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." 
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