As members of the committee are aware, my office's 2009-10 annual report was tabled in Parliament about two weeks ago. My report documents an environment inside our federal penitentiaries that is increasingly harsh, tense, crowded, volatile, and stressed.
As I reported, current conditions inside our federal penitentiaries are challenging the ability of the Correctional Service of Canada to provide safe and effective custody. Access to programs addressing factors contributing to crime, in particular substance abuse, family violence, histories of abuse, and trauma remain an issue when only approximately 2% of an annual $2.5 billion expenditure is spent for this purpose.
Effectively increasing the incarceration rate by curtailing or eliminating parole eligibility needs to be carefully considered in the context of the capacity, intervention, and programming challenges already facing Canada’s correctional authority.
The faint hope clause is tied to the abolishment of capital punishment in 1976. It was intended to motivate offenders serving long-term sentences. It does not guarantee that the offender will be granted parole. The concept of faint hope expressly recognizes the capacity of an individual offender to change, to be rehabilitated, and to become responsible and law-abiding, even after committing a most serious offence.
Bill S-6 will likely increase the period of time long-term offenders will wait before receiving correctional programming. Extended periods of idle time will most definitely impact on motivation levels and the ability of long-term offenders to participate in programs, especially as they age in custody and their health inevitably deteriorates.
Holding more inmates for longer periods of time and then releasing them without the benefit of effective intervention is not only expensive, it is ineffective.
To conclude, it seems to me that we need to consider proposed criminal justice legislation in the context of striking an appropriate balance between measures designed to incapacitate and deter against the equally important principles of reintegration and rehabilitation.
I look forward to your questions.
Thank you.