Pubdate: Thu, 15 Aug 2013
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2013 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168

MESSAGE TO CANADA FROM THE DRUG WAR

The United States is curtailing the mandatory minimum sentences that 
helped make it by far the most incarcerating nation on Earth, and 
which have been a linchpin in the "war on drugs." Canada should pay 
heed to the lesson, as spelled out this week by Attorney-General Eric 
Holder: These sentences cost taxpayers far too much money, don't 
reduce recidivism, haven't won the drug war and are fundamentally 
unjust and destructive to communities.

The Conservative government has been in thrall to mandatory minimums, 
and the number of federal prisoners has been rising even as crime 
rates have been steadily falling. (Canada had 12,671 federal inmates 
in the year Stephen Harper became prime minister. As of last month, 
there were 15,276.) Some of the new minimums make sense in areas such 
as child pornography, where judges tended not to send offenders to 
jail and Parliament wished to reduce judges' discretion. But a 
mandatory minimum of six months for growing six marijuana plants is 
excessive and unnecessary, spurred on by a war-on-drugs mentality 
that is becoming more and more discredited south of the border.

To be fair, the mandatory minimums in the U.S. are far more severe 
than in Canada, especially when stacked together - as in the case of 
a man in his early 20s who received 55 years in prison for taking a 
gun with him on several marijuana deals and who had illegal guns at 
home. But the premise that jail is the primary answer to crime is the 
same one here as there. The Harper government even added car thieves 
to a list of offenders not eligible for house arrest.

Mr. Holder was not being especially brave or controversial when he 
told federal prosecutors not to trigger mandatory minimums by leaving 
out the amount of drugs from the charges filed, unless the accused 
was violent or belonged to a gang. An astonishing one in four people 
in the world's jails are behind bars in the U.S., though the U.S. has 
just 5 per cent of the world's people. Many states have moved to 
stress rehabilitation and reduce their reliance on jail as costs have 
spun out of control. There is bipartisan support for more sensible sentences.

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for 
no truly good law-enforcement reason," Mr. Holder said. His words 
contain a message for Ottawa.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom