Is the work being done by the BC criminal justice system enough to respond to the issue of repeat offenders? Or is it our society that’s failing this revolving door of offenders?
How crime is handled has become a vital issue for residents in Vancouver. This is partly thanks to what some have referred to as a “surge of crime” in Vancouver over the past couple of years.
The subject of repeat offenders continues to be a part of the discussion, as many of the high-profile crimes committed over the past year have been by people who have had a history within BC’s criminal justice system.
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What the VPD says
VPD Sgt. Steve Addison (Amir Ali/Daily Hive)
The Vancouver Police Department recently held a news conference discussing the arrest of a man caught on tape. Some were concerned about the Vancouver Police officers using too much force to make an arrest. There was also a child present at the time.
VPD Sergeant Steve Addison told the media that this person had a history with police, and that’s why he was treated the way he was. A member of the press asked Addison if repeat offenders were keeping the police away from other, more critical issues.
“We’ve talked about this a lot. We’re continuously arresting the same people over and over and over again.”
He pointed to that same arrest of the man caught on tape, suggesting that he was arrested numerous times.
“There’s a small number of people that are involved in a significant number of crimes,” he added.
Addison also spoke about how much power police have to keep potentially violent offenders off the streets. He says very little.
“We can certainly recommend that a person be remanded in custody,” he said, adding that beyond that, they have no control over whether or not someone is released.
Are longer sentences the answer? Can the province do more?
BC Supreme Court (Google Maps)
We recently covered the story of a man facing several assault charges who was released on bail and subsequently disappeared. However, several days later, police had him back in custody. This led to some discussions around bail in BC and whether or not the system was working as intended.
Last month, an open letter from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association responded to the idea that longer sentences were needed. The letter’s title was, “No, longer prison sentences do not reduce crime.”
“The suggestion that individuals need to be sentenced to longer prison terms to benefit from programming is false. Research consistently shows that programming is more effective if it is delivered while a person is in the community rather than behind bars,” reads the letter.
We spoke to Sarah Leamon, a criminal lawyer with the Sarah Leamon Law Group. We recently published an opinion piece she wrote about the bail process in BC. She suggests blaming the bail system in BC is not the answer for the rise in stranger attacks.
Leamon writes, “While it is easy to understand the outrage over this particular facet of the justice system – especially considering the recent uptick in violent, random attacks throughout our city – we must be careful not to oversimplify the issue at hand.”
Can we do more as a society to help repeat offences?
We talked to Leamon about a recent case in Vancouver, where police were called to several stabbings in Crab Park. Questions were raised as the suspect, who, in that case, had a severe prior offence, was released and seemed to stay clean for a few years.
We asked Leamon if cases like this show a failure in the system once people are released from prison.
“The concern is always that a person’s going to re-enter the community, fall back into old habits or patterns and end up reoffending,” she said.
She also said that when people are released, they’re usually subject to a probationary period that involves some supervision and support, though it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Leamon states that in the Lower Mainland, there’s quite a bit in terms of resources regarding counselling. She said that some of this counselling is court-ordered. People with mental health issues may also have conditions to report to doctors to ensure they’re taking their medications and things like that.
“I’m trying to say that the justice system tries to keep people on track.”
Leamon suggests that the onus can’t just be on the system, suggesting something we don’t often hear: accountability.
“At a certain point, there has to be some accountability when it comes to that individual.”
“It doesn’t all fall just on the justice system. And I think that’s the big thing that people get mixed up in. They want to put all of their blame somewhere and that blame ends up being on the justice system, which is really the point of last intervention.”
She mentions that the justice system is where people end up when everything else has failed, “and the whole point is trying to avoid that from ever happening in the first place.”
“So I think placing the blame squarely, solely in the justice system is just completely unfounded. We have to consider the other factors in terms of how society is failing to properly identify, support, and rehabilitate people who are in danger of being or are prolific offenders.”
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