Prison Ombudsman's report

There are three reasons to put people in prison.

- separate dangerous people from society

- rehabilitate criminals

- punish and thereby deter crime.

As a factual matter, as they exist today, prisons only succeed on reason one. Someone in prison is (generally) not committing crimes outside of jail (they may well be committing crimes inside jail but that's another story). Deterrence and rehabilitation seem to be absolute failures -- in fact, increasing the use of jail seems to increase crime and make re offending more common.

Indeed since "the federal government spends only 2% of its $2.2-billion prison budget on offender treatment programs" how can we expect rehabilitation to work.

Note also that the rate for aboriginal incarceration last year was nine times the national average.

In any event, today's report is illustrative.

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=2173837&s=Home

'Hardened' restrictive prisons aren't helping with rehabilitation: watchdog

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
Monday, Nov. 2, 2009



OTTAWA -- Canadian prisons are becoming "hardened" places where inmates are increasingly confined to their cells, prohibited from having visitors, restricted in their exercise, subjected to lockdowns, and less likely to secure temporary absences, says a report from Canada's prison watchdog.

"Many on-site visits this year confirmed that the physical conditions of confinement have been significantly hardened, especially at the high-security levels" wrote correctional investigator Howard Sapers in his annual report, released Monday.

"The problem, of course, is that a more punitive and restrictive environment is not one that is likely to promote rehabilitation of inmates."

The prison ombudsman's report also confirms that temporary absences, work releases and day parole grant rates are now at their lowest level this decade, and consequently, offenders are often freed at the end of the their term without the benefit of discretionary releases behind them.

...
Mr. Sapers, however, told Canwest News Service that he believes the prison system is becoming meaner to "brace itself for the storm" of an anticipated influx of inmates who will be captured by the Harper government's get-tough-on-crime laws that will put more people in prison for longer.

"The system seems to be preparing itself for more people," said Mr. Sapers, who predicted prison over-crowding and a proliferation of "double bunking."

...
The report also noted that there is a severe shortage of treatment programs for offenders, even though enrolment is often a condition of release and successful reintegration into society.

Some institutions have hundreds of names on their waiting lists and "there are even waiting lists for the waiting lists," Mr. Sapers said.

...
Mr. Sapers said that the federal government spends only 2% of its $2.2-billion prison budget on offender treatment programs -- which is half the amount that it spends on staff overtime.

At the same time, the Conservative government introduced a bill last spring that will tie parole to prisoner participation in programs.

For the last several years, Mr. Sapers has highlighted the problem of the prison system warehousing mentally ill offenders and this year's report said that it is getting worse without adequate treatment or workers to cope with people who often should be cared for by the health system rather than in penitentiaries.

"Mental health-care delivery and related services and supports in federal corrections are perhaps the most serious and pressing issues facing the service today," he wrote.
...
Mr. Sapers reported that the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal offenders continues to grow and that the rate for aboriginal incarceration last year was nine times the national average.
...
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