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By LegalMatters Staff • There are many reasons to incarcerate as few people as possible in Canada, one being the cost.
Statistics Canada reports that taxpayers are on the hook for approximately $150,000 per year for every prisoner in Canada or a little more than $400 a night.
From a purely financial standpoint, it doesn’t make sense to jail offenders who don’t represent a danger to the public. Those people could serve their sentence at home if the courts would agree to give them a conditional sentence, also known as house arrest.
However, in a November decision, the Supreme Court of Canada restored provisions in the Criminal Code that state that conditional sentences cannot be given for crimes that carry maximum sentences of at least 14 years in prison, or 10 years in drug-related cases.
Ottawa criminal lawyer Céline Dostaler says she is dissatisfied with that ruling. But she adds she is pleased that later that month, Parliament passed Bill C5, giving judges the freedom to consider conditional sentences for a wide range of crimes including sexual assault and fraud.
And despite what some people may believe, Dostaler says conditional sentences are punitive. The freedom of offenders is severely curtailed and they can be placed in custody if they do not abide by the strict conditions imposed by the court.
As Dostaler argues, conditional sentences are in the best interest of the offender as well as the community at large.
