Steve Sullivan is the Executive Director of Ottawa Victim Services and a Part-Time Professor at Algonquin College in the Victimology Graduate Certificate Program. He has been advocating for victims for almost 20 years, having served as the former President of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime and as the first Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. He has testified before numerous Parliamentary Committees on victims’ rights, justice reform and public safety issues and has conducted training for provincial and federal victim services.

Canadians, according to the Conservative Government, have a lot to be happy about. Kerry-Lynne Findlay, parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, says the increase in the number of federal inmates is “good news” because the gang members are behind bars instead of on the street. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews took to Twitter to tout his government’s success in lowering the crime rate because “#CPC tough on crime is working.”

More gang members in prison than on the streets. Crime rate going down. What’s not to be happy about?

Well, quite a bit if you work inside one of Canada’s federal prisons because the crime rate is apparently going up. Over the past five years, the number of assaults inside prisons rose 90%. Overall, there has been a 36% increase in violent incidences in federal prisons.

This could be because, as Ms. Findlay says, the government is locking up so many gang members. Then again, it might have something to do with the fact that prison populations are at an all-time high and space is at a premium. The number of inmates who are double bunked (meaning 2 prisoners living in a cell made for one) is up almost 3 times what it was before the Tories gained power. Double bunking has gotten so bad that it is happening in maximum security prisons and in segregation.

Granted, Toews contends that double occupancy in cells doesn’t mean there is overcrowding. So what if prisoners have to sleep in interview rooms, family visiting spaces and gyms – if nothing else, it’s a change of pace.

But that’s inside prisons, you might be saying to yourself. Who cares about what prisoners do to each other?

And even if for some odd reason you don’t care about guards, what goes on inside our prisons should still matter to you, not because you care about the safety and security of inmates but because you care about your own safety and security. Putting two men with a propensity for violence in a cell designed for one is probably not going to do much help with their anger management problems. More tension and violence doesn’t lend itself to an environment that fosters rehabilitation.

Gang membership in prisons has climbed over 30% since the Tories took power. Not surpisingly, gang affiliation is higher where overcrowding is worse. Far from this being good news, most of these gang members are going to get out which means they are coming back to your community and mine. Given what is happening in the prisons, how safe do you feel knowing these same men are coming back to your streets? Maybe they will just get it all out of their system and come out peace loving lefties.

Concern for what is happening inside prisons is not about stupid slogans like soft on crime or tough on crime. Even former Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said there is no way to spin more prisoners joining gangs as a good thing.

Whether you like to hug thugs or victims, this is a bad plan for all us. It is bad for the people who have to work in prisons, it is bad for the inmates who may actually want to change and it is bad for communities because these gang members will be getting out one day. Sure, it may be a year or two later thanks to Stephen Harprer, but no one believes that will make an angry, bitter and violent prisoner a law-abiding, calm and empathetic citizen.

The Tories have no plan beyond the marketing strategy of their get tough on crime slogans, which have worked for them (not so much for the rest of us). Very little of the changes they have made have been based on any evidence and, in fact, Rob Nicholson’s mantra is that they don’t govern by statistics.

One of Vic Toews’ spokesmen recently said, “When the thugs and criminals who make up street gangs are locked up, they will not be out terrorizing our communities.” Fair enough…but can someone tell us what is going to happen when they get out?

Even if we don’t care about prisoners, and this government clearly doesn’t, we should care about ourselves, and our families and our communities. Ultimately, it’s not about them, it’s about us. And the government’s policies are not about our safety, they are about our votes.

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