CRIME BILL THREATENS TO UNDO DECADES OF REFORM, FORMER JUSTICE
ADVISER WARNS

Harsh federal sentencing policies are propelling the country back to a
time of massive prison overcrowding and riots, according to a senior
Department of Justice adviser who recently retired, David Daubney.

With a government omnibus crime bill on the verge of becoming law, Mr.
Daubney said he felt compelled to issue a warning that federal
priorities threaten to undo decades of correctional research and reform.

"Overcrowding is already severe at both the federal and provincial
levels," Mr. Daubney said in an interview. "It's going to get tougher,
and prisons will be more violent places. We may go back to the era of
riots in prisons. I'm afraid it is going to get worse before it gets
any better."

The interview with Mr. Daubney, who developed expertise in sentencing
policy as a Progressive Conservative MP in the 1980s and joined the
Justice Department in 1990, provided a rare glimpse into the backroom
mechanics of the Justice bureaucracy.

Mr. Daubney said that, since the mid-2000s, the Justice Department has
asked for less and less research to be undertaken and typically
ignores recommendations against policies such as mandatory minimum
sentences or prison expansion.

"It is kind of sad that I have to do this, but somebody has to take
the risk of talking," Mr. Daubney said. "I feel sad for my colleagues
who are still there. It was clear the government wasn't interested in
what the research said or in evidence that was quite convincingly set out."

He said recommendations were diluted, neutered or dropped as they
percolated through senior layers of the bureaucracy toward the minister.

Mr. Daubney said that the departmental distaste for research and
recommendations is the opposite of the situation under administrations
such as those of Conservative justice minister Kim Campbell and
Liberal justice ministers Martin Cauchon and Irwin Cotler.

He accused the Harper government of latching onto a harsh correctional
policy that could be easily marketed to the public.

"The policy is based on fear fear of criminals and fear of people
who are different," he said. "I do not think these harsh views are
deeply held."

As an MP, Mr. Daubney chaired the parliamentary justice committee and
the Standing Committee on Justice, which produced a review of
sentencing that was well-received by criminologists, the judiciary and
much of the legal community.

He was the co-ordinator of the Justice Department's sentencing-reform
team until retiring in October. He now chairs a non-governmental
organization Penal Reform International which works in dozens of
countries to achieve penal reforms including the use of non-custodial
sentences and the abolition of the death penalty.

The Tories' omnibus bill includes new mandatory minimum prison terms,
toughens sentences for those convicted of child exploitation and drug
offences, and overhauls the pardon system.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson defends the approach. "We don't govern
on the basis of statistics," he told Parliament last week. "If we see
a need to better protect children or send a message to drug dealers,
that's the basis upon which we're proceeding."

However, Mr. Daubney said that mandatory minimum sentences have been
widely condemned in correctional circles. He added that the government
has misrepresented conditional sentences as permissive, even though
lawyers, judges and the public know they can be made suitably restrictive.

The availability of conditional sentences reduced provincial jail
populations by 17,000 within a couple of years, Mr. Daubney said.

He pointed to a recent Statistics Canada finding that 93 per cent of
those surveyed were not worried about crime. "It shows that the
attempt to scare people has maybe not been as successful as the
government would want," Mr. Daubney said.

"As long as I've been working in this area, polls have shown a really
poor understanding of crime and punishment on the part of the general
public," he added. "That's not necessarily to blame them. They watch
the TV news every night, and if it bleeds, it leads. But in my
experience, crime is rarely, if ever, a top 10 issue in general
election campaigns."

Carole Saindon, a Justice Department spokesperson, said on Tuesday
that Mr. Daubney "does not speak for the department."