Prison is so passé

By Jesse Brown - Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:36 PM - 0 Comments

There are so many things to dislike about Stephen Harper’s unnecessary, anachronistic, ruinously expensive, and mean-spirited omnibus crime bill that at least one of them has been largely overlooked: the bill will bring an end to the option of house arrest as a “conditional sentence” for a large range of offences. What that means is that many small time crooks, including grow-op gardeners, joy-riders and laptop thieves may find themselves behind bars, whereas they might have otherwise been constrained to their homes and places of work.

This is a shame, and not just because prison is, as Elizabeth May pointed out, “crime school” for minor hoodlums who might otherwise have found their way.

An end to house arrest will also mean that the Canadian justice system will be unable to make use of technologies that make it cheaper and more effective than ever to keep an eye on criminals without locking them up. I speak specifically of a new generation of GPS-enabled tracking devices.

House arrest was once a difficult thing to enforce- corrections officers would have to randomly and sporadically check in on convicts to make sure they were following the rules. Later, ankle monitors were introduced that could measure the distance between a wearer and a receiving unit placed in his or her home. The unit used radio signals to measure distance, and then used phone lines to relay the data to the authorities.

Today, GPS units on cellular networks allow for a much more sophisticated approach to house arrest. Convicts can move between their homes and workplaces  and other pre-ordained locations without triggering false alarms. Any small deviation goes recorded, and major deviations—like, say, a drug dealer approaching a schoolyard, can set off instant alarms. Additional devices can constantly monitor blood-alcohol levels.

If left completely unmonitored by actual humans, these devices would likely be circumvented. Cunning criminals will adapt and find ways to break their sentences without triggering alerts. But coupled with human oversight and random in-person check-ups, modern house arrest can be pretty difficult to outsmart.  If crimes are committed while a monitoring device is worn, alibis will have to match perfect digital records of a convicts’ whereabouts.

In the U.S., the ballooning prison population resulting from the war on drugs has pushed these technologies forward.  It would be nice if Canada could benefit from them without repeating American history.

Jesse Brown is the host of TVO.org’s Search Engine podcast. He is on Twitter @jessebrown

[Main article image: Tim Pearce/Flickr]

Police blotter

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 10:45 AM - 0 Comments

British Columbia: RCMP in North Vancouver arrested an 18-year-old man they found in the trunk of a car he allegedly broke into. After receiving reports of a smashed car window, the Mounties searched the area with a canine unit, but didn’t come up with anything. It wasn’t until police brought the car back to its owner that they opened the trunk and found the man hiding inside.

Manitoba: A 37-year-old man was arrested in Winnipeg after he allegedly conned six families out of a total of $5,000. Police say he posed as a furnace repairman, making cold calls to offer his services. In most instances he didn’t do any tinkering and simply took people’s money. But in one case, police say he installed a faulty valve that could have caused a carbon monoxide leak.

Ontario: A 24-year-old Toronto drug smuggler was banished from Windsor and surrounding Essex County after he was convicted of travelling with crack cocaine shoved into his rectum. A judge in Windsor concluded that her city doesn’t need any more drug mules. “Drugs, guns—we have it up to here,” she said.

Continue…

Kids in prison

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 21, 2011 at 12:18 PM - 0 Comments

Chris Cobb looks at one of the implications of the government’s crime legislation.

“It is badly drafted legislation,” says University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob. “The government has a role to make good laws and this isn’t good law. We should penalize according to the harm caused and I don’t think that the 18-year-old who gives his 17-year-old friend marijuana deserves a penitentiary sentence. How did kids sharing marijuana suddenly become organized criminals?”

To the list of those with concerns about the government’s direction, you can the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel, who see a looming crisis in the justice system.

With statistics

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 18, 2011 at 2:08 PM - 0 Comments

Rob Nicholson, July 2008. “We don’t govern by statistics in our government.”

Rob Nicholson, July 2009. “We don’t govern on the latest statistics.”

Stockwell Day, August 2010. “We’re very concerned . . . about the increase in the amount of unreported crimes that surveys clearly show are happening. People simply aren’t reporting the same way they used to.”

Rob Nicholson, September 2011. “We’re not governing on the basis of the latest statistics.”

Jeff Watson, this morning in the House. “Madam Speaker, with our tackling violent crime act, measures to strengthen parole, pardons and sentences for violent criminals, funds for more frontline police and to prevent at-risk youth from a life of crime, only this Conservative government is making our communities and streets safer. According to StatsCan’s just released 2010 crime severity index, Windsor–Essex is the safest region in Canada. Among the safest Canadian communities over 10,000 people, the town of LaSalle ranks 2nd, Tecumseh 4th, Kingsville 7th, Lakeshore 8th, Essex 12th. Windsor is the 7th safest big city of 32, and topping the list of 238 safest towns and cities is my hometown, Amherstburg. Thanks to our dedicated police, strong community involvement, our government’s investments to prevent crime and tough laws to crack down on criminals, Windsor–Essex is the safest region in Canada.”

Local officials in Windsor and Essex County have cited a number of possible explanations for the recent success there, including shifting demographics, community assistance, police involvement in schools and “luck.”

With feeling

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 12:30 PM - 0 Comments

Stephen Harper, June 6, 2008. It’s one thing that they, the criminals do not get it, but if you don’t mind me saying, another part of the problem for the past generation has been those, also a small part of our society, who are not criminals themselves, but who are always making excuses for them, and when they aren’t making excuses, they are denying that crime is even a problem: the ivory tower experts, the tut-tutting commentators, the out-of-touch politicians. “Your personal experiences and impressions are wrong,” they say. “Crime is not really a problem.” I don’t know how you say that. 

Rob Nicholson, Sept. 20, 2011. We’re not governing on the basis of the latest statistics. We’re governing on the basis of what’s right to better protect victims and law-abiding Canadians … Canadians want and deserve to feel safe in their homes and in their communities.

Kevin Sorenson, yesterday. At the committee the Minister of Public Safety had to explain to the NDP that there is a difference between feeling safe and actually being safe. It is irresponsible to continue pouring tax dollars into the long gun registry because it feels like the right thing to do or the safe thing to do. The NDP proved again that it is unfit to lead.

The real federalism problem with crime legislation

By Brendan van Niejenhuis - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 2:18 PM - 0 Comments

Pawel Dwulit/Canadian Press

In November 1983, Elijah Askov and three others were charged in connection with a plot to extort money from a man who ran a business supplying exotic dancers to Ontario strip clubs. Their case was plagued by delays from the start; nearly three years after the men’s arrest, and two years after their preliminary hearing, Askov and his co-defendants had not yet had their day in court. The Supreme Court of Canada was eventually asked to interpret the Charter guarantee to “be tried within a reasonable time.” And in its then-controversial Askov decision, the Court put a stop to the proceedings, giving birth to the modern and frequently employed practice of throwing out criminal charges based on unreasonable delay.

That Askov didn’t mean an end to unreasonable delays makes it hard for the provinces to mount a credible case against the federal government as it proposes sweeping changes to the Criminal Code. The Conservatives’ controversial omnibus crime bill has sparked a flurry of attacks for its substance, including its introduction of American-style mandatory-minimum sentencing. Quebec, Ontario and now Newfoundland have also introduced a new ground of opposition—the impact the federal government’s “tough new measures” will have on provincial balance sheets. It’s not clear, though, why voters should believe Ottawa is doing anything worse than adding to a problem the provinces had a hand in creating. Continue…

‘More rhetoric than reality’

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 10:39 AM - 0 Comments

Steve Sullivan, the former victims ombudsman, reviews the government’s crime legislation.

In the hundreds of pages of would-be law, I found only a few that deal with victims. Among those are several provisions that enhance the rights of victims in the corrections and parole system. These are important provisions, but were first introduced in 2005 by the Liberal government of Paul Martin.

The provisions to toughen sentencing for sex offenders will be welcomed by most. Few of us lose sleep over child-sex offenders spending more time in prison. But some of the reforms will toughen the sentences for low-risk offenders, with low rates of recividism. They won’t make children safer, but will cost five times more than what is being invested in Child Advocacy Centres that support abused children.

Don’t go building firewalls

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 7, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

The Prime Minister responds to the complaints of Ontario and Quebec about his government’s crime policies.

Look, it’s – there’s constitutional responsibilities of all governments to enforce laws and protect people, and I’ve seen the data. I think the people of Ontario and Quebec expect that their government will work with the federal government to make sure we have safe streets and safe communities. 

Ontario and Quebec have been joined by Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

What are we going to do with all these prisoners?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 4, 2011 at 12:35 PM - 0 Comments

While some worry that a change of wording may lead to more prisoner abuse, prison guards worry about overcrowding.

About 13 per cent of the male inmate population is “double-bunked” – housed in cells built for one person – and, under the new legislation, that will increase to 30 per cent (about 15,000 prisoners) before planned new construction is able to “provide relief,” added Sapers.

“Prison over-crowding undermines nearly everything that can be positive or useful about a correctional environment,” he said. “It is linked to increased levels of institutional violence, is a contributing factor to the spread of infectious disease and reduces already limited access to correctional programming and delays the safe and timely reintegration of offenders into the community.”

The Commons: A salute to cognitive dissonance

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 5:52 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. Shortly before the start of Question Period this afternoon, Conservative backbencher Patrick Brown rose to repeat his side’s line that the NDP is too “disunited” to govern. A moment later, Conservative backbencher Greg Rickford rose to lament that the NDP, in punishing two MPs who defied the party’s decision to whip a vote on the gun registry, was also too committed to enforcing unity.

Presumably this was Mr. Rickford’s way of protesting his own government’s decision to whip this week’s vote on asbestos exports. Hopefully his caucus leadership won’t too severely punish him for so bravely asserting the independence of individual MPs.

Immediately thereafter, the Speaker then called for oral questions and the official opposition sent up Joe Comartin, Mr. Comartin having apparently discovered an example of irony that he was eager to share with everyone. Continue…

Who pays the bill?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 10:03 AM - 0 Comments

Matching Quebec’s demand, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says the Harper government should pick up the tab for its crime legislation. Peter Russell considers the possibilities.

More likely, added Russell, provinces objecting to the cost or content of the legislation will ignore certain aspects of it — trafficking or possession of small amounts of marijuana, for example. “They will say to police who are out looking, ‘If you get a call give it a low priority’,” he said. “I don’t think they would actually say, ‘We’re not going to enforce the law.’ They would say to the provincial police, ‘Give people who grow pot a low priority’. They can certainly do that. You just don’t put the resources into it. It’s a matter of discretion.”

Politically, Canada is headed into a situation where the provinces are shaping up as the official opposition, added Russell. “They are taking over that role,” he said, “and have a constitutional right to do so.”

The registry and privacy

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 4:32 PM - 0 Comments

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews first claimed that long-gun registry data needed to be destroyed lest it fall into the NDP’s hands. Mr. Toews then argued that destroying the data was necessary as a matter of privacy. On the latter point, the privacy commissioner seems not entirely to agree.

Jennifer Stoddart said there’s nothing in the Privacy Act that prevents the federal government from sharing the data with provincial governments. Indeed, the Privacy Commissioner said the act actually permits disclosure of personal information, provided it’s done through a federal-provincial agreement for the purpose of administering or enforcing any law or carrying out a lawful investigation.

The war on crime is now a fight about federalism

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 2:34 PM - 0 Comments

Quebec’s justice minister takes a stand, a Bloc MP goes even further.

Quebec will not absorb the additional costs associated with the crime bill the Conservative federal government has promised to pass within 100 sitting days of Parliament, the province’s justice minister told a Commons committee Tuesday … While Fournier didn’t go quite so far, Bloc Quebecois MP Maria Mourani later suggested Quebec may simply choose not to enforce the legislation.

‘Canadians have not been given sufficient justification’

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:03 AM - 0 Comments

The privacy commissioner questions the Harper government’s push for “lawful access” legislation.

Despite repeated calls, no systematic case has yet been made to justify the extent of the new investigative capabilities that would have been created by the bills. Canadian authorities have yet to provide the public with evidence to suggest that CSIS or Canadian police cannot perform their duties under the current regime.   One-off cases and isolated incidents should not prove the rule, nor should exigent or emergency circumstances, for which there are already Criminal Code provisions. 

As well, if the concern of law enforcement agencies is that it is difficult to obtain warrants or judicial authorization in a timely way, these administrative challenges should be addressed by administrative solutions rather than by weakening long-standing legal principles that uphold  Canadians’ fundamental freedoms. 

The Commons: Bonfire of the registry

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 6:06 PM - 80 Comments

The Scene. At its essence, this debate over the long-gun registry was always a debate about paperwork. And so it is only right and fitting that it should end now with a fight over what should be done with that paper.

For the record, Article 29 of Bill C-19, an Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, states that “the Commissioner of Firearms shall ensure the destruction as soon as feasible of all records in the Canadian Firearms Registry related to the registration of firearms that are neither prohibited firearms nor restricted firearms and all copies of those records under the Commissioner’s control.” And variously this much is viewed as a waste of both information and money.

“Why,” Nycole Turmel asked this afternoon, “destroy two billion dollars of accumulated information, while the provinces and the police want to keep it?” Continue…

Standing up for victims, except this once

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 1:37 PM - 13 Comments

A note from the office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime.

Following the tabling of the Government’s proposed legislation to abolish the long gun registry, Sue O’Sullivan, Canada’s Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, today spoke out in support of the long-gun registry, urging the federal government to maintain the registry as a tool for preventing further victimization. “Our position on this matter is clear – Canada must do all it can to prevent further tragedies from happening, including using the tools we have to help keep communities safe, like the long-gun registry,” stated Ms. O’Sullivan.

According to 2002 RCMP data, long-guns are the most common type of firearm used in spousal homicides. Over the past decade, 71% of spousal homicides involved rifles and shotguns. “Though there are varying points of view, the majority of victims’ groups we have spoken with continue to support keeping long-gun registry,” explained Ms. O’Sullivan. “I have brought that voice forward to the Government by relaying those views directly to the Minister of Justice in our most recent meeting.”

The Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime helps victims to address their needs, promotes their interests and makes recommendations to the federal government on issues that negatively impact victims.

We’re killing each other less than we used to

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 12:09 PM - 5 Comments

The murder rate fell again in 2010

In 2010, police reported 554 homicides in Canada, 56 fewer than the year before. This decline follows a decade of relative stability. The homicide rate fell to 1.62 for every 100,000 population, its lowest level since 1966.

Firearms-related and gang-related homicides declined. The number of homicides by intimate partners (including spouses) was stable.

Leave no trace behind

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 3:54 PM - 128 Comments

In addition to eliminating the long-gun registry, the government’s new legislation will destroy all records related to the registry.

The government’s lead minister declared he wants to thwart the ability of any other party, such as the NDP, to recreate it as well. “We won’t have these records loose and capable then of creating a new long gun registry should they ever have the opportunity to do that,” ” said Public Safety Minister Vic Toews at a news conference at an Ottawa valley farm.

The country boy at the heart of four murder investigations

By Ken MacQueen - Monday, October 24, 2011 at 3:17 PM - 9 Comments

Cody Legebokoff

As an anonymous friend of suspected serial killer Cody Alan Legebokoff put it after the life of the country boy with the baby face  and the bruiser’s body began to unravel, “Cody has always been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this could have been one of those moments.” The post, on the website of Prince George, B.C. TV station CKPG, arrived after Legebokoff, then 20, was charged last November with the first-degree murder of 15-year-old free spirit Loren Donn Leslie of the northern B.C. resource community of Fraser Lake, B.C. The post expressed outrage and disbelief at the arrest of Legebokoff, “my two-stepping partner nights we would go out dancing.” Shock gave way to horror in the Prince George region when the RCMP announced Oct. 17 three more murder charges against Legebokoff in the deaths of Jill Stacy Stuchenko, Cynthia Frances Maas, both 35, and 23-year-old Natasha Lynn Montgomery.

RCMP Insp. Brendan Fitzpatrick, head of  the province’s major crime unit, refused to use the term serial killer in an interview with Maclean’s, saying that is for the courts and experts to determine. Still, he conceded B.C. attracts more than its share of multiple murders. They include the ugly legacy of child-killer Clifford Olson, who died last month, William Pickton, convicted of the murders of six vulnerable women and suspected in the killing of dozens more, and the 18 unsolved murders on the so-called Highway of Tears, the same Prince George corridor where these four women died. Fitzpatrick said forensic evidence and Legebokoff’s young age at the time of the 18 disappearances preclude any link. Continue…

The man who got passed over for the Supreme Court

By John Geddes - Monday, October 24, 2011 at 9:40 AM - 2 Comments

Adrian Wyld/CP

The selection of a new Supreme Court of Canada judge is a process so shrouded in secrecy that it’s an irresistible invitation for lawyers to speculate, gossip and argue about the best candidate. Yet after the Prime Minister announces an appointment, the legal community tends to close ranks, praise the new pick, and rarely mention those passed over. So it was this week, when Stephen Harper nominated Justice Michael Moldaver and Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, both of the Ontario Court of Appeal, to fill two Ontario vacancies on the top court.

But Don Stuart, a law professor at Queen’s University, after echoing the general consensus by admiring the nominees’ credentials, added an unusually blunt note of regret about a particular judge who didn’t get the nod—Justice David Doherty, also of the Ontario Court of Appeal. “Every person who is associated with criminal justice would know that David Doherty has written most of the leading judgements in most of the areas,” he told Maclean’s. “He’s our leading judge, really. It seems disappointing that he was not chosen.”

In fact, Doherty’s name has been on short lists of possible Supreme Court of Canada judges from Ontario going back to the 1990s, when then-prime minister Jean Chrétien was making the selections. He is far from the only eminent judge to be repeatedly passed over, but, at least on paper, he seemed an especially obvious contender this time. The two retiring judges being replaced are Justice Ian Binnie and Justice Louise Charron. Charron had been the court’s heavy lifter when it came to writing decisions on criminal law, which has lately made up about a third of its caseload.

Continue…

How to speak out of both sides of your mouth

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 8:25 AM - 11 Comments

Yesterday, during committee hearings, a Conservative MP termed the director of the John Howard Society an “advocate for criminals.”

Here is the Harper government providing a total of $604,217 to John Howard Society projects in Belleville, Brandon and Hamilton in 2006. Here is the Harper government providing a total of $200,000 to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto in 2008 so that it could “work with the John Howard Society to provide short-term supportive housing for participants involved in the Toronto Drug Treatment Court program.” Here is the Harper government providing a total of $507,610 to John Howard Society projects in Winnipeg and Ottawa in 2009. Here is the Harper government providing a total of $550,031 to John Howard Society projects in Alberta and New Brunswick in 2010.

Earlier this month, a Conservative MP criticized the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.

Here is the Harper government providing the Elizabeth Fry Society of Manitoba with $300,000 to help fight gangs in 2007. Here is the Harper government providing the Central Okanagan Elizabeth Fry Society with $4,490 through the Victims Fund as part of National Victims of Crime Awareness Week in 2008.

More conservative than Texas

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 40 Comments

Terry Milewski travels to Texas to compare crime policy here and there.

Adds Rep. Jerry Madden, a conservative Republican who heads the Texas House Committee on Corrections, “It’s a very expensive thing to build new prisons and, if you build ‘em, I guarantee you they will come. They’ll be filled, OK? Because people will send them there. ”But, if you don’t build ‘em, they will come up with very creative things to do that keep the community safe and yet still do the incarceration necessary.”

The cost of crime

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 17, 2011 at 3:38 PM - 8 Comments

Bruces Foster and Ravelli argue the government is pursuing crime from the wrong angle.

Canada’s Criminal Code is already thick with laws that have lengthy sentences, yet people commit crimes every day. What our laws do not address are the root causes of crime, and the under-reporting of these crimes. For example, there is nothing in Bill C-10 that will assist an abused spouse to leave their relationship, nothing to support the child who is abused by their parent, nothing to address alleged systemic racism in the criminal justice system, nothing to address why people choose to not report their victimization, nothing to deter white collar crime.

When we hear the government is “getting tough on crime”, we want to believe the result will help improve the overall safety and wellbeing of Canadians. However, if we were to review the research (much of which was funded by the Government of Canada), we would understand that a more sound approach would be to take the billions of dollars earmarked for this bill and spend it on prevention and support programs. Every dollar wasted on ineffective law-and-order measures is money that could have been spent addressing the social and economic forces that drive the desperate into lives of crime.

Dan Gardner notes one potential absurdity of the government’s omnibus crime bill. Continue…

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 14, 2011 at 6:35 PM - 18 Comments

Veterans Affairs is planning to trim its budget by $226 million.

Environment Canada has cancelled a $547,000 per year agreement with the Canadian Environmental Network.

And a subscription to a leading journal on criminology and justice policy has not been renewed.