Human Rights, Corrections & Reintegration

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Graham Stewart speaks about A Flawed Compass: A Human Rights Analysis of the Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety - This report is a critical review of the policy paper on the Correctional Service of Canada released publicly in December 2007 by a panel appointed by then Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Stockwell Day. Headlined A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety, the report has been embraced by the Government and the Correctional Service of Canada as the script for a trans-formation agenda for Canadian federal corrections. Neither the report nor the transformation agenda has been subject to any serious public policy analysis or debate, yet corrections is now being made over in its image. Makeovers of faces, bodies and houses - may provide accept-able scripts for popular reality television shows, but this makeover of federal corrections affects not just the external façade of prisons but would undermine the fundamental human rights of the men and women confined behind their walls and fences. Yet the Roadmap makes no reference to and indeed seems oblivious to the long struggle in the history of Canadian imprisonment to entrench a culture of respect for human rights. There are many recommendations of the Roadmap which reflect ideological and populist views that being tough on crime is a sufficient and defensible basis for public policy. Not only will implementation of many of the key recommendations undermine respect for human rights but they will also do nothing to enhance public safety. They are deeply flawed and we believe it is necessary that the Government and CSC be held accountable before the transformation makes a mockery of Canadas commitment to the defence of human rights. (from the Preface of A Flawed Compass: A Human Rights Analysis of the Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety)

Full report available at www.justicebehindthewalls.net under news

Graham Stewart, MSW retired from his position as the Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Canada in June 2007 after 38 years with the Society. JHS Canada is the national office for a network of 60 charities across Canada concerned with addressing the problems of crime and the rehabilitation of those in prisons and after release. His career began with the John Howard Society in 1969 followed by positions in Waterloo Region, Kingston and at the John Howard Society of Ontario where he was the Director of Re-form Programs and in 1990 the Executive Director where he remained until being appointed to JHS as Executive Director in 1996. He has extensive experience as a counsellor, administrator and policy analyst for the Society. During the last 20 years of his career Graham was responsible for the analysis of criminal justice issues, policies and trends, prepared briefs and position papers on behalf of the Society and acted as the primary spokesperson on policy and reform matters. Topics he has addressed include issues in corrections, parole and gradual release, sentencing and sentencing alternatives, young offenders, community corrections and the voluntary sector. He has represented the JHS at hearings of Parliamentary and Senate committees, various commissions and filled other consultative roles. He has also taught courses in criminal justice at St. Lawrence College in Kingston and at the University of Ottawa.