Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
It is bizarre that the Harper government seems to think more jails is an urgent policy objective, in spite of the clear decline in crime over the past few years.
Of course, it goes without saying that we need jails to deal with the rise in unreported crime.  |
Clearly the government's intent has been to to increases incarceration durations by increasing mandatory sentences while reducing credits.
To inject some factual data into this discussion. Even though there is a reduction in the crime rate:
There has also been a change in the incarceration rate:
Because both of these are *rates*, once you add an increase in the rate/100,000 citizens to the rate of population growth, you get an increase in the number of people in prisons. See:
http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/legal31a-eng.htm
The average number of prisoners in custody increased from 32,121 in 2004 to 37,200 in 2008 (an increase of 15.8%). So, while the crime rate may have fallen somewhat in that time (and significantly since the peak in 1991), the number of prisoners has increased and continues to increase as parliament continues to extend incarceration durations.
The "Harper government" plans on building prisons to house prisoners, not crime rates.