Truth in Sentencing Act to Cost Billions
Jun 24, 2010
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, who has had a difficult relationship with the Harper Conservative government to put it mildly, has just released a bombshell of a report that is making headlines across the nation.
In the report, Page puts a price on the government’s new tougher sentencing law (known as the Truth in Sentencing Act). According to Page’s estimates, the Act will cost Canadians an additional $5.1 billion by 2016.
This new law was passed in February and will end the discretionary ability of judges to consider the amount of time spent in pre-sentence detention when handing out a sentence – so-called “two for one” sentencing. But the limiting of the amount of credit judges can give prisoners has consequences. Primary among these are that inmates will spend an average of 159 days more in custody. And convicts whose credit for time served might have enabled them to remain in provincial custody will now have to be transferred over to the federal system. Lastly, those who might have received only conditional sentences will instead be sent to correctional facilities.
As a result, Page estimates that the number of inmates will almost double. This will require the construction of no less than 13 federal and provincial facilities. This alone will account for $1.8 billion of the new costs.
In 2009-2010, federal corrections cost Canadians some $4.4 billion. In contrast, according to the report, by 2016 they will cost a whopping $9.5 million annually.
What’s even more concerning is that this is only the federal portion of the cost that will result from the Act. As the report observes, there are about twice as many inmates in provincial jails than in federal ones. In Page’s words, “The provinces and the territories carry the weight of the correctional services system in Canada so the impact is going to be enormous on the provinces and territories.” It is believed that the cost of building new facilities in the provinces will be in the area of $6.2 billion.
Not surprisingly, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews disputes the costs outlined in the report, although he has acknowledged that the Act will cost significantly more than originally anticipated.
Page’s report can be accessed here.
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Even the average Joe can figure out that if you take away two for ones, the system will see an increase in inmates. Why is it that politicians don't think of these things before they change legislation? You can bet with all those increases to infrastructure, that the first place governments try to cut costs will be wages and benefits.
Jeff - -0001-11-30 00:00