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Capstone-Paper-Mackenzie-Claggett The IRPP’s Canadian Priorities Agenda (CPA) project is the inspiration for the capstone seminar in the Master’s in Public Policy Program in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. The course is offered in an intensive format as a core requirement in the final semester of the two-year program. A Canadian Priorities Agenda: Policy Choices to Improve Economic and Social Well-Being (IRPP 2007), the volume that came out of the CPA project, is the basic text for the course. It is supplemented by readings chosen by the instructors and guest presenters. The students take the role of judges, and for their final assignment they write a 5,000-word paper modelled on the judges’ reports in the original project, in which they have to make the case for an agenda comprising five policies selected from options presented in the course. The instructor selects the best student paper, and since 2009 every year the IRPP has posted it on its website. With this paper by Mackenzie Claggett, we are marking the end of that tradition. A National Strategy for the Revitalization of the Canadian Corrections Sector Mackenzie Claggett Introduction In recognition of the continued existence of systemic racism, the Government of Canada developed an anti-racism plan titled Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019-2022.1 The plan was unveiled in 2019; it established a federal Anti-Racism Secretariat in 2020 that uses a “whole-of-government approach” to assess how existing policies and services impact racialized communities and develop initiatives that work to end racial disparities. To meaningfully actualize its goal of an antiracist future, the secretariat should identify the corrections system as an area in need of significant reform. From a racial justice standpoint, the status quo in the Canadian corrections sector is not sustainable. Indigenous and Black Canadians are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Indigenous people represent 26% of incarcerated people in Canada, despite being only 4.5% of the general population. Since 2010, the number of incarcerated Indigenous people has increased by 52.1%.2 In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Indigenous offenders make up 75% of new inmates.3 Black people in Canada are also overrepresented, as they constitute 9% of the incarcerated population although they are only 3.5% of the population.4 Ending the racial disparities in the corrections system is critical to the achievement of racial equity and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #30 specifically calls on the provinces and the federal government to end the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody by 2025.5 This recommendation reflects the reality that incarceration, as it currently exists, exacerbates inequities and often fails to successfully rehabilitate offenders. Even studies funded by the Canadian Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness have concluded that “prisons should not be used with the expectation of reducing criminal behaviour.”6 1 Canadian Heritage, Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019-2022, (2019): https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/anti-racism-engagement/anti-racism-strategy.html 2 Office of the Correctional Investigator, Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2018-2019, (June 2019): https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20182019-eng.aspx#s5 3 Statistics Canada, “Adult and youth correctional statistics in Canada, 2018-2019,” (2020): https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00016-eng.htm 4 Tom Cardoso, “Bias behind bias: A Globe investigation finds a prison system stacked against Black and Indigenous inmates,” The Globe and Mail, (2020): https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-investigation-racial-bias- in-canadian-prison-risk-assessments/ 5 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action,” (2015): http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf 6 Paul Goggin and Francis T. Cullen, “The Effects of Prison Sentences on Recidivism,” Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, (1999): https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/ffcts-prsn-sntncs- rcdvsm/index-en.aspx#:~:text=two%20viable%20recommendations.-, The criminal justice system creates two harms that pose significant barriers to racial equity and reconciliation. It perpetuates intergenerational disadvantage, and it promotes political disengagement. Studies in the United States and Europe have found that children with incarcerated fathers are twice as likely to be convicted of a crime themselves. Children with incarcerated parents also complete less education and are more likely to be unemployed.7 An institution that perpetuates these intergenerational harms against vulnerable populations ultimately promotes resentment and mistrust of state actors. Studies have demonstrated that contact with the criminal justice system is associated with lower participation in civic groups, a decreased likelihood to vote and higher mistrust of government.8 Another concern associated with the corrections sector is its rising cost. Between 2003 and 2013, expenditures on the federal corrections system grew by 70% when adjusted for inflation.9 This trend has continued, in fiscal year 2019-2020 the corrections system’s budget increased by 4% compared with five years ago.10 In recognition of these trends, and in light of its commitment to antiracist policy-making, the Government of Canada needs to reshape its corrections policy. This policy package outlines a proposal for the design of a national strategy for the revitalization of Canada’s corrections system. It consists of three policies that will work to end the overrepresentation of racialized people in custody, while also achieving net cost reductions. The first policy is a recommendation that the federal government amend the Criminal Code provisions that unduly restrict bail eligibility, with the goal of reducing the remand population in provincial detention centres. The second policy is a recommendation that the government increase funding for rehabilitative programming to promote parole eligibility. The third policy recommends the government invest more in facility operations at federal institutions to improve living conditions for inmates. Lowering the reliance on remand, expanding parole eligibility and improving living conditions would divert individuals away from incarceration, directly or indirectly, by lowering recidivism rates. This strategy is wide-ranging and addresses every stage of incarceration and every type of inmate in the system, regardless of the risk profile. Because racialized people are in greatest need of effective programming and are most impacted by institutional mismanagement, greater investments will have an especially positive effect on them and will help to undo long-standing inequities in the system. Prisons%20should%20not%20be%20used%20with%20the%20expectation%20of%20reducing,of%20prison%20coul d%20be%20enormous. 7 Bhuller et al., “Intergenerational Effects of Incarceration,” National Bureau of Economic Research, (2018): https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24227/w24227.pdf 8 Vesla M Weaver and Amy E Lerman, “Political Consequences of the Carceral State,” American Political Science Review 104, no. 4 (2010): 831. 9 Office of the Correctional Investigator, Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2014-2015, (June 2015): https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20142015-eng.aspx 10 Statistics Canada, 2020. Background Division of powers The Canadian criminal justice system is an area of jurisdiction shared between the provinces and the federal government. Under s. 91(27) of the Constitution Act, 1867, the federal government has control over the criminal law power, which in practice grants exclusive authority to establish the substantive criminal law and the rules of criminal procedure, such as bail requirements.11 Enforcement of criminal law, however, is divided between provincial attorney generals and the federal attorney general. S. 2 of the Criminal Code stipulates that provincial prosecutors oversee most Criminal Code offences. Federal prosecutors oversee offences from other federal statutes, such as the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and some Criminal Code offences, such as those related to terrorism.12 Correctional facilities are also an area of shared jurisdiction. S. 91(28) of the Constitution Act, 1867, grants the federal government control over penitentiaries, while s. 92(6) grants provincial governments control over reformatory prisons.13 The actualization of this division is found in s. 743.1(1) of the Criminal Code. Individuals sentenced to two or more years enter a federal institution; all others, including those awaiting trial or sentencing, are housed in provincial institutions.14 Jurisdictional scan The recommendations I present in this strategy are influenced by Norway’s correctional system, which has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world, at 20%.15 Its system is structured around optimizing rehabilitation. For example, it provides a wide range of educational programming, including vocational training and tertiary education. Evaluations of this programming have demonstrated its ability not only to improve employment prospects, but also to enhance self-esteem and positivity.16 The prison conditions are conducive to rehabilitation.
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