Number of intermittent sentences from Nova Scotia courtrooms decreasing
Numbers fell from 458 in 2008 to just over 300 in 2018
The number of intermittent sentences handed down in Nova Scotia courtrooms has been decreasing over the past decade, although there doesn’t seem to be any discernible reason why.
Numbers from the provincial justice department show that there were 458 intermittent sentences — those usually ordered to be served on weekends — imposed in 2008. As of Dec. 3, 2018 there were 306, which extrapolated to the end of the year would be 336. It would be the seventh time in the past decade the number dropped from one year to the next.
But whether the drop is the result of conscious decisions from judges, fewer requests from defence lawyers, more opposition from Crown attorneys or more use of conditional sentence orders is unknown.
“It’s not us that asks for them anyway,” Public Prosecution Service spokeswoman Chris Hansen said. “It’s defence that asks for them, and as far as we know there’s no strategy to reduce or eliminate them.” She said the numbers “are what they are, but it’s not of our doing.”
She said Crown attorneys aren’t opposing weekend sentences anymore than they would have in the past as there is no directive to do so. But defence lawyers do like them, she said.
Trevor McGuigan, a Halifax defence lawyer and vice-president of the Nova Scotia Criminal Lawyers Association, said fewer intermittent sentences wasn’t anything he had noticed, or heard being talked about, until being given the numbers.
“I don’t have a clear answer, I suppose it’s possible that defence counsel, for whatever reason, are asking for that type of sentence less, or maybe there’s another explanation.”
He said he’s not sure if the possibility of a conditional sentence order could be a factor.
“It’s hard to say. Maybe judges are imposing more straight time, or maybe it’s the conditional sentence orders, but I truly don’t have an explanation.”
He said any time that he has a client who is facing custody for a term of less than 90 days and there is a valid reason for an intermittent sentence, “I’m certainly going to be asking for that.”