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Essay on Canadian Criminal Justice Sentencing
Introduction
Sentencing is defined as "the judicial determination of a legal sanction upon a person convicted of an offence." The Criminal Code contains a statement of purpose and principles of sentencing that provides direction to the courts in making sentencing decisions. The statement of purpose and principles is found in Section 718 and is an important benchmark for sentencing decisions and reform.
Conditional sentencing
Where a person is convicted of an offence, except an offence that is punishable by a minimum term of imprisonment, and the court can take the decision of conditional sentencing under three conditions: First, the offence of which the offender has been convicted must not carry a minimum term of imprisonment (This includes a small number of offences, including first- and second-degree murder). Second, the judge must have already decided to sentence the offender to a prison term of less than two years duration. Third, the court must be satisfied that the presence of the offender in the community would not endanger the community. Finally, the judge must also be satisfied that the imposition of a conditional sentence would be consistent with the purposes and principles of sentencing contained in sections 718-718.2 of the Criminal Code. The court may, for the purposes of supervising the offender’s behavior in the community, order that the offender serve the sentence in the community, subject to the offender’s complying with the conditions of a conditional sentence order made under section 742.3.
In the early 1990s, Canada’s prison population was increasing at almost twice the normal rate, and the country responded in 1996 with changes to the Criminal Code so conditional sentence came into force in 1996. It is a sentence that is served in the community and the basic purpose of imposing the conditional sentence is to reduce the number of admissions to custody in a safe and principled way.
