The Tories introduced two new anti-crime bills.

The Conservative government tabled two bills. One, Bill C-10, will increase the mandatory minimum sentences for crimes involving firearms, like robberies and attempted murder. The other bill, Bill C-9, will eliminate the use of conditional sentences, including house arrest, for serious offences.

What is a conditional sentence?

A conditional sentence is a prison term that may be served in the community, if certain criteria are met.

These conditions are:

• the offence cannot be punishable by a minimum term of imprisonment
• the sentence cannot exceed two years less a day
• the judge must be convinced that public safety will not be threatened by allowing the offender to serve a sentence in the community; and,
• the sentence must be consistent with the sentencing principles in the Criminal Code, which include denunciation and deterrence
• under the proposed legislation, a conditional sentence is not an option for anyone convicted of an offence prosecuted by indictment that carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years or more

What are the new mandatory minimum sentences?

Under the proposed legislation, the minimum sentences for serious, gun-related crimes will be increased as follows:

What's the violent crime rate in Canada?

The violent crime rate dropped by two per cent in 2004, the largest decline since 1999, according to Statistics Canada. There were more than 302,000 incidents of violent crime in Canada in 2004, accounting for about one in 10 criminal incidents. Violent crime includes homicide, attempted murder, assault, sexual assault, abduction and robbery. This rate has dropped by 10 per cent over the past decade, after having increased for most of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The homicide rate increased by 12 per cent in 2004. There were 622 homicide victims that year, 73 more than the previous year. This is a rate of 1.9 homicides for every 100,000 Canadians, a figure five per cent lower than a decade ago.

How many prison inmates are there in Canada?

At the end of 2005, there was an average of 32,100 people in prisons across Canada. In addition, about 120,500 people were under supervision in the community. The provinces and territories run prisons for those sentenced to terms less than two years. They also are responsible for probation and for young offenders. In the federal prisons, for those serving terms two years and longer, there are 12,413 inmates, 12,034 men and 379 women, according to Corrections Canada as of April 11, 2004.

How long are the sentences served in federal prisons?

What are they serving time for?

What do the experts say about mandatory minimum sentencing and conditional sentences?

It depends on whom you ask. Justice Minister Vic Toews, when announcing the anti-crime bills, pointed to U.S. states where he said minimum mandatory sentences have produced a significant drop in crime. By 1994, all 50 states had enacted one or more mandatory sentencing laws. A 1997 report published by the U.S. Department of Justice said in Boston "the law was an effective deterrent of gun crime, at least in the short term."

But, the report also cited studies of similar laws in Michigan and Florida which found no evidence that crimes committed with firearms had been prevented. And, the evaluation of mandatory gun-use sentencing in Detroit, Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh indicated that the laws deterred homicide, but not other violent crimes.

Professor Kelly Hannah-Moffat, who specializes in criminology at the University of Toronto, says the research doesn't support Toews' claim.

"Get tough policies don't deter people from committing crimes. It's a simplistic understanding of what is a complex problem."

She says people commit crimes for reasons that go beyond punishments, citing economic and social issues like poverty as a contributing factor.

What it will do, she says, is increase the number of inmates in Canada's prison system.

"Prison isn't particularly effective as a deterrent. And it's not necessarily appropriate for all offenders."

Hannah-Moffat said prison should be used as a last resort. She says they're "not magic elixirs that fix all problems. By sending them to prison, you don't heighten public safety or deal with the underlying issues."

And, she adds, prison time is a "short-sighted" measure. Hannah-Moffat says incarceration cuts the individual off from the support of their friends and family, and stigmatizes them. She says it leaves them ill-equipped for when they are released.

"At some point in time, the individual will return to the community," she says. "Rather than saying they should just go to prison, we've got to think more deeply about what we're trying to accomplish with this."

Alternate punishments, like probation or conditional sentences, are viable options, she says.

"We seem to think that the only legitimate punishment for crime is prison. But, punishment can be accomplished in the community, and without the use of prison."

This isn't to say that penalties aren't warranted, she says, but "judges need to be given some discretion to see whom prison is appropriate for."