Nov 2, 2023 – Prevention and Protection…
Toronto Star – Editorial Board (October 31, 2023)
Let’s start addressing the root cause of intimate partner violence – Two recent investigations into horrific accounts of intimate partner violence have called for a preventative approach to address the violence with a focus on the victims.
The Star is suggesting that there needs be prevention by education around the causes of the violence – toxic male abuse in families – and protection of those implicated through courts and police as well as social agencies. “Giving potential perpetrators of violence the skills to identify their trauma, and the tools and treatment to control their rage, while at the same time arming potential victims with the knowledge to avoid and escape toxic relationships is a good start to ending intimate partner violence… But let’s not wait until another angry man kills another vulnerable woman.” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/let-s-start-addressing-the-root-cause-of-intimate-partner-violence/article_24d633c8-d29d-5cf2-8c4e-8ecfd4506392.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a09&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=404CAADEF7EB839FC77B1B04F0C251E1&utm_campaign=top_202985
National Post – John Ivison
Ex-Harper adviser explains why ‘transformative justice’ needs to replace ‘tough on crime’ – ‘We should not build an entire justice system around extreme cases, because … we end up incarcerating people for far, far lesser things for far, far longer’
Benjamin Perrin is professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia and author of a new book called Indictment, the Criminal Justice System on Trial. Perrin was also a key adviser to the Harper government’s “tough-on-crime” approach and confesses to a change of mind. Perrin now “advocates a radically different plan for criminal justice that would divert resources from police forces and abolish the prison system as we know it…. He said he regrets his involvement in “tough on crime” legislation that was “borne disproportionately by Indigenous people, Black people, people who are poor, can’t afford a lawyer, people who have substance use issues, mental health issues. Our prisons are basically chock full of those folks”. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/benjamin-perrin-promotes-transformative-justice Related podcast: Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial https://indictment.simplecast.com/
A Worthwhile Connection! St. Leonard’s Society of Canada
There is lots of new energy and especially connections to what is happening in legal and justice circles in Canada through the St. Leonard’ Society Connections. Have a taste: https://stleonards.ca/ Newsletter – Community Connections https://stleonards.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b97396e14f00fba85839ccb8b&id=c59a33aaf5 Previous Newsletters: https://stleonards.ca/newsletters/
Criminology with Conviction (US) is a relatively new group, strongly academic and offering a host of resources in articles and book publications, at once identifying new and upcoming academics in the field of prisons, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated persons. An impressive October Newsletter at https://concrim.org/wp-content/uploads/Criminology-with-Conviction_Issue-3_2023-1.pdf
The Sentencing Project (US) – Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D. and Celeste Barry
Disparities in Crime and Policing – In the second installment of our One in Five series, we interrogate the large footprint of policing—particularly of Black Americans— as a failed response to racial disparities in serious crimes.
The article posits that policing is at odds with public safety among Black people. “The wide net that police cast across people of color is at odds with advancing safety because excessive police contact often fails to intercept serious criminal activity and diminishes the perceived legitimacy of law enforcement. Excessive policing also distracts policymakers from making investments to promote community safety without the harms of policing and incarceration. In addition, the large footprint of policing gets in the way of, as the National Academies of Sciences has called for, needed “durable investments in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods that match the persistent and longstanding nature of institutional disinvestment that such neighborhoods have endured over many years.” https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/one-in-five-disparities-in-crime-and-policing/
Delaware Public Media (US) – Quinn Kirkpatrick
A new tool is launched to help Delawareans navigate the expungement process
Delaware has arrived at a new way to deal with expungement of criminal records. “Clean Slate is about making second chances more accessible to people by creating automated pathways for record clearance for those who are eligible to have their records sealed in the state of Delaware,” said ACLU of Delaware Deputy Policy & Advocacy Director John Reynolds. The Clean Slate Law takes effect in August 2024 and blocks all eligible criminal records from public viewing. An estimated 290,000 people may find doors open again in housing, education and employment, though the record appears to exist beyond the public wall. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is seeking elimination of fees and financial penalties following the individuals. https://www.delawarepublic.org/politics-government/2023-10-29/a-new-tool-is-launched-to-help-delawareans-navigate-the-expungement-process Related article: Prison Policy Initiative (US) – Emmett Sanders No Release: Parole grant rates have plummeted in most states since the pandemic started – Among the 27 states we surveyed, only 7 saw an increase in parole approval rate, and almost every state held substantially fewer hearings than in years past. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2023/10/16/parole-grants/?s=03 (Original article Oct 16, updated Oct 18, 2023)
Montreal Blog on Basic Income: Canadians Could Soon Receive A Guaranteed Basic Income & You Could Be Eligible For Payments – The Senate is considering Bill S-233 right now. https://www.mtlblog.com/canada-guaranteed-basic-livable-income-eligible-payments
Amnesty International (Canada) –
Canada: Charges must be dropped against Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters – Ahead of the next round of trials slated to begin for land defenders from the Wet’suwet’en Nation and their supporters, Amnesty International is calling on the government of British Columbia to immediately drop all the charges.
Ana Piquer, Americas Director for Amnesty International, says that allowing the Coastal GasLink pipeline to continue without “the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s free, prior and informed consent disregards their right to decide what economic development takes place on their traditional territory, as set out in various international human rights instruments including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” As a result, she says: “Indigenous peoples who have engaged in peaceful actions to defend the land should not be criminalized solely for exercising their rights.” https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/canada-charges-against-wetsuweten-land-defenders/ (Backgrounders at the link as well.)
Office of the Correctional Investigator –
Correctional Investigator Releases Updated Findings on the State of Indigenous Corrections in Canada: National Indigenous Organizations Issue Statements of Support
The update to the mandate established by the original report and the two intervening updates notes a critical failure on the part of government and the criminal legal system in Canada. Correctional Investigator Dr. Ivan Zinger: “In the decade since Spirit Matters was released, it is astonishing that the rate of Indigenous over-representation has increased unabated. Canada’s correctional population is becoming disturbingly and unconscionably Indigenized. On nearly every measure of correctional performance – time spent behind bars before first release, placements in maximum-security institutions, involvement in use of force, recidivism and revocation rates, suicide and self-injury, placement in restrictive confinement units – the correctional system seems to perpetuate conditions of disadvantage and discrimination for Indigenous people.” Noteworthy: the increases among Indigenous women: now one half the entire women’s incarceration; overall for all Indigenous persons incarcerated: up from 23% to 32%. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/correctional-investigator-releases-updated-findings-on-the-state-of-indigenous-corrections-in-canada-national-indigenous-organizations-issue-statements-of-support-863510922.html Historic report: A Decade Later – Spirit matters – aboriginal people and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (Oct 22, 2012) https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2013/bec-oci/PS104-6-2013-eng.pdf Related article: Justice Canada – Scott Clark (2019) Overrepresentation of Indigenous People in the Canadian Criminal Justice System: Causes and Responses https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/oip-cjs/oip-cjs-en.pdf Related tweet from John Howard Society on Indigenous Incarceration: “Correctional Investigator Releases Updated Findings on the State of Indigenous Corrections in Canada: https://twitter.com/JohnHoward_Can/status/1720059071728882061 Related article CBC News – Brett Forester ‘A national travesty:’ Prison watchdog urges reform to tackle Indigenous over-incarceration Correctional investigator calls for transfer of power back to Indigenous people as special probe concludes https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/correctional-investigator-indigenous-special-report-2023-1.7015596?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar
Law Times – Law 360 – Jeffrey Hartmann
New bill seeks to confine dangerous offenders like Bernardo to maximum security
In the light of the controversies around the parole hearings for Paul Bernardo and its impact on his victims, and the introduction of Bill C-351, Hartmann reviews the dangerous offender laws. The new bill would require dangerous offenders to serve their entire sentence in a maximum security prison, a requirement that appears to confuse the designation’s punishment and security levels within the prison. Says Hartmann: “The declaration (dangerous offender) carries an indeterminate prison sentence, meaning there is no statutory release date and the person will remain in prison unless and until they can prove they are no longer an unmanageable public safety risk… Bill C-351 should be controversial because it uses risk management to intensify punishment. Security and punishment are distinct concepts: imprisonment at any security level is the punishment whereas the security level is the risk management strategy.” https://www.law360.ca/criminal/articles/52069 Related article: Blogger Russell Webster (UK) Our prisons are increasingly unsafe https://www.russellwebster.com/our-prisons-are-increasingly-unsafe/