Stormy ways or sunny weather? Prisoners’ views of Canadian prisons
This post is about 1000 words and can be read in about 5 minutes. One of the best ways of understanding the state of an institution is to listen to the people who inhabit it. We learn about the reality...
Read MoreNew book on Indigenous issues in the Canadian justice system
This post is about 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. Everyone involved in criminal justice is aware of the dramatic over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s criminal justice system and prisons. But despite all the attention,...
Read MorePositive developments in the US prison system
This post is about 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. Prisons provide another example of a field in which Canadians can point to our neighbours to the south and feel superior, even when in reality we may...
Read MoreThis blog: One year and 50 posts later
This post is 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. This blog ran its first post just about a year ago. At that time we stated the goal as being “to help build a well-informed public, which in...
Read MoreCan Canadian prisons be improved?
This post is 800 words and can be read in about 4 minutes. The new head of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has been given a huge mandate for change in that organization, which operates Canada’s federal prisons and...
Read MoreFinancial facts on Canadian prisons
This post is about 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. Canada’s jail and prison system is expensive. Here are some facts: Total spending and comparisons Total (federal, provincial and municipal) public spending on criminal justice in Canada...
Read MoreMore services lead to fewer crimes
This post is about 680 words and can be read in 4 minutes. Collaborative programs that provided health and social services to people in frequent trouble with the law had a very powerful positive effect in British Columbia, reducing recidivism...
Read MoreSeeing crime as a public health issue: Gregg Caruso
This post is about 950 words and will take 4-5 minutes to read. Gregg Caruso’s short and readable book, Public Health and Safety: The Social Determinants of Health and Criminal Behavior, available free online, makes the argument for thinking about...
Read MoreLess supervision of released prisoners gives better results
This blog is about 600 words and will take 2-3 minutes to read. Here’s an irony: Extensive research shows that more intensive supervision of people released from prison actually yields worse results – more recidivism, higher costs, and less public...
Read MoreRehabilitation can work
Why do we send people to jail? Although jail is taken for granted as a punishment for many crimes, people often don’t think much beyond that. Someone does something wrong, the response is punishment, and the common punishment is time...
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