howard sapers

By ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, Globe and Mail

Canada’s federal prisons are getting more crowded, more tense and more polarized between young and old inmates – and that’s contributing to an increase in violence and deaths behind bars, says Ottawa’s prison watchdog.

As new rules send more people to prison for longer periods of time, correctional investigator Howard Sapers argues, it’s putting a greater strain not only on Canada’s aging prison infrastructure but also on its inmates.

“The indicators that we look at in terms of getting a measure of institutional violence are all going in the same direction,” Mr. Sapers said. “And they’re all going up.”

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews argues that’s not so. Read more »

BY JEFF DAVIS, Vancouver Sun

Canada's prisons are becoming increasingly violent places due to overcrowding and gang activity, Canada's correctional investigator Howard Sapers said Wednesday.

"We're seeing more and more security incidents," Sapers told Postmedia News. "We're seeing more inmate injury, we're seeing more reported assaults of inmates on inmates, and inmates on staff.

"The conditions for violence are more present, and in part, that's got to do with more crowding," he said. Read more »