Tough on crime, soft on the [Federal] budget

I have written here before about how the "law and order" agenda downloads most of its costs to the provinces.

The story below is fascinating because the Federal government is obfuscating wildly by suggesting the Provinces will save money be longer sentences leading to Federal incarceration.

The new sentencing requirements will dramatically increase the number of prisoners on remand and serving sentences of under two years -- all these will be a cost to the Provinces.

Federal prisoners will increase in number also. But that increase will be a small fraction of the Provincial increase. The Federal government is spending the Provinces money -- and now we see they don't intend to admit what they're doing.

Saying the Provinces should focus on "keeping communities safe" is disingenuous at best. The Federal government is ignoring the costs, especially those falling on the Provinces, and hiding that ignorance by cant.

Provinces want Ottawa to help pay for overcrowded jails

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009


OTTAWA - The provinces will ask the Harper government this week to help them pay for the federal law-and-order agenda, which they say will put extra strain on their overcrowded jails.
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The provinces run jails, which house offenders serving sentences of less than two years. The federal government is responsible for prisons, reserved for terms of two years or more.

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Mr. Van Loan told Canwest News Service he will not be taking his chequebook when he meets with his provincial counterparts -- and that they can expect to absorb any extra costs themselves, because they will benefit from several new and proposed laws that will put more offenders in prisons and jails.

"I think the real question is: Can we focus on keeping our communities safe and keeping the public safe? And I hope that will be the main focus of the provinces, as well," he said.

At least one federal initiative, which became law last week, will be "a huge benefit" financially to the provinces, because it will send more people to federal prisons, who are currently being detained in provincial facilities, awaiting the conclusion of their trials, Mr. Van Loan added.

The new law will eliminate a judicial practice, when sentencing offenders, of giving a two-for-one credit to compensate for time already spent in custody.
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Mr. Van Loan has refused to reveal the total tab for the federal law-and-order agenda, which would put more people in jails and prisons and keep them there longer.

Among other things, the government has proposed legislation that would impose minimum mandatory sentences for a variety of crimes, including financial fraud and drug trafficking.

Automatic incarceration takes away discretion for judges to impose lesser sentences as they see fit.

The government is proposing other measures that will also keep offenders imprisoned longer. A bill introduced this week would repeal accelerated parole, which permits an offender serving time for a non-violent crime to be released on day parole after serving one-sixth of his sentence.

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Mr. Van Loan said he expects that eliminating accelerated parole would cost the system about $60-million, but he has repeatedly declined to disclose the cost of any other measures, saying they are "cabinet confidences."

Mr. Van Loan's predecessor, Stockwell Day, stated publicly soon after the Conservatives came to power in 2006 that the government has set aside as much as $245-million over five years to pay for additional prison cells at the federal level.

For three years, provinces have been pushing for extra cash for their overcrowded jails, but they are expected to sharpen their lobbying this year, because several bills have become law, or are on the verging on passing.

James Morton
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Toronto, Ontario
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