“Another question is whether increasing the length of time people do for their crimes accomplishes anything more than satisfying a general desire to see criminals punished.

Increasing incarceration rates may suppress crime, at least temporarily, by keeping people prone to committing it off the streets, [Gary Ellis, head of the justice studies program at the University of Guelph-Humber, who recently retired after a 30-year career with Toronto police] observed. But if the causes that often lead to crime, including substance abuse and mental illness, aren’t addressed while the person is in jail, “then you’re warehousing them for just as long as it takes for them to get out of jail and then they have very little recourse but to return to crime,” he said.”

John Ibbitson