Canadian Prisons (From Comparing Prison Systems: Toward a Comparative and International Penology, P 61-97, 1998, Robert P. Weiss, Nigel South, eds. - See NCJ-178009)

• NCJ Number: 178011
• Author(s): Bob Gaucher; John Lowman
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 39 pages
• Sale Source: Gordon and Breach Publishers
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands
• Note: International Studies in Global Change: Vol. 8

Annotation

This chapter describes trends in Canadian prison practice, changes in the formal rhetoric guiding the Canadian prison system and the forces producing those changes.

Abstract

There has been significant recent pressure on the Canadian government to get tough with serious crime. There has also been a countervailing movement by senior justice system officials and both provincial and Federal politicians pushing for the release from incarceration of less serious offenders. The chapter discusses the risk management model of prison and parole; prison system practices; drugs in prison; overcrowding; making programs meaningful; dilemmas created by longer sentences and stricter parole; segregation as punishment; and policing the guards. However, any discussion of corrections theory and practice must include an understanding of the youth poverty, racism, family problems and unemployment that helped put prisoners in correctional facilities in the first place. Notes, references