Last week's Communiqué on Canada's justice system spoke briefly about the need to judge the merits of a system based on its effectiveness.

Recidivism rates are often looked at as the report card for a corrections system. While pointing out the many variables that exist in attempting to produce meaningful recidivism rates, Canada Correction Services studies show the percentage of former prisoners who reoffend. On reviewing these statistics we find that of the 47.8% of prisoners who qualify for day parole, sadly, 41.6% return to prison within three years. Incredibly, of the 28.3% who are released on mandatory supervision almost half, 46.6%, reoffend within three years.

Provincially the results are no better, and actually appear to be worsening. Consider this report from the CBC in March of this year:

"Figures from Manitoba Justice show 75 per cent of people released from provincial jails in the last three months of 2007 were accused of breaking a law or court order by the end of last year.

"That's the highest rate of recidivism within a two-year period since 2002."

These statistics reveal that our prisons and jails don't just receive a failing grade; the system itself is flawed.

Now, any educational or correctional institution knows that if half your class is repeatedly failing, then there is a major problem with the program and/or the instructor. Yet, incredibly, our government believes that building more prisons is the answer.

Let's take for instance a small business giving obedience classes to dogs. If it showed similar failure rates we know they would soon find themselves out of business. Yet, if a community applied our government's strategy to this dog obedience business they would build more of the same dog businesses to accommodate the failures. And, they would do so at the expense of those who had been bitten by the dogs!

Today, it doesn't matter if criminals have addressed their criminality, undergone treatment, or followed prison rules—almost everyone is automatically set free after serving two-thirds their sentence simply to make room in prisons. In effect, taxpayers are paying to house and harden our criminals prior to putting them back on the street to once again endanger our community. Everyone loses.

CHP Canada recognizes that prison programming must change. Canadian voters need to know that there is a party that is not afraid to tackle the issue using fresh, innovative-and successful-programs. We describe below three programs, listed in order of lowest recidivism outcomes, which the CHP would employ in our prisons for the benefit of society and prisoners:

1. The Prisoner Entrepreneurship Program: Catherine Rohr, the founder and CEO constructively redirects inmates' talents by equipping them with Christian values-based entrepreneurial training enabling them to productively re-enter society. This program has accomplished a 98% employment rate and less than 5% return-to-prison rate. Catherine Rohr was the recipient of the "Most Innovative Program" award, presented to her by Christina Melton Crain, Chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. The program is funded by donations from businesses.
2. InnerChange Freedom InitiativeÃ'®: This is a values-based re-entry program developed by and affiliated with Prison Fellowship. The return-to-prison rate after two years is only 8%, from recidivism as high as 50% plus. This program, given by trained volunteers, is based on the belief that real and lasting change takes place from the inside out, and prisoners learn and live out a new set of values drawn from a Christian world view.
3. Prison College Program: A Post Secondary Correctional Education study conducted by Jon. M. Taylor clearly showed how a Canadian prison college program produced a recidivism rate of 14% compared to 52% of the matched group of non-student prisoners. There is a list of 12 other studies done in the U.S. which have proven that education dramatically reduces recidivism. In Canada today, statistics reveal that most offenders lack the basic literacy skills and education qualifications to be competitive in the labour market, and that without stable employment when released, offenders stand a much poorer chance of being successfully re-integrated.

Prison programming should be made mandatory for all inmates who are within approximately 24 months of release. Each weekday, from morning to night, they should be engaged in an intensive schedule of work, study, life-skills training, leadership development, counselling, and mentoring.

In other words, the serving of their last 24 months will not start until they are actively engaged in a program. The program must develop the whole person-emotionally, physically, and intellectually-and provide for moral transformation. It must stress personal responsibility, the value of education and work, care for persons and property.

And once back out in the community, the parolees should receive 12 more months of mentoring and support, primarily from local churches and trained volunteers. The models have shown that this re-entry component is critical in helping them find jobs and housing, reconnect with their families, and make a successful and long-lasting reintegration into society.

These types of programs and policies would give opportunity for repentance to be translated into lasting achievements. Parolees would have positive closure to their past misdeeds and would be mutual beneficiaries-with their victims and other taxpayers-of a follow-up program of restitution.

If it's broken it should be fixed. Our justice system is broken; the Christian Heritage Party would fix it.