Bill C-10 Isn't The Answer
Mar 06, 2012
c-10, crime, incarceration, inmate, overcrowding
Not long after winning a majority in the last federal election, the Conservative government tabled Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act. It was passed in the House of Commons in early December and has now proceeded to the Senate.
The intent of the bill is to increase the amount of time individuals spend in custody. Jail time will increase through restrictions on conditional sentences and additional mandatory minimum sentences. Known as the “punitive approach,” this strategy has been widely used in places such as the UK and the US over the last 35 years. And it has been roundly rejected in all of them.
As pointed out in a CCPA paper recently, even the most conservative and reactionary members of the American right know that the Harper government’s approach is severely misguided. Newt Gingrich, for example, used to be a staunch supporter of this approach to crime. But he has changed his position and now argues that it has had little impact. He has gone so far as to join the “Right on Crime” coalition, which is calling for Americans to spend less on prisons and more on crime prevention. As he stated in 2011: “Our prisons might be worth the current cost if the recidivism rate were not so high…but half of the prisoners released this year are expected to be back in prison within three years. If our prison policies are failing half of the time…it is time to fundamentally rethink how we treat and rehabilitate our prisoners.”
There isn’t really a group that thinks this new legislation is a move in the right direction, save the “lock them up and throw away the key” crowd. Incarceration is extremely expensive, costing anywhere from $65,000 to $135,000 annually to house a single inmate. Rising inmate populations – perhaps the worst side effect of the bill – mean increased capital expenditures as well. Although neither the federal government nor the Manitoba government have revealed how much Bill C-10 will cost the provinces, the John Howard Society of Manitoba has calculated that it will cost Manitoba an additional $60 million a year in operating expenses, plus $30 million in capital expenses for an annual total of $90 million.
There are certainly better ways to address crime with $90 million dollars annually, and some groups are making these suggestions. According to the CCPA, it should be directed to the four areas where the prison population are most in need: employment; education; public housing; and addictions treatment and mental health supports.
Experience in the US has shown that these types of investments help reduce crime. Filling more prisons with more inmates will not.
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