I'm the national director of the Elizabeth Fry Societies. I'm pleased to be here along with my vice-president Lucy Joncas, who is also chair of our social action committee.
I want to start by apologizing for not being here earlier. We hadn't anticipated that the Minister of Public Safety would table the report of the correctional investigators. I had to attend to some business there, and I hope to be able to speak to a couple of issues that have come up around that particular report today that directly interact and intersect with some of the issues you are concerned with today.
I also want to start by acknowledging the Algonquin people, on whose territory we have the privilege of meeting. Whenever we talk about criminal justice issues, particularly issues that are likely to increase the imprisonment of people, we know that disproportionately they will be aboriginal people, as has again been borne out by the report of the correctional investigator just today.
You have heard from some excellent people who preceded us. I wish to merely summarize, and I apologize that our brief apparently has not been finished being translated. I was out of town, and it was delayed getting to the clerk. My apologies for that. You will have it in both official languages, hopefully within the next couple of days.
In summary, the issues that we see that Bill C-9 raises have already been covered: the fact that it's not the least restrictive measures that should be available, as has been pointed out; that there is a lack of community resources, period; and that to impose this kind of measure will likely only further mean a draw and drain will be placed on those existing community resources, both in terms of trying to provide alternatives, as Julian Roberts has just pointed out, and also in terms of when those individuals are released from prison—the drain on resources to try to reintegrate them after their life in the community has been interrupted.
We also suggest that when it comes to some of the principles of sentencing—denunciation, proportionality, and deterrence—we believe there is a reason that the judge, and in some cases juries, are made the triers of fact. It's because they have an opportunity to hear and balance all of the evidence that is available in a case. We think this discretion, the ability of the courts to hear all of the information, is not something that should be interfered with lightly, and in this case we feel it would not be the most effective way to proceed.
In addition, in terms of deterrence, there is sufficient evidence—most recently, admittedly, looking at the Young Offenders Act—that the Supreme Court of Canada talked about as being purposeful that deterrence was not included in the act. Part of the reason for that is linked to some of what we know and has already been mentioned by some of the members of the defence bar here: that in fact most people don't think of the penalty. Many people don't even know what the penalty is prior to their involvement in an offence. To argue that deterrence is a principle of sentencing that's applicable, that Bill C-9 reinforces.... Already there is some controversy about the application. Clearly Bill C-9 would only exacerbate it.
In terms of rehabilitation, reparation, and restoration, we've already had cases such as the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in the Gladue case, in Proulx, and in others where we've seen again that in fact those principles of sentencing were not put lightly into the Criminal Code, and that we should be looking at utilizing them and not merely abandoning them in favour of something like the suggested repeal of conditional sentences for so many of the offences, as has been already outlined.
One of the things we're very concerned about related to this bill is the human and fiscal costs the bill will create. It's already been acknowledged through the report that has already been alluded to done by Mr. MacKay that this bill could result in another 5,500 people per year being jailed.
Provincial and federal corrections across the country estimate the cost of imprisoning each person at anywhere between $50,000 and $250,000 per year, depending on the level of incarceration, the nature, the placement, how far they are from other communities. We're talking at the very least about a fiscal increase of between $275 million at the most conservative and $1.3 billion as the increased costs of incarceration that this bill could result in, based on the figures produced in Mr. MacKay's report.
In addition, to talk about women in particular, we know that women are the fastest-growing prison population worldwide.
We just heard across the street that more than 80% of Corrections' budget is used to jail people, and anywhere between 10% and 20%, depending on the jurisdiction, is used for community corrections. Clearly that is not a mechanism that assists people to integrate into the community, and it is therefore not a mechanism that increases public safety.
The reason why women are the fastest-growing prison population has nothing to do with any increased risk they pose. Almost everybody will recognize, and all the research shows, that there isn't a crime wave of women internationally or in Canada, yet they are the fastest-growing prison population.
The correctional investigator's report just released today shows that over the past several years there's been a 75% increase in the number of aboriginal women jailed. Canada is now jailing aboriginal people at the rate of 1,024 people per 100,000, which is between seven and eight times the rate at which we jail other people in the country. Women are disproportionately being jailed as well. The estimate is that in another five to ten years, about 25% of all jail populations will be aboriginal. We're well beyond that already when we talk about aboriginal women in the federal system; they already comprise one-third of the jail population.
So we're talking about a mechanism that will not only deplete resources in the correction system itself, but will also lead to a further depletion of resources in the community. Contrary to Minister Day's assertion today that there is no empirical evidence that the system already discriminates against aboriginal peoples--and I would say women as well--there is abundant evidence when you look at those sorts of figures.
It seems that the only evidence being put forth in favour of this bill is based on American evidence. Everywhere I could find...every academic, every person working in the system who I could speak to in the United States, has reaffirmed that although the U.S. jails from six to seven or more times the rate we jail in Canada, their crime rate has not been significantly reduced, and they still have five times the crime rate we have in Canada.
We're concerned that media accounts of exceptional cases seem to have driven this initiative, yet we know that those media accounts rarely describe the cases involved adequately. We also know from the research of Mr. Roberts, Tony Doob, Cheryl Webster, and others, that when you provide Canadians--the average person in the community, the average person in the street--with more information about the particular cases, very few of them differ in their decision-making from the judges. That's the case for some of the more serious offences and for some of the less serious offences.
We encourage you to not pass this, in this form or in an amended form. It's very clear that what's needed is increased investment of resources in the community to help prevent individuals from being there and to assist people to integrate once they're released from prison.
I'd like to call on Lucie to add a few comments.