Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The problem with prisons

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 10:29am - 33 Comments

John Ivison refers to the writings of Newt Gingrich to find fault with the government’s prison expansion.

The “hanging’s too good for them” brigade should read an eye-opening piece from last Friday’s Washington Post, co-written by Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, and Pat Nolan, former Republican leader of the California State Assembly. They pointed out that the U.S. currently spends US$68-billion on corrections — 300% more than 25 years ago — and the prison population is growing at 13 times faster than the general population.

“Our prisons might be worth the current cost if the recidivism rate were not so high but, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, half of the prisoners released this year are expected to be back in prison within three years. If your prison policies are failing half the time, and we know there are more humane, effective alternatives, it is time to fundamentally rethink how we treat and rehabilitate our prisoners,” they concluded.

Conrad Black is equally unimpressed.

Tags: Conrad Black, Crime, justice, Newt Gingrich, prison

More by Aaron Wherry

Leo

Impossible to compare U.S. prisons to Canadian. We do not have "private, for profit". California was releasing over 30,000 prisoners last year because they ran out of money. Can't remember this ever being done in Canada.

Fido

Isn't that on the Conservative Party's agenda? Just wait.

Leo

The only places you read about this "agenda" are 'cannibisculture', 'straight', 'tyhee', etc. if you get my drift.

gottabesaid

Have the Conservatives ruled out prison privatization? I'm not aware that they have, but I certainly stand to be corrected if anybody knows the answer to this question.

Leo

"Canada's only privately run jail, in Penetanguishene, Ont., will return to public control on Saturday after a performance evaluation found a public jail of equivalent size had better security, prisoner health care, and reduced repeat offender rates."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2006/11/10…

gottabesaid

Thanks for the link — it certainly shows that this government shouldn't privatize prisons — but that doesn't answer my question about this government's position on private prisons.

http://zinelibrary.info/superprisons-canada EPIC

The same people behind the private prison at Penetanguishene are now in Harper's corner overseeing this "transformation"… including and especially, Rob Sampson. See: http://zinelibrary.info/superprisons-canada

Al O'Wishes

That's not really a statement from the Conservatives ruling out privatization. As a matter of fact, it seems to be more of an example of Ontario Liberals bringing an end to Harrisite Conservative experimenting with private jails.

Your dismissal of the notion that the CPC is for private jails would seem mistaken at best. The Reform party was all about privatizing everything, and Harris Conservatives even tried it. The current Conservative Party is largely made up of former Reform and Harris Conservatives, so it is reasonable to assume that they have not changed their minds on it.

http://zinelibrary.info/superprisons-canada EPIC

Absolutely correct. Rob Sampson, Harris' minister of privatization who oversaw the private jail project at Penetanguishene, chaired the Review Panel struck by Stockwell Day which has written the Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety, the blueprint for this expansion effort. While not outright endorsing privately-managed federal prisons, the report recommends a revamping of the tendering process to include more private sector involvement in design, finance, construction and management of the prison. Given Rob Sampson's history and the allusions in the report (they cannot come out and say they endorse privatization at this point, that would be political suicide) it's safe to say we are on track to a backdoor privatization of CSC in the long term.

More info: http://zinelibrary.info/superprisons-canada
Leo

Will be adding "zinelibrary" to previously indicated publications with scary rumours.
Leo

But that is the point, it was tried and did not work. A major player has been the guard's unions. Believe me, I would be the first to protest if this were proposed. Wasn't a big fan of closing the prison farms either.

Dale D.

Yeah, the system went bankrupt because of idiotic mandatory minimum laws.

This is where Canada is heading if the CPC manages to pass more unfunded crime legislation costing billions.

madeyoulook

Fight a losing drug war, and send the often dangerously mentally ill (usually most dangerous to themselves, occasionally dangerous to others) out into the world without decent support but with the do-gooder label of de-institutionalization. Sure fire ways to have a growing prisoner population with miserable recidivism rates. Which, it seems, is exactly what we are doing.

The problem isn't the prisons. The problem is that we've decided to (actively and-or passively) criminalize mental illness & addiction.

Jenn_

Please consider my one-thumb up to be three or four.

TimesArrow

Theoden: Why should I welcome you, Gandalf Stormcrow? Wormtongue: A just question, my liege. Late is the hour in which this conjurer chooses to appear. …

Gringrich – wormtongue or stormcrow…mmm.
TimesArrow

http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/pblct/forum/e123/e1…

An interesting read this. Taxpayer funded too. It's a pity no-one in this paticular govt can be arsed to read it.

Anyone know how to put one or two of these crime graphs on this thread, they go some way to demythologizing some of the nonsense around perception of crime.

gottabesaid

Great link. A few excerpts that I think are helpful to this debate:

"Why is fear of crime so at odds with actual crime statistics? David Foot suggests a demographic explanation: the crime rate is down for the simple reason that we have fewer people in the crime-prone youth age-groups, and conversely, the perception of crime is rising in this aging population because older people generally are more fearful of crime."

"The “aging” of the baby boomers should contribute to a decline in crime and imprisonment over the next decade. Whether this lowering of risk continues to lead to lower crime and incarceration rates depends, however, on other factors as well. One key factor is how well we manage the fear of crime itself. If we react to fears of crime by pursuing harsher criminal justice policies, we will likely not contribute to the long-term reduction of risk. American politicians have often found it in their self-interest to use fear of crime as a strategy to win elections, by promising to wage war on crime. It is ironic that in the United States, as in Canada, crime rates have been declining since 1991. However, by waging war on crime they have managed to double their prison population without making the United States a noticeably safer society than Canada. We would do much to advance the public interest if we can better manage the fear of crime than our American neighbours."

TimesArrow

Crime has gone up and down with demographic trends – who knew?

Leo

Excellent find – still have my signed copy of Foote's book. He has been very accurate except for real estate in Canada, but we are a couple of years behind the U.S. as boomers so who knows.

Tried posting a link to the study "A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety", but my posts are getting hung up again. The biggest critic is the former head of the John Howard Society. So we have one extreme to another, the hug-a-thugs and the jail-and-throw-away-the-key. JMHO but we are probably somewhere in between.

Does anyone know any prison guards?

David_Nicholson

In order to make the growth look extra extra large they have not accounted for inflation, when in fact if you account for inflation the growth in cost is only 100% over 25 years ago… which is only extra large.
bergkamp

Ivison's column wasn't one of his better ones, that's for sure.

Like Leo writes above, it is not particularly helpful to compare Canada with US because of how different our penal codes are. We have not had a war on drugs in Canada like they have in US, as one example, where we locked up lots of people who bought small amounts of drugs. I bet American costs would go down significantly if they stopped jailing pot heads or giving life sentences to two women for stealing $11.

Secondly, government costs might go down if we stop jailing people but what about other costs to society. Ivison writes about high recidivism rates – what is cost to innocent bystanders, victims and society if we leave criminals on the streets?
hollinm

We keep saying crime has reduced. However, if we consider the statistics back to the 60's there is no question that crime has increased. However, the love a thug crowd uses year over year analysis to bolster their case. We need a longer time horizon.
The fact is Canadians believe that the justice system in Canada favours the criminal versus the victim. There is lots of evidence to support that claim. So the media and the love a thug crowd can complain about needing additional prison cells but Canadians are on the side of the government on this one.
Building more basketball courts is not the answer to crime. It is called personal responsibility. You do the crime you do the time. There is no evidence the government is after petty criminals. It is serious crime, committed by perpetual offenders that are in their sights.
Emily

Again we have a problem dealing with mental illness, and lack of education, and many of them end up in prison.

We consider this a solution, in spite of the fact it hasn't worked in all of history.
gottabesaid

There's a difference between perception and reality. If the Conservatives can show that this strategy will work — with real, not anecdotal evidence — I'm all for it. I'm no thug-hugger. Up to this point, however, the strategy looks as though it's a lot of money spent with little or nothing in return other than the Conservatives' ability to say "Hey look! We're getting tough on crime!"

If we're hard up for money (and our deficit would suggest that we are), I'm not sure this is the wisest of investments.
LdKitchenersOwn

So, the crime rate is going down and has been for over a decade, but we still need to build more prisons because crime is higher than it was in the 60s?

Have we not built/renovated any prisons since the 1960s?!?!
tedbetts

It isn't just year over year but decade over decade statistics.

There was a time of rapid and broad economic expansion in the post-war period when crime statistics was lower than it is now. But with the downturn in the economies of the West in the late 1960s, crime soared. It has slowly and steadily and consistently been going down since the 1980s. It has also been higher before the 1960s when punishment was even harsher. Those are facts. Sorry if they have an anti-conservative bias.

Building more basketball courts is not "the" answer and no one on earth suggests it is. Education and training are also not "the" answer. Parole and halfway houses are not "the" answer. Nor is "personal responsibility" "the" answer (and it utterly fails in logic to call for more personal responsibility but build more prisons when the crime rate is going down). But it's all part of it. Complex problems require complex solutions. Locking 'em up and throwing away the key does not work. We know that.
tedbetts

And by the way, there is evidence that the government is after petty criminals. When your big push and big accomplishments are increasing minimum sentences for pot and speed racing and theft, you are not exactly hunting big game. Petty little changes to catch petty criminals by a petty little government.
canon70

Where exactly did those criminals come from that you are worrying about being on the street? Were they born criminals? How about spending some money to prevent crime? If you are not spending money on rehabilitation, you risk criminals coming out of jail as better criminals, and remember the vast majority come out whether or not they have changed. I object to my tax dollars being wasted on warehousing people to have them return to the streets unchanged.
tedbetts

Actually, in that way, the Conservative plan is quite parallel to what the US is doing (though on a smaller scale). Harper wants to jail more people, for longer, for smaller crimes. Mandatory minimums for pot for example. It's not a full blown and stupid "war on drugs" but whatever you call it more people are going to go to jail for longer periods of time because of Harper and his "lock 'em up" cohorts.

And this in a time when recidivism is on the decline as is overall crime, especially violent crime.
Jenn_

Four marijuana plants.

What cost when these extra-well trained criminals, now with connections! get out of their extended stay we paid for?
TimesArrow

A visit to any of Geddes' pieces on this subject is considerably more rewarding than reading a holimn " i speak for all Canadians" diatribe. Geddes has repeated asked for supporting evidence – so far nada!
YYZ

I understand internet usage has also skyrocketed since the 1960s.
Mike T.

It's mostly unreported though.