The reviews are in

A couple of columns today nicely criticize the Cons' reckless crime policies for their massive public costs - making for a particularly apt message on a day when the Cons are feigning responsibility when it comes to Canada's finances.

Here's the Ottawa Citizen:

By the time Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page is through putting a price tag on the federal government's tough-on-crime agenda, even those who support the concept in principle might well be asking: "Why are we doing this?"

That could turn into a $10 billion question, or more, before all the costs are tallied, according to some estimates. Page is expected to release a report this week on ongoing and future costs of the government's crime bills, something the federal government has failed to do and may not have even calculated for its own benefit, considering the difficulty both Page's office, MPs, and senators have had gathering financial data. Early indications are that provinces will be on the hook for the bulk of the costs associated with one of those crime bills, the Truth in Sentencing legislation, also known as the two-for-one sentencing law.
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The enormous drain on the public purse that the government's law-and-order agenda represents is, however, not the only reason to question its value. As criminologists, lawyers and other justice experts have repeatedly noted, the policies championed by the Harper government are not likely to make Canadians safer...

It's bad enough that Conservative operatives and politicians decline to set the record straight and disabuse Canadians of their misguided fears about unsafe streets. Worse, the Harper Conservatives have helped stoke these fears in the cynical belief that doing so is to their political benefit.
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(M)ndatory minimums encourage those who can afford good lawyers to reach plea bargains to avoid harsh mandatory sentences. More importantly, the research makes clear that 40 years of study indicates they do not deter crime.

What these policies will do is substantially increase prison populations across the country, which is going to cost taxpayers a lot of money. Thanks to parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, we may be getting some sense of exactly how exorbitant this will be. The question the government must answer is: What are we getting for our money?

And Dave Breakenridge:

The cost of the so-called Truth-in-Sentencing law, just one of several pieces of Tory tough-on-crime legislation, is in dispute, with Toews suggesting it’s a scant $2 billion, while reports indicate the parliamentary budget officer has it pegged at five times that amount.

Somewhere in that gap lies the real cost, and when it’s added to the several other measures in the hopper, including minimum jail time for drug crimes, we’re left with a large expense to the taxpayer without any real indication our streets will be any safer.
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(I)t’s time this government realizes that streets can be made safer, and money saved, by not throwing every anti-social type under lock and key.

Drug court funding hikes would be a good start, as would stepping away from some mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes.

Because the more people we keep out of jail who don’t belong there, the more room we have for the worst of the worst.