Stephen Harper’s tough-on-crime legislation is tough on taxpayers’ pocketbooks: critics

Stephen Harper's tough on crime agenda is proving to be costly.

Figures in the annual Reports on Plans and Priorities of the Correctional Service of Canada, indicate Canada's federal corrections system will cost $2.98 billion in 2011-12.

That's an 80 per cent jump from fiscal year 2006-07, the year the Conservatives came into power.

"That is a humongous increase of more than 80 per cent," Justin Piche, an assistant professor of sociology at Memorial University in St. John's, N.L., told the National Post.

"Canadians are going to be spending a lot more on their prisons, and this is just the beginning."

Piche, who analyzes the costs of Canada's prisons, cites Harper's tough on crime legislation along with ballooning inmate and staffing costs as the primary reasons for the increase.

The department expects the prison population to grow by 4,500 inmates — up from a current population of 22,749 - by 2014. In that year, the federal corrections budget is pegged at $3.1 billion.

Conservative policies also impose costs on the provincial prison system, critics say.

A column in Le Devoir states the Quebec government is expecting Ottawa's Truth in Sentencing bill, which limits credit for time spent in pre-sentence custody, will cost an additional $139 million per year.

Opposition party critics continue to claim Harper's 'more prisons' policy is the wrong tact to make streets safer.

NDP justice critic Joe Comartin recently told the Globe and Mail the Conservative's tough-on-crime agenda is at odds with the majority views of Canadians.

Liberal public safety critic Francis Scarpaleggia told the National Post that a better policy would be to support cash-strapped security agencies like the RCMP, which are reportedly short on essential equipment like body armour.

"There is no evidence to support the notion the strategy is going to work in creating safer communities," he said.

The Tories, however, argue the legislation was one of their campaign pillars supported by a majority of Canadians.

All this is happening while Statistics Canada states the police-reported crime rate dropped five per cent from 2009. The national crime rate has been falling for the last two decades and is at its lowest level since 1973, the agency found.

(CBC Photo)