Most jail inmate waiting in remand, justice ministers concerned.

Whitehorse -- Federal, provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for Justice Ministers expressed concern over statistics showing that fully half of the incarcerated population in Canada is remanded pending trial.

Discussion focussed on factors within each component of the justice system that may be contributing to this increase. They approved a proposal by the Heads of Corrections for two-for-one sentencing credit for remand time served.

The ministers also discussed sentencing, wrongful convictions, legal aid, Aboriginal justice, the criminal use of guns, proceeds of crime, organized crime and drugs.

Among the agreements were:

* the need to limit the use of conditional sentencing for serious and violent offences and quick adoption by Parliament of Bill C-70 which responds to their concerns;

* review of Guidelines for Compensation of the Wrongfully Convicted, establishing more precise and transparent criteria for determining judicial error and defining the level of proof of a wrongful Conviction; updating the current limit on non-financial losses;

* the need for an immediate federal commitment to continue to fund and to increase the level of funding under the criminal legal aid agreement, and for longer term funding to provide stability to legal aid delivery;

* to develop a national legal aid framework;

* to deal with the over-representation of Aboriginal people as offenders and victims and their under-representation as courtworkers, lawyers and judges;

* to develop and implement on an urgent basis a multipronged strategy, which includes immediate legislation, more effective enforcement, as well as preventative and social initiatives to combat the growing of marijuana.

* to combat marijuana growing operations and synthetic drug production;

* for enhanced federal funding over the next several years for the administration of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Ministers discussed the need to better address the murders of women involved in the sex trade.

They explored options for ensuring that police and prosecutors have the tools they need to address this issue, including strategies such as taking DNA samples from men convicted of communicating in public for the purpose of buying sex.