The auditor general has slammed the government for its handling of offenders in custody and in the community.
Denise Hanrahan delivered her audit of the justice department’s community services and corrections division yesterday.
It covers the three-year period from January 2017 to December 2019, and focuses on adult offenders in custody and those in the community on probation or serving conditional sentences.
Hanrahan concluded there were serious failures in policy and practice that led to gaps in ensuring offenders were being adequately rehabilitated and monitored.
She noted the division didn’t monitor its own effectiveness, and had no process to do it. As a result, they had no way of knowing if the system was even working.
Hanrahan says that had a lot to do with grossly outdated legislation that dates to the 1970s.
She says that’s despite the fact that new, updated regulations have been before government for more than a decade, but not made into law.
John Hogan
Justice Minister John Hogan says government plans to pass the new legislation in the first quarter of next year.
And he says staff are already on it.
He says it’s very “policy-driven” legislation, so the fact it hasn’t been made into legislation doesn’t mean staff aren’t aware or ready. On the contrary, he says they’ve been implementing policy around it since it was drafted and came before the House of Assembly.
Hogan says he accepts all six recommendations in the audit, noting programs such as electronic monitoring, bail supervision, and adult diversion toward restorative justice have already been initiated.
Meanwhile, the Opposition parties were quick to react following the release of the audit yesterday.
The NDP’s Lela Evans was not surprised by the revelations. She says it goes to the heart of why offenders lose hope.
She says many offenders have a sense that no one cares because they’re inmates or criminals, and they don’t deserve supports. But she says the entire province suffers when people don’t get the help they need while in custody.
The Tories’ Helen Conway Ottenheimer highlighted failures around drug and alcohol testing, as well as curfew checks, which she said just increases the risk to the public.
She says such gaps are a serious concern since it suggests that the rehabilitation of offenders, and by extension the safety of the public, aren’t priorities for the Liberal government.
