Download the PDF Canada's current approach features an excessive reliance on incarceration and an insufficient emphasis on mental health, poverty, substance abuse, and the other underlying factors generating breakdowns in families and communities. … [Read more...]
Punishment doesn’t fix crime — or make us safe
August 4, 2014 by
There has certainly been plenty of crime and punishment talk in Canada recently. New laws put more people in prison longer, make it harder for them to get out, and make it more difficult for them to reintegrate into communities when they do. Public … [Read more...]
Crime and punishment: Time for a more reasoned debate
August 12, 2012 by
Danny Graham, criminal justice advisor in Canada and internationally, reports that comparable European democracies basing policy on "what works" are achieving much lower crime rates than Canada, with lower incarceration and huge fiscal savings. He … [Read more...]
‘Tough medicine’ won’t kill underlying social ills
August 12, 2012 by
Former Nova Scotia prosecutor Bob Lutes says the Canadian government and the Senate might as well tell the public that the earth is flat as suggest that a combination of longer sentences and more incarceration is the answer to public safety. He gives … [Read more...]
Chief Justice of Alaska calls for Smart Justice
April 17, 2012 by
Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti, Juneau, Alaska, asks the legislature to consider Smart Justice. The idea that jail time is the fitting response to every crime, or even to most crimes, has become an expensive and a possibly unnecessary proposition. … [Read more...]