Tories Want an End to Pre-Trial Sentencing Credits

Tories want to kill 'two-for-one' prison-time credit

CTV News has learned that the government plans to introduce legislation on Thursday to end the "two-for-one" credit for convicted felons for time spent in pre-trial custody.

The credit aims to compensate for so-called "dead time" spent in overcrowded detention centres that do not have rehabilitation programs or many of the amenities of long-term prison housing.

But critics argue that some prisoners are abusing the system by trying to stretch their pre-trial time to cut their time behind bars later.

And... wait for it...

I APPROVE!

Yes, there'll be skating in Hades and pigshit umbrellas for everyone: I actually agree with something Stephen Harper is doing. And on a law and order issue, no less.

I've always believed that most of the sentences given to violent offenders are actually completely appropriate, but that these credits reduce them to ridiculously short periods, leading in turn to public outrage and calls for "tougher sentencing".

Only a couple of hairs in this one:

a) Since these credits were never legislated in the first place - only entrenched through legal precedent - I'm not sure how they are going to legislate them out of existence, and

b) This should be done instead of mandatory minimum sentencing legislation, not in addition to.

I'm sure the Conservatives will find other ways to screw this one up. Stay tuned.

Will the Real 'Correctional Grunt' Please Stand Up?

My ex-blogmate Raphael Alexander was one of several bloggers who posted about the Conservative government's plans to toughen up Canada's youth crime laws a few days ago. One of the people who commented on his post was an anonymous corrections officer calling himself "Correctional Grunt" who regaled us all with tales of the unrepentant young hoodlums he has to deal with every day and the many ways in which he and his fellow officers have been hamstrung by politically correct government and social policies.

As a youth correctional officer, let me give you guys an insider view of the YCJA, programming, and rehabilitation.

I am one of many Correctional Officers in a Young Offender facility in Ontario; or at least we USED to be. During the last Government's tenure we saw our job titles changed to "Youth Services Officer". That tells you exactly what our current and former provincial and federal Liberal Government's attitude was and is towards young offenders; that they are to be "serviced".

We are are not even allowed to refer to them as "young offenders" when we write and report them for in-facility infractions and incidents. Now they are "young persons", or "clients" and the word "criminal" or "offender", which is exactly what they are, is forgotten for fear of damaging their already tender sensibilities and self esteem.

It goes on and on like that, for fourteen paragraphs, and sounds like a sincere, if somewhat angry and one-sided, first person account from the front lines of our youth justice system. In fact, Raph was so impressed that he re-posted the comment in its entirety today, claiming it had changed his mind on the whole issue.

The trouble is, it all sounded so... familiar.

One person mentioned another blog where an anonymous commenter had posted the exact same comment a week earlier - right down to the same typo near the beginning of the fourth paragraph. So I decided to do a little digging.

Unfortunately, the comment sections of most blogs don't get picked up in a Google search, but just by looking for blog posts about Canada's youth justice system it didn't take long to find more recipients of Correctional Grunt's insightful, if repetitive, commentary.

The Turner Report, July 2008
Joanne's Journey, January 2008
Blue Like You, January 2008 (that one splits it up between two comments)
Kitchener Conservative, October 2006
Small Dead Animals, April 2006

The one on SDA was the earliest incident I found, and was also somewhat shorter with slightly different wording, which makes me think this might have been the original version.

A couple of these actually had follow-up comments from 'CG', so it may well be that this is, or was, a real person - if a somewhat unimaginative one. Then again, what kind of person keeps a copy of something like this for almost two and a half years just so they can paste it into the comments section of every blog post they find that mentions our youth justice system? And how often has the identical 'comment' been sent to newspaper editors or pasted into newspaper comments sections?

So. Just to satisfy my curiosity, would the real 'Correctional Grunt' please drop me a line? I promise not to reveal your Secret Identity - I would just like some evidence that you really are who you say you are.

And if anyone else has seen this comment appear elsewhere, or knows where it came from originally, please let me know. It would be nice to know if it is actually the same person posting this thing hither and yon, or if this isn't just the blog version of the classic conservative chain letter.