Penal reform ‘Canadian style’: Fiscal responsibility and decarceration in Alberta, Canada
Abstract
To fulfil a political promise to eliminate the provincial fiscal deficit, the (conservative) Premier of Alberta cut all budgets by roughly 20 per cent in 1993–1994. As an unanticipated by-product, this political solution to a political problem resulted in a 32 per cent decrease in provincial imprisonment between 1993 and 1997. Economic imperatives created the catalyst for changes in imprisonment policies. However, the types of change and the mechanisms for achieving them reflected Canada’s specific history, culture and politico-legal structures. Decarceration was consistent with core Canadian values rooted in the long-standing belief in the need for restraint in the use of imprisonment and a lack of faith in its effectiveness as a crime control strategy. On the surface, this case study is yet another example of decarceration. However, the interactive and multi-factorial explanatory model underlying Alberta’s reduction in its prison population raises questions about not only single factors or simple additive models as explanations for changes in penal policies but also uni-dimensional solutions to jurisdictions in need of fiscal restraint. The historical and cultural embeddedness of Alberta’s decarceration alerts us to its country-specific nature and the need to situate imprisonment in a broader set of concerns.
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Biographies
Cheryl Marie Webster is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. She received her MA in Sociology from the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa in Lisbon, Portugal and a PhD in Criminology from the University of Toronto. Her work has focused on the development of criminal justice policy in Canada and, more recently, on the variation in imprisonment rates within countries such as Canada.
Anthony N Doob is a Professor Emeritus of Criminology at the University of Toronto. His work, in recent years has focused on imprisonment rates and on the operation of Canada's youth justice system.
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Article first published online: January 7, 2014
Issue published: January 2014
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