Don’t give away keys to parole system, OPSEU warns

Ontario proposal to hand responsibility
to Ottawa is 'a disaster waiting to happen.'

Toronto - An Ontario Liberal proposal to hand responsibility for Ontario’s provincial parole system over to the federal government is a disaster waiting to happen, says the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE).

Under the proposal, the province would abolish the Ontario Parole and Early Release Board (OPERB) and transfer responsibility to Ottawa for reviewing and approving parole applications from provincial inmates - along with supervision of parolees in the community.

“This plan is a threat to the safety of communities across Ontario,” says OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “Our provincial parole system is there to keep high-risk inmates off the streets and keep our communities safe. We have one of the toughest systems in Canada.”

OPERB refuses almost 80% of parole applications, compared to the National Parole Board’s refusal rate of only 41%. Ontario inmates on parole are supervised directly by an Ontario probation and parole officer in one of 125 offices province-wide.

By comparison, Correctional Services Canada operates only 18 parole offices in Ontario and regularly contracts out community supervision to outside agencies.

It costs $3 million per year to operate OPERB, equal to less than 0.2% of the $1.75 billion annual budget of the ministry of community safety and correctional services. With parole so closely integrated with the much larger provincial probation system, the government’s plan would generate virtually no savings from supervision, the union says.

“The growth of community sentencing means that provincial inmates are more dangerous than ever,” says Casselman. “We need to keep a tough parole system – and one that is accountable directly to the people of Ontario – to help keep our communities safe.” NUPGE

Web posted by NUPGE: 14 October 2005

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