A just suggestion

One of the more striking shifts in Canadian politics over the past decade-plus has been increased pandering on crime across the political spectrum - and the last few years of Con grandstanding at the federal level have only made matters worse. Which is why even as the U.S. is starting to wake up to the implications of its own ineffective policies, Canada is unfortunately trending toward a more costly, more rigid system which nonetheless does less to protect public safety. And the Harper government has led the charge while bragging that its strategy relies on telling Canadians to ignore actual evidence about crime rates and results.

From that starting point, let's note one of the more interesting platform planks in the Saskatchewan NDP leadership campaign. While the other candidates have stayed silent on the issue, Ryan Meili's stance on justice makes for a much-needed break from the usual:

Saskatchewan needs a criminal justice system that is effective. A system that (step 1) efficiently and accurately identifies those who harm other citizens and (step 2) uses the most effective techniques for reducing the possibility that they may again harm other citizens. Our present methods do not focus on effective measures (step 2); instead, we focus on incarceration to attempt to “frighten” potential offenders. Simply put, that technique, especially in Saskatchewan’s unique circumstances, has been proven to be worse than useless.
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There are many reasons for sending persons to prison (for example, the offender refuses to quit harming others) but the conclusion that we should not rely on incarceration to reduce future crime is inescapable. Incarceration tends to increase, not decrease crime.
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An effective justice system must measure its success mainly on how well it changes harmful behaviour to social usefulness (step 2). To do that we must reduce those techniques which have the side effect of increasing crime. The money saved should be used to fund those organizations which have shown that (sic) are (or can be) successful at dealing with persons with multiple disadvantages.

We need to aim for effective measures and rely less on trying to frighten the marginalized to transform our justice system into a powerful force for good.

Of course, a provincial government can't solve the problem on its own, particularly in the face of a federal government so eager to make sure that more resources get wasted on needless incarceration.

But there's still plenty that can be done to make the justice system more efficient and more effective. And the more politicians at all level are willing to highlight the absurdity of using public resources to make the public less safe, the better the chances of turning the tide in the long run - no matter how much easier the pandering option might seem for now.