A prison cell shell game
If the federal government believes there are savings to be had in closing federal prisons and moving their populations to other institutions, fine. But such decisions should not be taken as proof that its crime policies will put no pressure on the correctional system.
The Kingston Penitentiary was built in 1835. If it’s inadequate and inappropriate, by all means close it. The same goes for Leclerc Institution, in Laval, Que., and the psychiatric Regional Treatment Centre in Kingston, also slated to close. It will be a big change for both regions, and the government should do its utmost to reduce the negative impact on the hundreds of workers who are now wondering about their futures. But there is nothing wrong in principle with trying to make the correctional system more modern, effective and efficient.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews used the announcement to repeat a talking point from the recent budget.
“You may have heard innuendo and attacks from my opposition critics accusing our government of plans to build all kinds of new prisons across the country,” he said. “This is simply not true.”
New prisons? Maybe not. But it doesn’t look like the overall number of prison cells is on the decline. The Correctional Service of Canada has been expanding prisons in an effort to add at least 2,400 new cells. The capacity of the three federal institutions slated to close in Kingston and Laval adds up to 1,045 inmates. Surely the point is not whether Canada is being forced to build new institutions, but whether it is being forced to add capacity. If the government chooses to add that capacity through expansions rather than new, smaller institutions, that doesn’t mean the federal inmate population is declining, nor the related costs.
As a matter of fact, the prison population is growing, just not as quickly as some predicted. In January, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, Howard Sapers, told Postmedia News, “If you look back over the last 24 months, the federal inmate population has grown by about 1,500. That is the equivalent of about three large, medium-security institutions.”
And some of the Conservatives’ justice reforms only passed recently, so it’s premature to suggest that fears about an expanding prison population have been disproven. It’s also important to remember that much of the pressure from Conservative reforms — such as mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes — will fall on the provinces, which have also been expanding their facilities.