Module 12 and 15: Sentencing as Process, Contemporary Canadian Correctional Institutions

Question 1

Possible Dispositions by the Court

Answer 1

1. Not Guilty; mental illness, not enough evidence
2. Suspended Sentence
   - convicted offender serves time in the community, under the supervision of a probation officer, they do community service throughout their sentence, usually given to first time offenders and summary conviction offenses
   - Fine; usually given to the rich, while the poor go to jail, in Ontario 50% of inmates in provincial institutions are there because they couldn’t pay a fine
3. Probation and Restitution
   - offenders are given the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves under the supervision by a probation officer and the court
   - if conditions are not observed the offender can be convicted for willful breaking of probation and given jail time for initial crime
   - maximum length of probation is 3 years
   - probation officers provide offenders with counselling, practical assistance, supervision, they must observe if the client is complying with court established conditions
4. Penal Institution (Imprisonment)
   - Provincial Institution OR Federal Institution

Question 2

What is the most widely used alternative to imprisonment in Canada?

Answer 2

• probation

- 40-45% of criminal offenders are put on probation

Question 3

What is the main approach to corrections in Canada?

Answer 3

-the increased use of community corrections (suspended sentences, probation, intermediate sentences (between probation and imprisonment, house arrest

Question 4

Common probation conditions include:

Answer 4

• not to associate with other criminals
• to remain in certain areas of the city
• report to probation officer once every week or twice a month
• staying out of trouble
• sometimes restitution to the victim ($), restitution orders are included in 15% of all probation orders, about 5 million worth

Question 5

Problems of probation:

Answer 5

• some of the rules can be difficult to enforce (ex. avoiding association with deviant peers, not to take drugs/alcohol)
• probation conditions may violate constitutional rights (ex. free speech and association)
• some probation conditions are overly moralistic (not to drink, associate with the opposite sex)
• there is little evidence that probation helps to rehabilitate the offenders but it is less costly to society

Question 6

Treatment and Rehabilitation Programs Available in Penal Institutions:

Answer 6

• treatment to change the offender so that they can return to the community, reintegrate as a law abiding citizen
• treatment of offenders in Canada cannot be forced on an inmate
  1. Academic and vocational programs:
• deal with literacy
• inmates can obtain a high school diploma or a university degree
• vocational training: many want to learn some sort of trade, ex. electrician, painter, plumber, auto mechanic
  2. Behavior Modifications:
• goal is to change the deviant behaviours and values of the offender, to re-socialize the offender
• ex. psychotherapy/counselling, social skills programs, cognitive skills training, sex offender treatment programs, substance abuse intervention, survivors of abuse/trauma programs
• does it work? It can make things worse for normal delinquents because of its labelling effect and because it raises the inmates’ expectations
  3. Religious and Recreational Services
• family visits by a spouse or children
• help inmates to maintain positive family and community relationships

Question 7

What is Canada’s rate of imprisonment and what is the cost to Canadian society?

Answer 7

• the average annual cost of supervising an inmate on parole is approx $17, 000
• the average annual cost of incarcerating an inmate in a federal prison is $115, 000, much higher for maximum security
• US rate of imprisonment is over 700 per 100,000
• Canada’s rate is 116 adults and youth per 100,000
• the total expenditure of the Canadian Correctional Services is over 2 billion $ a year, most of the expenses go to salaries, operational costs are about 380$ million a year

Question 8

Over represented in Canadian prisons are:

Answer 8

• males (90%)
• Black Canadians (3% of Canadian pop but are 10% of federal and 11-12% of Ontario prison pop)
• Black females (7% of federal prison on, and 9% of Ontario prison pop)
• Aboriginal offenders (25% of total adult prison pop, but only 4%)

Question 9

Who is in provincial institutions vs. federal institutions?

Answer 9

• in provincial institutions we confine those sentenced to less than 2 years (only 8% of inmates in provincial institutions are serving one year or more)
• federal prison has people over 2 years

Question 10

Other people in provincial institutions:

Answer 10

• remand centers have inmates awaiting trial
• the mentally ill
• federal inmates who become mentally ill
• offenders serving consecutive sentences (two or more sentences imposed at the same time, after being found guilty of more than one offence)

Question 11

Socio-demographic profile of Canada’s inmate population:

Answer 11

• inmates tend to have a low level of formal education, 86% of inmates score below a grade 10 level on a literacy test
• the inmates in institutions lack significant vocational and social skills
• they have poor employment history and poor social networks
• most have served some time in juvenile corrections
• over represented in correctional institutions are males, Aboriginals, African Canadians, the poor and the young

Question 12

Pains of Imprisonment (things inside prison culture that have a negative impact on the inmate):

Answer 12

1. deprivation of liberty, hurts in a society where citizens are meant to value liberty
2. deprivation of heterosexual relations, others are subjected to rape (young offenders and sex offenders are most vulnerable), others engage in consensual homosexual relations
3. deprivation of autonomy, living, sleeping, eating etc. according to a rigid prison schedule
4. depriving of security, especially in max security prison, they are dangerous because they hold violent offenders
5. separation of prisoners from their families, lack of kinship and friendship systems
6. the lack of privacy because of the Panopticon structure of prisons, Jeremy Bentham drew up this structure to allow prison officers the complete observation of prisoners
7. prison violence in both men’s and women’s prisons, the use of force to control others
   - why? Because of lack of opportunities for individual expression, overcrowding, political groups within the inmate population, neglect of inmates demands for better food, recreational activities, families, and the dehumanizing prison conditions
   - riots, suicide (‘fatalistic suicide’ which is more likely to occur when there is excessive regulation/oppression in the person’s life), rape,

Question 13

Does treatment/rehabilitation within the prison work?

Answer 13

• Martison: article called what works, found data that questioned the effectiveness of rehabilitation within the prison milieu
• few exceptions, rehabilitation had no significant effect on recidivism, nothing works, a waste of money
• some programs are effect for some offenders, ex. sexual predators, spouse abusers, but generally counselling won’t work as expected

Question 14

Why doesn’t treatment within prison work?

Answer 14

1. The tendency of professionals to define individual offenders as ‘sick’
   - we cannot fight crime unless we see the majority of criminals as normal people who are responding to the facts and pressures of life
2. Crime for many individuals is a career
   - many criminals obtain high monetary rewards through illegitimate means, if people cannot find legitimate means to get these rewards they will resort to crime
3. It is difficult to rehabilitate/change certain types of offenders
   - ex. psychopaths who make up 20% of the prison population, psychopathic violent offenders (ex. serial killers/rapists), child molesters, drug addicts
4. Isolation of offenders from society
   - learning theory suggests that rehabilitation within the prison is less effective because the offender has more contacts/associations with criminal models and less or no contacts/association with non-criminal models
   - how can you change someone in prison when everyone around them is a criminal?
5. Lack of readiness for treatment/rehabilitation of inmates
6. Predisposing biological/genetic factors make it very difficult to change
   - ex. low IQ, psychopathy
7. Difficult to change habitual criminal behaviour in late life (after age 10-12)
8. Learning disabilities that prevent them from gaining maximum benefits from prison rehabilitation programs
9. Some are in denial and have not accepted responsibility of any criminal behaviour
10. Aboriginal inmates may not respond to treatment programs designed for non-Aboriginal inmates
    - our programs are based on the Euro-Canadian justice system, which is a different culture
11. It is difficult to change lifelong attitudes, beliefs, values, lifestyles, and personality characteristics
12. The labelling effect of prison life
    - research suggests the longer the time spent in prison, the more likely it is for the offender to reoffend, and the harsher the prison conditions the higher the rates of reoffending, these findings are contrary to the predictions of those sociologists and politicians who favor tough on crime policies

Question 15

If treatment and rehabilitation programs don’t work as expected them why do we still use them?

Answer 15

• because we have no other alternatives
• because the causes of crime are many, complex, and interactive so while we know that some offenders are more responsive to treatment to others, and many programs do have positive effects