Constituents often tell me that they are frustrated by the fact that the justice system in Manitoba seems to be based on a revolving door model. Dangerous offenders are picked up by the police and they are released from custody or jail almost as quickly.
It might be surprising and concerning for residents to learn that not only does the justice system spin as a revolving door under the NDP government, some of those sentenced to jail time get released accidentally, before the time they are sentenced to serve is up.
While there is a great deal of attention given when a prisoner escapes from jail, the reality is that far more prisoners are released accidentally than those who manage to escape custody. In fact, a recent freedom of information request showed that over the past couple of years, a dozen individuals who were sentenced to prison time were released by accident. They were simply just allowed to walk away.
The obvious questions that arise from this are, how is it that criminals can be accidentally released from jail, what kind of offenders are getting released, how long are they at large before being re-apprehended and what lessons are learned from each accidental release to prevent it from happening again.
Unfortunately, the NDP Minister of Justice is refusing to release this information. In response to requests for detailed information about past accidental releases, the NDP indicated that they would be keeping this information a secret. What I have suggested to the Minister of Justice is that information be made available, even after an individual has been released accidentally and recaptured, as to the circumstances of the accidental release and what changes have been made to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
The fact that prisoners are being accidentally released from our jails is likely a result of a system that is under stress. To deal with those stresses effectively, information needs to be made public. It needs to be disclosed publicly the type of people being released accidentally, how long they were free and what steps were taken to correct the system to prevent it from happening again.
As it stands today, there is already a diminishing confidence in our justice system in Manitoba. Withholding information about a system that is releasing individuals from jail accidentally does nothing to increase that confidence.
