Tough-on-crime agenda tough on parole board
Clemency requests, once quite rare, are on the rise, causing major delays
The Conservative government’s tough-on-crime laws have prompted staff at the Parole Board of Canada to warn the head of the agency of a “significant” and “unfunded increase in workload.”
A briefing note to parole board chair Harvey Cenaiko, obtained by the Citizen using access to information laws, says the agency has received an extraordinarily high number of clemency requests.
The briefing note attributes the swelling number to recent changes by the Conservative government to the Criminal Records Act, which have made some offenders ineligible for record suspensions or pardons.
Clemency is different from a record suspension, formerly known as a pardon, in that it is only given in “very exceptional” cases.
The agency used to receive fewer than 25 clemency requests per year. Yet in 2012, it received 50 such requests, and in 2013 it got 39. A board spokesperson said those numbers do not include requests that were refused upon receipt for “further assessment.” According to the parole board’s most recent performance report, it expects to have “90 clemency requests in progress in 2014-15.”
“The consequence to the PBC is significant and is an unfunded increase in workload,” the March 2014 briefing note says. “Further, it will also increase the volume of reviews being sent to the Minister for decision.”
The parole board receives the requests, then usually sends those meeting the necessary criteria to cabinet for a decision.
University of Ottawa criminology expert Véronique Strimelle says a generally overburdened parole board is a long-term risk to public safety. Too many files and too few employees could lead to a backlog because of which people are kept in prison longer.
“The longer a person stays in prison ... the more difficult it is for this person to integrate into society,” Strimelle says.
“It already happened, for instance, in the U.S., where they had the same kind of policies in terms of parole.”
Policies that prioritize incarceration over reintegration can lead to offenders committing more, potentially violent crimes once they are free, because they don’t have the tools to re-establish themselves, Strimelle says.
The Parole Board of Canada, an independent administrative tribunal that works alongside the national correctional service, is facing budget reductions, as are most government agencies. Yet the board is dealing with a consistently growing prisoner population, despite falling crime rates.
In the recent performance review, the PBC says “human resource strategies and streamlined processes have been adopted and better investigation strategies are being used” to “minimize the impact” of the increase in clemency requests.
Before recent changes to the Criminal Records Act, those with minor convictions could apply for pardons three years after their sentence ended. The wait period was five years for those convicted of more serious offences.
That changed in 2010, when the Conservatives extended the period to 10 years for those convicted of violent offences or certain sex crimes. They extended the wait time to five years for those convicted of minor sexual offences.
Strimelle says record suspensions help past offenders become contributing citizens by putting employment in reach and reducing stigmatization. In its performance report, the PBC said that more than 99 per cent of record suspensions remain in effect, meaning the vast majority of those who received them haven’t committed more crimes.
Strimelle says the recently “quadrupled” cost of a pardon request also put it out of reach to more offenders.
“Some have and will argue that the legislative change establishes evidence of substantial injustice and/or undue hardship,” which is one of six criteria the parole board uses to evaluate clemency requests, the briefing note reads. That injustice or hardship includes “suffering of a mental, physical and/or financial nature that is out of proportion to the nature and the seriousness of the offence.”
Another amendment enacted in March 2012 also made former sexual offenders and those with more than three indictable offences ineligible for a record suspension. Those people then also turn to clemency requests under the “consideration of justice, humanity and compassion” criteria, the briefing note says.
Strimelle says the fact that the legislation is causing an increase in last-resort clemency requests is “ironic” because historically, clemency was the only way to get out of prison. She says when lawmakers created the Parole Act of 1959, they were trying to prioritize prisoner rehabilitation and get away from “discretionary” types of offender reintegration measures, such as clemency.
A spokesperson for the parole board said via email that the agency has received 20 clemency requests so far this year, “which is closer to the annual averages seen prior to the legislative changes to the CRA.”
“This may in part be due to the board’s ongoing efforts to inform individuals who do not meet the eligibility criteria for a pardon/ record suspension ... that clemency is only granted in exceptional circumstances,” the spokesperson said. A notice on the board’s website warns potential applicants about the rarity of clemency being granted.