| Historical Information |
|---|
| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
C-283 – An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (addiction treatment in penitentiaries) – makes changes to the Criminal Code and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to designate certain prisons as addiction treatment facilities.
Criminal Code
C-283’s changes to the Criminal Code make it so a court, on request of someone that’s been sentenced to imprisonment, can have part or all of the sentence carried out in a facility that’s been designated as an addiction treatment facility. There are a few conditions to this:
- There needs to be evidence that addiction lead to the person committing the crime they were sentenced for
- The person needs to consent to the program
- The offence does not have a maximum sentence of 14 years or life
- The offence does not have a maximum sentence of 10 years, and did not result in bodily harm, did not involve drug trafficking, and did not involve the use of a weapon
Corrections and Conditional Release Act
C-283 classifies a “designated facility” as any prison the government decides should offer addiction treatment to inmates. It would also allow the federal government to make an agreement with provincial governments where the federal government would pay for these treatment programs.
Second Reading
C-283 went up for its Second Reading Vote and was defeated, 146 in favour and 177 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 152 | 2 |
| Conservative | 114 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 29 | 0 | 1 |
| NDP | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| Green Party | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 0 | 0 |
The Conservatives argue that addiction is resulting in people re-entering the prison system shortly after they leave it. (Tracy refers to C-283 as the “End the Revolving Door Act”)
The Liberals argue that focusing addiction treatment within the prison system will limit its effectiveness and result in more people from minority populations being sent to prison on the grounds of needing treatment.
The Bloc want to see more focus on treatment inside prisons on the grounds that it’s too easy for drugs to be smuggled into prisons, and argue that it’s nearly impossible to stop now that drones are so widely available. They want to increase addiction treatment within prisons as a way to stop the use of readily-available drugs.
The NDP say that the Canadian prison system is currently too focused on punishment first, rehabilitation second. There’s a history of imprisonment undermining mental health care, and mental health and addiction treatments have a much higher success rate in community settings.
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