Critics say increasing prison capacity won't cut crime

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced Wednesday the Conservative government will spend more than $155 million to increase capacity at prisons in Ontario and Quebec, but critics say it's an ineffective strategy to curb crime.

Toews made the announcement in Kingston, Ont., at the Collins Bay Institution, one of the prisons getting an upgrade.

In Ontario, the government will spend $95.5 million to build two new 96-bed living units at Bath Institution, and one new 96-bed living unit each at Collins Bay Institution and Millhaven Institution.

Construction on those projects is expected to be completed in 2013-14.

In Quebec, the government will add nearly 200 beds at the Montee St-Francois and Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines facilities.

"Our government is proud to be on the right side of this issue -- the side of law-abiding citizens, the side of victims who want justice, and the side that understands the cost of a safe and secure society is an investment worth making," Toews said in a statement.

Toews's statement suggested that over the coming years, the Correctional Service of Canada will add more than 2,700 beds to men's and women's prisons across the country.

The Tories have pledged tougher sentences for violent crimes, which would keep inmates convicted of such offences in prison longer.

But critics quickly jumped on the announcement to expand the prisons, pointing to falling crime rates and charging that increasing prison space has proven to be ineffective at combating crime.

Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland accused the Tories of adopting a failed strategy in California, where tough anti-crime laws boosted the prison population but drove up recidivism rates to 70 per cent and nearly emptied state coffers.

"This government has already racked up the biggest deficit in Canadian history and now they're chasing after a Californian model, a failed Republican model that didn't work there," Holland told CTV's Power Play on Wednesday evening.

Justin Piche, a PhD candidate at Carleton University who studies federal prisons and government response to crime, said no academic evidence shows that increased reliance on incarceration enhances public safety.

Instead, she said the Correctional Service of Canada should increase the current 2 per cent of its budget it spends on programs that will allow prisoners to safely integrate into society.

"If this is about public safety, why are we not diverting money into programs as opposed to diverting money -- $330 million this year alone of the $2.6 billion budget -- into prison construction?" Piche said on Power Play.

Don Davies, public safety critic for the NDP, said given that 80 per cent of prisoners have a substance-abuse or mental-health problem, more money should be directed toward programs that address those issues.

Davies also criticized the government's recent decision to shut down the prison farm program, which taught prisoner's work and social skills.

"I think what Canadians want is when those offenders come out of those institutions, they want them not to re-offend," Davies said.

"And what this government has to do is start putting resources into programs that will help those offenders not re-offend. You can't just lock them up for longer and harder, that won't work. If you could punish your way to a safe society, the United States would be the safest place on Earth."

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro said the prison farm program was scrapped at the suggestion of the CSC and will be replaced with more vocational and literacy programs.

No boost in prison population, Toews says

While critics have suggested the government's prior tough-on-crime measures will significantly increase the number of Canadians serving time, Toews said Wednesday morning that is not the case so far.

In particular, the Tories' move to eliminate two-for-one, pre-sentence jail credit would seem to create a greater need for prison space.

Up until the introduction of the Truth in Sentencing Act this past February, accused persons often received double-credit -- and in some rare cases, triple-credit -- for the time they served in custody before they were convicted and sentenced. Toews said these conditions encouraged accused persons to delay their trials and sentencing as long as possible, to gather the most credit they could.

But the cancellation of that policy has since helped alleviate pressure on provincial remand centres by encouraging prisoners to move their cases forward in a more timely manner, Toews said.

"That incentive to remain in provincial remand is now gone and many of these prisoners are now, in fact, deciding to move on with their lives, either getting a speedy trial, or indeed pleading guilty and then moving into the federal system," he said.