crime
Canada's prisons not ready for inmate surge: Federal report
OTTAWA — Canadian penitentiaries are ill-equipped to deal with an anticipated surge in inmates, and existing problems of overcrowding and violence will only get worse under new sentencing laws, says the federal prison watchdog.
"We could see thousands of new admissions in federal penitentiaries over the next five years and I can tell you right now that the service does not have the capacity to deal with that. They do not have the space, they do not have the people, they do not have the programs," Howard Sapers warned Wednesday.
Prison expansions boom to meet flood of inmates
By: Janice Tibbetts, National PostOTTAWA — Prison expansion to make room for an expected inmate influx is moving ahead in Canada, with the federal government rolling out plans in recent days to spend $105-million on new cells at three prisons in Western Canada and one in Nova Scotia as part of a major building spree in the next few years.
The announcement of 600 new beds is the first stage of an expansive plan to build 2,700 new spots within three years to accommodate a projected 25% increase in prisoners being jailed as a result of Conservatives’ tough-on-crime legislation, which is expected to put more people in jail and keep them there longer.
Liberals blast prison spending on cells
By ROB TRIPP, THE WHIG-STANDARDThe federal Tories have politicized a prison space crisis in a bid to make emergency spending look like economic development, charges a Liberal MP.
Conservative MPs and ministers have begun criss-crossing the country, making campaign-style announcements at each one of 35 federal penitentiaries where new cells will be built to accommodate an exploding inmate population.
"The Conservatives don't miss an opportunity to try to turn anything into pork barrelling, and so what they're doing of course is to masquerade this outrageous and outlandish prison spending as somehow being a stimulus to the economy," Ajax-Pickering MP Mark Holland told the Whig-Standard Wednesday.
Poor and fat: The link between poverty and obesity in Canadian children
By: Brett Taylor, CBC NewsBrett Taylor is an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine, and holds a Masters in health informatics. He works as a researcher, lecturer and emergency pediatrician through Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.
Here is a finding that won't surprise you: childhood obesity in Canada has risen dramatically in the last generation.
Obesity is a particularly pernicious illness. Children who are obese have higher risks of being obese adults. Children with obesity-related illnesses such as Type 2 ("adult form") diabetes and high blood pressure are becoming increasingly common.
Stats show decrease in crime
By Heather Polischuk, The Leader-PostDespite a huge drop in overall crime within the past decade, the Regina Police Service still has plenty of work to do, Chief Troy Hagen told the Board of Police Commissioners Wednesday.
At Wednesday's meeting, the RPS presented its mid-year crime statistics, which studies year-over-year numbers, as well as trends within the past decade.
When looking at total crime, 2.3 per cent fewer crimes were reported when compared to mid-year 2009 -- dwarfed by the 35-per-cent reduction from the decade's record high in 2001. Number-wise, that's 10,690 crimes reported during the first half of 2010 versus 16,435 in 2001.
Get smart, not tough, on crime
LTE The Star: Alex LongThe Harper Conservatives are at it again with their costly conduct-no-research policy making. Rob Nicholson and Stephen Harper are spearheading a campaign to introduce mandatory minimum sentences for a litany of drug crimes.
After their first two attempts failed (Bill C-26 and Bill C-15), the Conservatives are hoping the newly stacked Senate will pass this bill unamended. The bill introduces mandatory minimum drug penalties for offenses like growing six marijuana plants or making a pot brownie and sharing it with friends. This comes at a time when recent polls suggest more than half of Canadians want marijuana legalized.
Two Alberta prisons get $50M to expand
A $50-million expansion to two federal prisons in southern Alberta will add nearly 300 inmate beds in time for tougher sentencing laws designed for criminals to serve more time before being paroled.
Bowden and Drumheller institutions will each increase capacity by constructing 96 medium security beds, and both will add 50 minimum security spots, the federal government announced Tuesday.
The funding comes months after the new Truth in Sentencing Act came into effect in February, ending the practice of judges handing offenders credit, on a two-for-one basis, to compensate for time spent in pre-sentence remand.
It is anticipated that the new spaces will be completed in 2012-13.
Drumheller, Bowden prisons to expand
CBC NewsTwo federal prisons in southern Alberta will receive dozens of new beds as part of a $50-million expansion plan.
The Drumheller and Bowden Institutions will each receive an additional 96 medium-security beds while another 50 beds will be added to each prison's minimum-security areas.
Crowfoot MP Kevin Sorenson made the announcement Tuesday in Drumheller on behalf of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
"The expansion of Drumheller and Bowden Institutions is the next step in helping ensure that criminals serve sentences that better reflect the severity of their crimes," Sorenson said in a news release.
Free message ignored plan for jails, sentences
By: Alan Coxwell Stirling, The IntelligencerWhat an extreme pleasure it was to receive yet another postage-free, feel-good message from our Hastings & Prince Edward Member of Parliament in my rural mailbox last week.
In his two-page note Daryl Kramp told me "Conservatives Standing Up for Canadian Consumers" is what his government has been doing up on Parliament Hill during these dog days of the summer of 2010.
Featured prominently was a smiling, 30- something couple heading back to their car in a mall parking lot with a couple of kids in an otherwise empty shopping cart.
Stockwell Day announces $15M, 96-bed prison expansion in Mission
Mission Institution will be the first federal prison in the Pacific Region to see expansion to take in an expected increase in inmates, following a change in federal law regarding time served prior to conviction.
On Monday morning, Okanagan-Coquihalla MP Stockwell Day made the official announcement at the federal prison, outlining the new $15-million, 96-bed unit to be built on the south side of the medium-security institution's perimeter. Day, the former Minister of Public Safety, was filling on behalf of the current minister, Vic Toews.
The increase is due to the federal Truth in Sentencing Act passed in February, which ends the two-for-one credit for time served by inmates while they are in remand and on trial in provincial custody.
