CRM 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Canadian Association Of Elizabeth Fry Societies, British Columbia New Democratic Party
19 Jun 2018
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CRM100
Lecture 8
Last class
- Judges when thinking of sentences, managing decisions on minor cases
- Judges are looking for reasons to keep people out of prison besides violent/serious crimes
- Central preoccupation of most judges when sentencing is how do you best ensure that
when sentence ends, people will be reincarnated into society, they are neighbours, people
we see in society etc.
- Tiny fraction never get out prison
- Job of CJS is that people are successfully reincarnated
- Huge body evidence shows prison is not the best place for people to go through
rehabilitation, bc they will be surrounded by people deeply engaged in criminal activity
and they will think that’s the norm, do not see models, hard for them to have mentors that
show them other ways to live life, this pushes judges to divert people from incarceration
- rates of incarceration have grown steadily
- when they do surveys of peoples attitudes on criminal justice system, Canadians say we
should be harder on crime
Debating Corrections
- Do better job of protecting community, making sure their interests are best served
John Howards Society- NGO advocates for prisoners so that prisoners can have skills training,
psychological, run classes in unis, make it possible for inmates to take college classes, lobby
government to improve prison conditions, and that living conditions in prisons are humane
Elizabeth Fry Society- does same work as JHS but focus on women, lobby to improve conditions
women face
- Growing rate of women being incarcerated
- Higher rates of mental illness in women prison than men
Summary of groups
- These groups makes sure incarceration is a positive experience, and more people are
rehabilitated,
- type of advocacy groups go through face opposition/backlash from general public,
particularly from political leaders who tend to be more conservative see groups like this
as pushing us to be soft on crime,
- argue people have committed crimes and we want to express our anger at people
engaging in crimes by being harsh,
- politicians face incredible strain on budgets and everyone wants money, but easiest group
to cut funding from is prisoners,
- groups face rhetorical kickbacks, and budget kickbacks
How good is our CJS at rehabilitating offenders
Increased rates of incarceration
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Diversion programs
How to reform the CJS
- restorative justice
-
Investing in more effective programs
Restorative justice
- an approach to sentencing, to deal with people who have pled guilty
- meant to be an alternative to conventional CJS
- more therauputice approach
- usually uses some form of probation
- does sentencing in a different way
- sentencing works as judge looking at details of case and reports of officers arresting
person, and come up with sentence based on their ideological approach
- RJ brings diff stakeholders together, bring in victim, alleged criminal, community
members and come up with sentence that hjolds criminal accountable and needs of
victim, community
- Strong influence in RJ
- RJ is not implemented in national level, variety of pilate/small programs that implement
RJ on peace basis
- Strong influence of indigenous attitudes with dealing with crime, Circle sentencing –
group discussing what motivated criminal activity, how to fix situation, long standing
indigenous practice
- CJS imposed on colonialism
- RJ returns decisions to community whereas before it was on government and queen
- Advocates of RJ, say our CJS is too abstract (when youre charged with criminal offence
and go through court system and are convicted of crime, is abstract as crown determines,
advocates of RJ say this is a better form as criminal has to make amends with victim
- Adversalial system is canada’s current one
- RJ is only for minor offences
- Key principal: only available to people who admit guilt and that youre looking for ways
to express remorse and be held accountable for crime, does not replace trial aspect
RJ programs
- Deal with sex offenders, have positive outcomes
- Diff programs come to affect at different times, before charges laid, before sentencing
begins, after completing sentence
- People who choose to be involved in RJ have to be prepped for mediation that occurs,
receive training to prepare them for what will happen when they meet victims, room
- Dialogue that occurs can be referenced in sentencing, if judge gets report that they were
genuinely remorseful and keen on rehabilitation judge can take that into consideration
Therapeutic, community oriented
Repair damages
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Judges when thinking of sentences, managing decisions on minor cases. Judges are looking for reasons to keep people out of prison besides violent/serious crimes. Central preoccupation of most judges when sentencing is how do you best ensure that when sentence ends, people will be reincarnated into society, they are neighbours, people we see in society etc. Huge body evidence shows prison is not the best place for people to go through. When they do surveys of peoples attitudes on criminal justice system, canadians say we should be harder on crime. Do better job of protecting community, making sure their interests are best served. Elizabeth fry society- does same work as jhs but focus on women, lobby to improve conditions women face. Higher rates of mental illness in women prison than men. How good is our cjs at rehabilitating offenders. Restorative justice an approach to sentencing, to deal with people who have pled guilty.
