Incarceration on Canadas Economy essays

Incarceration on Canadas Economy essays Incarceration on Canadas Economy On any given day of the week in Canada, there are approximately 13 000 people in federal penitentiaries and 19 000 in provincial jails. Incarceration is used when an offender must be removed from the society it violated for the protection of the countrys law abiding citizens. Canadian tax payers and the government want the cost of incarceration to be decreased. Prison is the most expensive penalty the Canadian government offers to offenders and is trying to find different alternatives to incarceration and is trying to offer more educational and work programs that will allow inmates to acquire jobs when they have served their sentence and are released. It costs Canadas government and taxpayers a great amount of money to house criminals in their penitentiaries. In 1999-2000, the total bill for operating the adult federal and provincial correctional system was $2.4 billion. The cost of keeping an inmate incarcerated in a federal penitentiary is about $67 700 per year. This compares to approximately $29 900 for a halfway house and $14 500 to supervise an inmate on parole. Canadians are faced with two choices. We can go along with the United States and build more prisons and spend more of the budget, or use alternatives of incarceration on low-risk offenders that can be safely and effectively managed in the community. There are many different alternatives to incarceration that will save the taxpayers a significant amount of money. There are many different forms of alternatives to imprisonment. Restitution allows judges to order the offenders to compensate the victims for property loss and personal injuries. This, for obvious, reasons is not used much since most criminals are not wealthy individuals. Restitution recognizes the tremendous financial impacts that crime can have on victims and ensures that compensation as part of ...