The Canadian government is spending millions of dollars building prison cells while the crime rate is falling. It has also cut funding for prisoner rehabilitation, including a program that was a model copied by other jurisdictions. These are issues raised in a new documentary called State of Incarceration.
Listen“I think in Canada we’re pretty separate from the criminal justice system,” says Andrew Gregg, writer, director and producer. “Most of us don’t really know somebody that’s in prison or going through that process…So it’s very easy for us to believe when the government says ‘we have to get tough on crime’ regardless of what the statistics say. It’s very easy for us to say ‘yes, they’re right. They’re criminals. We’ve got to be hard on those guys.’
‘Direction proven not to work’
“But I think it’s important to look beyond that because it’s a lot more complicated than it would appear. And the direction that the government is taking Canada right now is a direction that’s already been proven not to work in the United States. And I think as journalists we are part of the process and we need to hold governments to account,” says Gregg.
“So I think this is a bit of a reality check and I hope people, when they see it (the documentary), they’ll think a little bit more about what it means to get tough on crime, particularly at a time when we don’t need to.”
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