Academic says Justice Dept. officials misled politicians about the deterrent value of longer sentences for violent crime

From the Toronto Sun (Academic targets bureaucrats by Kathleen Harris, November 26):

Officials in the federal justice and public safety departments misled the government by suggesting there's no evidence linking longer prison sentences with cuts in violent crime, an Ottawa academic will tell MPs at a parliamentary committee tomorrow.

Ian Lee, a public policy expert at Carleton University, said a body of research from "superstar" academics at Ivy League schools demonstrates a deterrent effect from incarceration and minimum mandatory sentences. He said federal government staff ignored and denied that research when they briefed ministers preparing to draft new legislation.

[. . .]

Lee -- who has written a paper to be published next spring entitled: "Righting wrongs: Locking them up without losing the key. Tory reforms to crime and punishment" -- called for an investigation into the actions of "philosophically" bent civil servants. He said the bias must be "urgently attended to" by the clerk of the Privy Council and the deputy ministers of justice and public safety.

"We've always had a non-partisan and highly professional public service. This behaviour is at complete variance with our goal, our value of a professional, non-partisan public service," he said.

[. . .]

Read the Kathleen Harris' article.

See also:

PS experts opposed Tory crime agenda

Toronto has started to take gun violence for granted

What has changed in the last forty years to make Toronto a violent city?

Speaking the truth about immigration and crime cost Gwyn Morgan his federal appointment

Technorati tags: Canada Canadian crime criminal law justice criminology statistics sentences deterrence politics Stephen Harper Vic Toews