PUBLICATION:
GLOBE AND MAIL
IDN:
042780076
DATE:
2004.10.04
PAGE:
A8
BYLINE: DEAN BEEBY Canadian Press
SECTION:
National News
SOURCE:
CP
EDITION:
National
DATELINE:
Ottawa, ONT
WORDS:
517
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Report
looks at halfway-house escape rate
More
than a third of hardened prisoners flee, often commit crimes, study says
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Hardened
criminals who are required to serve their parole at halfway houses are escaping
too often, frequently committing violent crimes, an internal Corrections Canada
report says.
Released
prisoners should be allowed to live in halfway houses in the community of their
choice to help cut down on the number of escapes, says the report, obtained
under the Access to Information Act.
The
study, completed in March, looked at the rising number of prisoners ordered to
serve the final third of their sentences at halfway houses.
The Corrections Canada study determined
that more than a third of these prisoners are escaping each year, violating
their parole and often committing further crimes.
Federal
legislation allows most prisoners to get parole after serving two-thirds of
their sentence -- known as statutory release -- but gives the National Parole
Board the power to send the most difficult prisoners to halfway houses.
The
board is using that power more often: 1,291 prisoners on statutory release were
required to live in halfway houses in 2003-2004, or about one of every four.
That's
up sharply from four years ago, when the condition was imposed on 800 prisoners,
or about one in six on statutory release.
Offenders
sent to halfway houses, the most restrictive form of parole, tend to have
committed violent crimes and have been resistant to programs designed to
integrate them into the community.
Across
Canada, 405 such prisoners escaped in 2002-2003, although all but three had been
recaptured by the time the report was written.
Most
were caught within three weeks.
Researchers
examined the files for 100 of these escapees and found that a third of them were
charged with new crimes, most of them violent such as robbery and assault. Many
abused alcohol and drugs.
Only
about 10 per cent of all offenders on statutory release commit further crimes,
indicating the halfway-house group is far more likely to get in trouble with the
law.
The
report calls for more research, but also recommends earlier intervention in
prison for drug and alcohol problems, and giving released prisoners more say
about which community they live in, where family and other support may be
available.
A
spokeswoman for the department said it's not surprising that these halfway-house
offenders are difficult to manage, since the parole board has already identified
them as problem prisoners.
"Obviously,
they're not the most motivated offenders," said Suzanne Brisebois of the
community reintegration division. "They're kind of a unique category of
offender." She cautioned that the study was only a preliminary review and
that more research is needed.
A
spokeswoman for the National Parole Board, Nadine Archambault, said the board is
imposing the halfway-house condition more often only because more parolees are
fitting the strict profile of released prisoners likely to reoffend.
A
halfway house in Vernon, B.C., is slated to be shut down after a home-invasion
killing in August made national headlines.
Eric Fish, 42, who was on day parole at Howard House, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 75-year-old Bill Abramenko.