Wednesday's police board meeting.

"We send them out there [to provincial prisons] for a refresher
course, to get healthy to get back out there and be a better crook,"
La Liberte told the board. "We have to encourage the provincial
corrections system to get some resources there."

La Liberte pointed to North Fraser Pre-trial Centre as a facility
where suspects awaiting trial do nothing but "sleep and cook soup"
and consort with other criminals. He made his remarks after hearing a
presentation from Vancouver Police Department Sgt. John Rennie on the
extent of the city's property crime problem and the criminals
responsible for the crimes.

Rennie, in charge of the chronic offenders unit, said police have
identified 370 criminals who fit the chronic offender definition--a
criminal who has been charged with 12 separate offences in the past year.

In interviews with offenders, police learned 90 per cent have drug
abuse problems and must steal at least $2,000 worth of property a day
to feed their habit. The drug of choice is crack cocaine.

If each of the addicted offenders committed crime every day of the
year, the total amount stolen by them from city residents would be
more than $230 million annually. Criminals get about 10 cents for
every dollar stolen, which means a $200 drug habit requires stealing
$2,000 worth of goods.

"This is very, very conservative," Rennie explained.

The 370 offenders have an average of 40 criminal convictions--37 of
them have more than 70 convictions. None has served more than two
consecutive years in prison.

Rennie pointed out, with the help of a graph, that the longer a
person is involved in crime, the shorter the sentence. That's because
judges are unable to give "purposeful sentencing," where criminals
are offered treatment programs, life skills training and housing, he said.

"We've created an environment to say to these individuals, 'Boy,
you're pretty bad at what you do, but we're going to reward you. You
just keep on going and your sentence is going to go down.'"

Rennie agreed with La Liberte that the provincial corrections system,
which houses offenders with sentences of two years less a day,
doesn't have the programs to get criminals off drugs or steer them from crime.

He said his unit refers offenders to social workers to get them help.
But with waiting times of up to three weeks for treatment programs,
Rennie said criminals return to drugs and crime.

"They're crying out for help. We to talk to them on a regular basis.
They're really, really tired of coming in, doing drugs, going to
jail, coming out, doing drugs. So we have to take a completely
different approach."

Police Chief Jim Chu said he will request in a letter to federal
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to have "tougher sentencing" for offenders.

"We've heard from former addicts who told us that getting sentenced
to federal time [more than two years] was actually one of the best
things that ever happened to them," Chu said. "Right now, they're on
the streets creating carnage and I believe that a stronger sentence
would help them kick their addiction as well as protect the public."

But La Liberte argued that the reason some offenders prefer the
federal system's programs is because none are available in provincial prisons.

"That's because the provincial system hasn't done its job," he said.
"We could clear a whole bunch of this up in a year."