ONTARIO TO REASSESS AUTOMATIC PAROLE

Inmates Face Random Drug Tests And Work Programs 'To Earn Their Release'

Provincial jail inmates soon will have to attend work and treatment
programs and agree to random drug tests to get time off for "good
behaviour," the Ontario government says.

"There will not be any automatic sentence discount for Ontario's offenders
they will have to earn their release. Jail should mean jail," Corrections
Minister Rob Sampson told reporters yesterday after introducing legislation
implementing the changes.

If the law passes, Ontario will no longer go along with a federal law that
effectively gives inmates an automatic one-third of their sentence off.
Inmates refer to the law as the "discount law."

Sampson said his goal is a "no-frills" corrections system.

"We think that jail should be place where people don't want to go," the
minister said, adding that the number of inmates released on parole has
dropped dramatically since the Tory government came to power.

But Clayton Ruby, one of the country's top criminal lawyers, said the
tougher measures will create prison unrest and help privatized jails turn a
bigger profit.

"I think (Sampson's) really worried that when he moves to private prisons
in greater numbers, that he's not going to be able to control the prisoners
. . . and so he's going to penalize them if they don't toe the line," Ruby
said.

The maximum sentence in provincially run jails is two years less a day with
the average inmate serving 85 days.

The proposed legislation includes:

Random testing for drug and alcohol for offenders both inside the jail or
out on parole or probation.

Reconstituting the Ontario Board of Parole into the Ontario Parole and
Earned Release Board, making it responsible for all conditional release
decisions except temporary releases.

Creating local monitoring boards, consisting of area residents, for each of
Ontario's correctional institutions.

Putting a corrections ministry official in privately run jails 24 hours a
day to oversee the operations.

Sampson said inmates will lose earned remission if they fail to actively
support treatment or work programs, violate the zero-tolerance policy for
violence against correctional staff, fail to demonstrate they are drug free
or meet standards for positive behaviour.

"We will establish the toughest standards for jails in this country," he said.

Bill Sparks, executive director of the John Howard Society in Ontario, said
the emphasis should not be on keeping inmates in longer but on gradual
release with community supervision.

"We know from all the research that's what works to make the community
safer. The major reduction in re-offending occurs when the person is on
good parole supervision with good programming in the community and not in
jail," Sparks said.

Sampson said about 80 per cent of offenders in provincial jails and 68 per
cent of those serving community sentences have some degree of alcohol or
drug dependency.

"It is probably easier to get drugs inside a jail than it is outside (and)
. . . to combat this epidemic we will establish random and regular drug and
alcohol testing for all offenders in this province," he said.