Tories' ill-conceived ideas waste money; Mandatory minimum sentences will undermine confidence in courts
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Oct 27 2009 
By: Jim Hackler, author of Canadian Criminology: Strategies and Perspectives. He is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Alberta and an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria

The Harper government plans to build more prisons to house more inmates, in part as a result of legislation establishing more mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offences.

Experts in criminology have shown that mandatory minimum sentences do not reduce crime.

However, they do create injustice, undermine confidence in the courts and insult the intelligence of judges….

For several decades California and Texas built many prisons to accommodate an ever-increasing number of convictions. Each politician had to make louder noises than the last one to prove how tough they were on crime. Funds for education and child care, which provide a positive return for society, were cut. Funds for prisons, which provide a negative return, were increased.

The Stephen Harper government also wants to reduce judicial discretion over credit for pre-trial custody -- time spent in jail awaiting trial.

Most people understand that if you make a downpayment, it is usually deducted from the final bill. Since pre-trial custody is often more miserable than time spent in prison, it makes sense to permit judges to include such time as part of the sentence….

Why not spend taxpayers' money on things that produce positive results? Improving conditions for struggling pregnant mothers, quality day care and improved early childhood education all produce tremendous social dividends. Fifteen years later, such programs usually result in less delinquency, lower rates of drug use, less violence and more responsible sexual behaviour. Even the parents of children in these programs behave better….