$601 million to be spent to create 2,552 additional beds
The Conservatives announced $150-million in new spending for prison beds Monday which will allow 634 new spots at jails in Quebec, the Prairies and Ontario. Although the Conservative “tough on crime” agenda has been popular with many voters, the additional $601-million in funding announced for new beds has the opposition fighting back. “The big change was when we started to see what the costs were,” Mark Holland, Liberal public safety critic, said yesterday. The total number of new beds planned for current prisons is 2,552 and The Correctional Service of Canada is working on plans for new penitentiaries. More beds are needed to house criminals who may not have received jail time before new mandatory-sentence laws.