ARE PRISON SENTENCES GETTING LONGER?
We have seen that new prison commitments from the courts have decreased in Canada since 1994/95. Now we want to see whether the average prison sentence-length has changed. In Table 6 (below), we present statistics of men receiving a custodial sentence since 1994/95, grouped according to the sentencing length categories published by Statistics Canada. Over the total eight years: • There was an increase in the proportion of sentenced cases that received a federal sentence (” 24 months or more” ). This proportion increased from 2.9% in 1994/95 to a high of 3.9% in 1999/00, and then fell back slightly to register 3.6% in both 2000/01 and 2001/02. The increase to 3.6% represents a gain of 221 cases as compared to 1994/95, or a proportional gain of 11%. • Second, the proportion of cases that received the next longest sentence, a term of ” >12 to <24 months ", also increased (albeit slightly, from 2.7% to 2.9% overall). Because of the overall decline in the number of cases, this proportional
