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Why innocent citizens get locked up in Canada

March 27, 2013   ·   0 Comments

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Can you be thrown in jail even if you are innocent? In Canada, it’s an automatic yes, where they treat the accused like they are guilty until proven innocent .Mark Stobbe, author of Lessons from Remand knows all too well what vital flaws remain in the court system. From his first-hand experience Stobbe tells the Voice of Russia how common unfair treatment and long waits for court cases actually are in Canada.

Innocent or not, Canadian officials would rather hold a potential convict in jail than let them wait until trial. According to Statistics Canada, over the past 10 years, more adults stay in remand facilities while those sentenced to prison have been on the decline. What’s more, longer stays along with the population increase inside remand centers has caused cells to become crammed. Surprising or not, innocent people have been held in remand, feeling stressed, isolated, and on edge about the state of their future.

“The place where I was, was designed to hold 300 prisoners, it’s usually got close to 1000 in it now. Each cell has got three people in it, one of whom is sleeping on the floor because there’s no room.  The cell is literally a tiny room,” revealed Stobbe, who spent over a month in a remand facility in Canada, for a crime he did not commit.

Remand centers in Canada have become the equivalent to a revolving door though. Many offenders who end up in remand once more have only breached the terms they were released on through conditional release. In some instances, the rules they must comply with are quite strict, offering the recently released an easy chance to reoffend by accident. Rules like, no alcohol, no contact with particular people and even curfew are meant to treat the possible innocent like they are already guilty.

Though, law enforcement ends up finding the ones who breach from their strict regulations one way or another. Stobbe calls it the “Big Sweep” which would happen every Friday in his remand facility, like clockwork. By the end of the night, the cells are filled back up again with people who broke the rules according to their conditional terms.

However, the tight restrictions are put in place for a reason. If the jailed get released and are then accused of a different crime while out on a provisionary basis, the media reports it and the public goes wild.  “That’s the dynamic that’s led to the police and prosecutors and judges, from their point of view playing it safe and saying well, we’ll just keep everybody locked up or more people locked up while they’re awaiting trial,” told Stobbe, author of Lessons from Remand.

Reentering the remand system is an all too common story for many Canadians. The time accumulated from their long stay until their court date has staggering results on both the victim and the accused. “It’s quite common in Canada when a person actually gets to court and has their charge dealt with, they’re released immediately because of the amount of time they’ve already served,” said Stobbe.

Problems persist in the penal system of Canada. Nevertheless, is temporarily locking up a possible innocent person better than releasing a potential criminal on harsh regulations? The answer is complex, but a solution can be found.

 “Well, those tough conditions are a trap because the more conditions you put on, the more likely somebody is going to violate one even if they don’t know their violating it,” said Stobbe. If Canada can learn to loosen their reins of power in the courts and give innocent people freedom instead of punishment—perhaps fewer people would be locked up for ridiculous reasons in the first place.  For now though, new victims emerge every day Canada throws another accused but innocent citizen into one of their many remand centers.

Sarah Neary
 
VOR

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