Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Parliamentary Budget Officer Predicts Stiff Price Tag Because of Tougher Sentencing Laws

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page today released a report that estimates the additional costs of the federal government's Truth in Sentencing Act.

The Act amended the Criminal Code to limit the credit prisoners receive for any time spent in pre-sentencing custody ("credit for time served").

According to Page, the Act will mean that:
  • Inmates will spend more time in custody
  • Many convicts will have to be transferred to federal prisons
  • Many people who might have been directly released into community supervision will instead be sent to correctional facilities
And that will require building new federal and provincial prisons, and adding new services.

Page estimates that the annual costs of correctional services would more than double by 2015-16, from $4.4 billion to $9.5 billion. As well, he concludes that responsibility for funding the majority of those costs would shift from the federal government to the provinces.

Background:

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 4:53 pm

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