Canadian Justice System: Article Analysis

The Canadian justice system faces controversies set out and displayed in a series of articles by Edward Greenspan, who is a Toronto criminal lawyer and Anthony Doob, who is a professor of criminology at the University of Toronto. The first pointed out that currently The federal government is wanting to reintroduce controversial penalties for the organized crime act that was shot down when the spring election was called, such as minimum sentences for growing marijuana or selling it around youth (Greenspan & Doob, 2011). The second article by the authors discusses the matter of how Canadians in a 1975 United nations conference initiated a process of transferring foreign inmates to their home country, and now as of 2006 the government is turning away transfers due to wanting to enhance public safety (Greenspan & Doob, 2011). The final article in The Globe and Mail informs Canadians that The government of Canada wishes to impose stricter restrictions on the use of conditional sentences, such as house arrest, to protect public safety and better the communities. By doing this, they are imposing a higher cost on the community (Greenspan & Doob, 2011). This paper will discuss that Imposing harsher penalties and restrictions to The criminal justice system not only places unneeded hardship among the communities and its members but places the justice system in a negative standpoint. The first issue seen within the articles is the proposition by the government to impose mandatory minimums for marijuana-related crimes. Mandatory minimums for marijuana offences are counter-productive in policing marijuana and policing drug offences. The problem with mandatory minimums is that they can have a dangerous effect on the courts and prisons, The laws will harm the justice system (Webster, 2011, p.391). By incarcerating 8 to 9 people for drug offences, we spend the same amount of money needed for an additional 12 police officers (Greenspan & Doob, 2011 (A)). The second problem is Placing restrictions on Conditional sentences imposes a strain on families but can also increase costs towards our justice system. Removing the ability to carry a The Canadian justice system 3 sentence under house arrest takes the ability to provide for ones family away from the needed dependents of the offender (Greenspan & Doob, 2011 (B)). The additional prisoners in the federal and provincial jails/prisons increases costs to our justice system (Greenspan & Doob, 2011 (B)). These conditional sentences can be effective in alternative ways (Martin, Hanrahan & Bowers, 2009, p. 561). The third issue deals with transferring inmates from foreign countries back to Canada to serve their sentences, the problem is that Canada is rejecting applicants to return to Canada to finish their sentence which is inhumane and harms society in the long run. forcing a prisoner to carry out their sentence in another …show more content…
What mandatory minimums do to our justice system is counter-productive when it comes to the Canadian courts, the entire discretion that the judge is supposed to hold becomes illuminated. These stiffer laws that Canada wants to be imposed can have a drastic backlash and be met with non-compliance. The minimum sentences would result in more convictions and an overcrowded prison population. The entire justice system could avoid this mess and hire additional police officers to handle the drug problem more strategically and, in the long run, better the more run down neighbourhoods with adequate