Pubdate: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN) Copyright: 2012 The Leader-Post Ltd. Contact: http://www.leaderpost.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html Website: http://www.leaderpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361 Author: Vanessa Brown C-10 THREATENS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE Curtailing judges' power to hand out community sentences in certain circumstances places restorative justice under threat, Saskatchewan's ombudsman warns. The federal omnibus crime bill, passed last month in the House of Commons, includes legislation that limits conditional sentencing and introduces new mandatory minimum sentences, among a host of other provisions. Both "considerably threaten" the effectiveness of rehabilitative programs, said ombudsman Kevin Fenwick during a discussion on Bill C-10 held Saturday at Holy Rosary Community School. Representatives from advocate groups that work with current and former inmates also spoke at the conference. "With respect to the restrictions on conditional sentences in particular, I think it's a direct attack on some of the provisions of restorative justice," Fenwick said. Restorative justice programs focus on the root causes of criminal behaviour with the goal of healing the offender, the victim and the communities in which they live. Examples include victim/offender mediation programs and community service options that proponents believe help the offenders take responsibility for their actions. According to a Postmedia News article published last year, Saskatchewan leads the country in restorative justice referrals with 6,000 per year. As a result of mandatory minimums, overcrowding will cause a provincial problem, Fenwick said. When the new mandatory minimum sentencing legislation comes into effect, the majority of those who would have previously been considered for conditional sentences will be sent to Saskatchewan's already-crowded provincial correctional centres, he added. Saskatchewan's four provincial jails have already surpassed capacity by about 700 people in total. Possibly even more troubling from a restorative justice standpoint, Fenwick argued, is that classrooms and gymnasiums have been converted to dormitories to handle the influx. "The jail's job should be to restore them, to rehabilitate them so that when they get out of jail, they can be productive members of society," he said. He does credit the province for moving ahead with an expansion project at Pine Grove women's facility in Prince Albert, as well as announcing the construction of a 90-bed remand centre in Saskatoon. On the federal side, sentencing certain drug offenders to serve time in the province's penitentiaries is a dangerous move, said Rik McWhinney, who served 34 years for two life sentences. He spoke during Saturday's conference, representing the ex-inmates' advocacy group Friends on the Outside. Exploiting and inducting into gangs impressionable first-time offenders is prevalent in federal jails, he said. "The gangs get a hold of them and they harden them," McWhinney said. "By the time they're ready to be released, they come back out into society committed gang members. They're hardened, they're toughened up and they're a little bitter." The panel on Saturday argued that the pendulum has swung too far in favour of the legal system during a period of dropping crime rates. Introducing more mandatory minimums and limiting community sentences ignores the nuances of each case, Fenwick said. "Virtually everything in C-10 is some sort of a hammer... It's a more aggressive approach, and not all of the problems with respect to crime are nails," he explained. "Some of them need a scalpel. Some of them need more resources. There are all kinds of issues that we have to deal with, and one size doesn't fit all." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D