NCJ Number
72422
Journal
CRIME ET/AND JUSTICE Volume: 7-8 Issue: 2 Dated: (1979-80) Pages: 131-136
Date Published
1980
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Of the 28 recommendations proposed by the Quebec Ministry of Justice regarding adult corrections reorganization, one stands out as needing further clarification: the decentralization and regionalization of correctional services.
Abstract
Penal system reform in Quebec is being called for in the Ministry's latest recommendations. Those reforms must be solid and tangible reforms, not just a superficial change. Social defense and the protection of the public must be sought above all, with a focus next on the clients of the correctional system, i.e., the offenders, and on the personnel who work immediately with them. These targets must take the place of the currently overemphasized professionalization of corrections and the 'parasites' of the system, who use corrections for the advancement of their personal careers. Next, there must be a massive decentralization of budgetary, administrative, and policymaking responsibilities from the Ministry to the regions. Two regional councils, composed of regional criminal justice personnel and citizens, should be established to oversee and to maintain such regionalization: a consulting council to deal with regional problems and to handle the much-needed dejudicialization of the system towards correctional alternatives; and a decisionmaking council to deal with administrative policy, budgetary considerations, and regional management. Provincial and Federal resources should be regionally integrated so as to maximize present resources. Careful long-term planning must be emphasized on a coordinated, regional basis to ensure that despite immediate crises, emergencies, or delays, overall reform goals can be implemented. The Ministry must be prepared and start to take 'calculated risks,' allowing for further regional experimentation. If a guiding policy is formulated and projected by the regions for their corrections futures, then each region should be encouraged to go about implementing change in their own innovative fashion. Where now there is essentially no real system among the regions, perhaps with these recommendations, a strong regional autonomy will build fair, humane, and protective systems of social defense. A diagram illustrates the hoped-for hierarchy of emphases in the reform process. --in French.