Sentencing In Adult Provincial Courts

Information is provided about sentencing practices in nine adult provincial courts. The various sentences imposed for selected offences are presented and discussed.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act replaces the Young Offenders Act to provide the legislative framework for a fairer & more effective youth justice system.

The 'conditional sentence' was enacted in September 1996 as a new sentencing option for adult offenders. Under this new sanction, an offender could be ordered a term of imprisonment of less than two years to be served within the community. During the 2001 to 2002 period, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics conducted a special study of conditional sentences in correctional services in order to examine the impact of this new sentence on the administration of sentencing in Canada and to explore its application through an examination of caseloads and case characteristics. This report uses data from that special study, as well as the Adult Correctional Services Survey, to profile conditional sentence caseloads and case characteristics (e.g., length of sentence, most serious offence, conditions ordered), and offender characteristics (e.g., age, sex, Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal), nationally, provincially and territorially for the period of 1997 to 2001. Data on conditional sentences are also compared with probation and incarceration. Additional information describing jurisdictional administrative policies and procedures governing conditional sentences is also provided. The correctional services data have been supplemented with court data on conditional sentences from three jurisdictions: Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Alberta.

On 3 September 1996, Bill C-41 was proclaimed in force, initiating one significant step in the reform of sentencing and parole in Canada. This is the first book that, in addition to providing an overview of the law, effectively presents a sociological analysis of the legal reforms and their ramifications in this controversial area. The commissioned essays in this collection cover such crucial issues as options and alternatives in sentencing, patterns revealed by recent statistics, sentencing of minority groups, Bill C-41 and its effects, conditional sentencing, and the structure and relationship between parole and sentencing are clearly presented. An introduction, editorial comments beginning each chapter, and a concluding chapter draw the essays together resulting in a timely, comprehensive and extremely readable work on this critical topic. Broad in scope and perspective, this major new socio-legal study of the law of sentencing will be illuminating to students, members of the legal profession, and the general reader.