Progress on over-crowded prisons.

Canada has a large per capita prison population that is growing bigger and threatening to overwhelm our prisons. In May 1996, federal and provincial Ministers of Justice met to find options to deal with this growing population, and adopted eleven recommendations. Recently, a report from the federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions has been presented reporting on each jurisdiction's progress. Ministers endorsed the following shared statement of principles for the criminal justice system:

* "The criminal justice system is a social instrument to enforce society's values, standards and prohibitions through the democratic process and within the rule of law;

* The broad objective of the criminal justice system is to contribute to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe social environment;

* Public safety and protection is the paramount objective of the criminal justice system;

* The best long-term protection of the public results from offenders being returned to a law abiding lifestyle in the community;

* Fair, equitable and just punishment that is proportional to the harm done and similar to like sentences for like offences is a legitimate objective of sentencing;

* Offenders are sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment;

* Incarceration should ... be used only where public safety so requires, and we should seek alternatives to incarceration if safe and more effective community sanctions are available;

* The criminal justice system is formed of many parts within and across jurisdictions that must work together as an integrated whole to maximize effectiveness and efficiency."

One of the important recommendations was to make greater use of diversion programs, and other alternative measures. This was facilitated by the new conditional sentence option - a sentence that can be served in the community - made available in September 1996. Since then almost all jurisdictions have made use of that sanction:

* As of Nov. 30, 1996, Quebec had 1,221 conditional sentences; Saskatchewan had 177; and British Columbia has 415;

* As of December 16, 1996, Nova Scotia had 105 and the Yukon had 17;

* As of December 31, 1996, Ontario had 1,391;

* As of January 10, 1997, Alberta had 700 conditional sentences.

However, in December 1997, the Alberta Court of Appeal quashed two conditional sentences, stating in one case that the conditional sentence was "demonstrably unfit". The Court of Appeal is expected to provide a statement of guidelines for sentencing judges on when to consider the conditional sentence option for an offender.