CRIME REFORM BACKED

Targeting the worst repeat offenders should go far in cutting crime
rates, says a leading criminologist.

University College of the Fraser Valley professor Darryl Plecas says
the latest data from an ongoing nine-month-old study of prolific
offenders supports the reform approach now being tested by police at
various sites around B.C.

He says about two-thirds of prolific criminals being tracked under the
study go on to reoffend within six months, versus about a six per cent
repeat rate for first-time offenders.

Overall, Plecas said, prolific offenders make up about 15 per cent of
all criminals, but about a third of all crime.

"The very best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour,"
Plecas said.

He said success in finding and treating repeat criminals hinges on
very sophisticated and integrated information systems to track them.

"The name of the game is to shrink the criminal population," he
said.

Britain has scored dramatic successes and continues to be the model
for what reformers hope could happen here.

"They've had a drop in crime of somewhere between 40 and 50 per cent,"
Plecas said.

Test approaches have already paid dividends, notably in contributing
to an "absolutely spectacular" drop in auto thefts in Surrey.

But Plecas said just catching criminals isn't enough.

He says a much more intensive system is needed to intervene with
housing, drug treatment, education and employment skills development
than exists now to give offenders a shot at escaping the cycle.

"At the end of the day you can't just keep locking people up," he
said. "You have to have ways of stopping that revolving door."

Plecas credits Surrey, which has mapped out an ambitious Crime
Reduction Strategy based in large part on the British model, for
getting reforms moving and the province to sign on.

Plecas continues to battle not just prolific offenders, but prolific
misconceptions.

Among them is the perception young people are to blame.

"People have this notion we need to come down hard on young
offenders," he said.

"It's not youth that's the problem. It's adults who have offended over
and over and over again and we simply haven't dealt with them."

The average age of an offender isn't even in the 18-to-24 age group,
but rather 30 years old, he said.

People also believe the corrections system has a poor success
rate.

In fact, he said, Canada's federal corrections system is the envy of
much of the world.

"Very little crime is done by somebody who has served a federal
sentence," he said, noting wrap-around services and the various levels
of parole do much to rehabilitate criminals.

But too few other offenders are put in the hands of authorities for
long enough to change.

Sentencing is one piece of the puzzle.

Alberta has just one-tenth the number of marijuana grow ops as
B.C.

Plecas said that's little surprise - there's a one in 29 chance a
B.C. pot grower will do jail time versus one in five in Alberta.