The Edmonton Institution, a maximum security prison located on the northeast corner of Edmonton, Alberta on Monday January 10, 2011. The prison is part of a number of institutions across Canada that received $59 million for more roooms.Ian Jackson/The Globe and Mail
Thousands of new federal prisons cells will be created at a cost of more than $600-million to house a population that is expanding as a result of the Conservative government's justice agenda.
But, unlike the early years of the Conservative mandate when the words "soft on crime" effectively stifled criticism of policies heavily weighted toward punishment, a looming era of fiscal restraint is forcing the government to defend large investments in the corrections system.
With costs predicted to increase in both the short and long term, and as the political opposition grows louder, it may be more difficult for the government to get its crime legislation passed by Parliament - or to convince the public that the expense is justified.
How many new cells will be created?
A total of $150-million in new spending was announced Monday to add 634 beds in Quebec, the Prairies and Ontario. When combined with previous announcements, $601-million will be spent to create 2,552 additional beds at existing institutions.
The Correctional Service of Canada eventually plans to create 2,700 beds at current facilities. But that is just a stopgap measure. The CSC is also working on a long-term plan to build new penitentiaries.
What does the opposition say?
Opposition MPs once met Conservative crime announcements with grudging acquiescence, but fiscal restraints have changed things.
Joe Comartin, the NDP justice critic, said there has been a turning point. "In a period of time when crime rates continue to drop and we are in bad economic times, the sentiment on the street is very negative toward this" expansion of the prison population, Mr. Comartin said.
Mark Holland, the Liberal public safety critic, agreed.
"The big change was when we started to see what the costs were," he said. "It was one thing to consider these measures when you thought the cost was a few million dollars. But when you start to talk about tens of billions of dollars in expenditure, we just can't sustain that. Nor is it logical when crime rates are falling."
What measures have and will increase prison populations?
The law that is most often cited as adding to prison population is the so-called Truth in Sentencing Act, which ended the practice of giving criminals double credit for the time served before sentencing.
Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, estimated that law will require an additional 4,000 prison cells, which cost an additional $5-billion a year to operate - not including initial construction costs. The government disputes those figures.
But there is a myriad of other government bills that, if passed, would also lead to more incarcerations. They include changes to the Criminal Code that would impose mandatory sentences, eliminate conditional sentencing for some types of offences, and end early parole.
One bill before the Senate that would impose harsher sentences for drug offences would alone put 5,000 to 7,000 additional people behind bars, most of them in provincial facilities, Mr. Comartin said.
Will increased prison populations lead to safer communities?
Conservative MP Laurie Hawn says increased sentences are just part of the process that will also include education and rehabilitation.
"But simply put, we believe if somebody commits a crime that warrants 10 years in prison according to a judge's ruling, then that means 10 years," Mr. Hawn said, "and I can tell you that that guy, or gal, is not going to be offending while they're away."
Criminologists, however, generally agree that incarceration is not the best way to make streets safe.
"It's going to cost you seven times as much to reduce crime through adding prison capacity as it would to invest in programs that teach effective parenting, programs that help kids get back into school," said Irvin Waller, a crime expert at the University of Ottawa.
Justin Piche, a PhD student at Carleton University in Ottawa who has done extensive research on prison populations, said: "Any studies that have been done in criminology or sociology have shown that increasing the use of imprisonment has a negligible impact on crime."