In 1982, I sat on the committee set up by the Deputy Minister of Justice that resulted in the release of Criminal Law in Canadian Society, a statement described in the preface by the then Minister of Justice, Jean Chrétien, as setting out “the policy of the Government of Canada with respect to the purpose and principles of the criminal law”. [...] In addition, I have been involved in less lengthy commitments over the decades in a variety of research and advisory roles with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General, Ontario, the Department of Justice, Canada, and Public Safety Canada. [...] In particular, I have been asked to opine on the following issues: a) Is the early release of certain prisoners from CSC institutions consistent with the objective of public safety and the protection of society? b) What would be the impact on public safety and prison populations of releasing certain categories of people into the community for the remainder of their sentences? II. [...] While releasing prisoners who are within 6 months of their statutory release date would result in a one-time increase in the number of prisoners released, if the practice of releasing people within 6 months of their statutory release date is maintained throughout the pandemic, the number of prisoners released monthly after the initial release would remain the same as before the pandemic. [...] The release of people within this group could therefore dramatically assist with the depopulation of prisons in the context of 2 Source: The “age of accused” accused of homicide data and the estimates of the age distribution for Canadian adults were obtained from Statistics Canada’s CANSIM website.
- Pages
- 487
- Published in
- Canada
