There is no 'time' if you do the crime... and are sorry after being caught:

Jail-less sentences common practice across Canada
The Edmonton Journal
Sun 25 Sep 2005
Page: A16
Section: Opinion
Byline: Lorne Gunter
Column: Lorne Gunter
Source: The Edmonton Journal

Welcome to the wonderful world of Canadian justice, a.k.a. Wrist-Slaps-R-Us.

For those who haven't been following along with the slow, steady decline in
criminal justice in this country, Adscam fraudster Paul Coffin's
two-years-less-a-day punishment, which includes no time in jail, is probably
a shock. However, if you found yourself dumbfounded by the leniency of the
sentence for the first major player convicted in the Adscam scandal, you're
not alone, you're just out of touch.

Short, jail-less sentences are now par for the course in this country. For
instance, of the nearly 30,000 young offenders in the criminal justice
system, nearly 90 per cent are on probation at any given time. Among the
remaining 3,000 or so, just 1,000 across the entire country are in a
young-offenders jail, 800 or so are in remand awaiting trial and the rest
are in "open custody," a euphemism if ever there was one.

There is no custody in "open custody." Offenders are assigned to group
homes, foster homes and half-way houses. This means that of all the young
offenders in Canada, only about six per cent are in anything remotely
resembling a jail, a decline of one-third in the past decade.

Some of this decline is the result of fewer charges laid against youths, but
much of it is a direct result of federal pledges to incarcerate fewer and
fewer criminals.

The same is true of adult criminals.

According to Statistics Canada, "the number of offenders serving conditional
sentences in the community surpasses the number of adults serving a sentence
in a provincial or territorial jail" or a federal prison, by nearly
four-to-one.

Coffin's conditional sentence is the norm rather than the exception. Of the
nearly 160,000 adult Canadians "under the supervision of correctional
services agencies," StatsCan reports that 21 per cent are in custody, "79
per cent are being supervised in the community."

Female criminals have it even easier. Just over 15 per cent of women
convicted of a crime will ever see the inside of a cell. The average stay,
for those unlucky few who have to serve time, is just over 90 days for
single crime, just under six months for multiple crimes. The average length
of probation was about 15 months for "single-conviction" cases, about 19
months for multiple-conviction criminals.

Unless you are found guilty of murder or attempted murder, a serious
assault, rape, impaired driving, robbery or theft over $5000, you are
unlikely to spend any time in prison in Canada.

In response to the old adage, "don't do the crime if you can't do the time,"
the average Canadian criminal's response would likely be, "What time?"

It's not just Coffin who gets off lightly.

Consider the sentence of Teresa Layne Senner, of Vanderhoof, B.C. She killed
Norman Wicks in November 2002 with a single knife stab to the groin after
Wicks informed her he would not leave his wife to marry her, and after she
learned he was having affairs with at least three other women besides her.

When Senner confronted Wicks in his home, she testified "stuff just started
flying," including the knife that just happened to end up in her hand and
then in his crotch.

The judge claimed not to buy her excuse that she was merely trying to get
the knife out of the way of their quarrel, and safeguard Wicks, when the
blade accidentally ended up in his nether regions.

The trial judge admitted most of Senner's testimony did not stand up to
close examination. Nonetheless, because she "had no criminal record and had
been a contributing member of society," he handed her a conditional sentence
of two years less a day. She may live in her home and continue working. The
only conditions are that she seek counselling and obey an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
curfew.

My guess is the Coffin judge, Justice Jean-Guy Boilard of the Quebec
Superior Court, is likely surprised by the public outrage against the
sentence he handed out. When it has come to the point that our justice
system thinks it appropriate to sentence Senner to go to her room after
supper each evening for two years, Justice Boilard was likely convinced his
sentence for Coffin was completely normal.

In 1970, the focus of the federal corrections department shifted from
punishment of prisoners to their rehabilitation. In 1996, the focus was
changed again, from rehab to "restorative justice."

According to the Justice Department, restorative justice "encourages the use
of community-based sentencing and draws on key restorative elements, such as
the need to promote a sense of responsibility in offenders and for them to
acknowledge and make reparation to their victims and to the community."

Section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code states "all available sanctions, other
than imprisonment, should be considered for all offenders."

Of course, Coffin's sentence is outlandish. Of course, Crown prosecutors in
Quebec should appeal.

Still, Coffin's sentence was not that unusual, even though it should be.
____________________
Lorne Gunter
Columnist/Editorial Writer,
National Post
Columnist, Edmonton Journal