Project description: Recently, federally life-sentenced prisoners (lifers) in Canada have been facing both longer sentences and tightening parole conditions.  Although the government frames these increasingly restrictive sentencing policies as being responses to high recidivism rates, the direction of causation between recidivism and policy remains unclear.  Some preliminary questions which need answering are:  1) What is recidivism? (how is it defined by the Correctional Services of Canada), 2) When does a lifer become a recidivist? It is another murder, another offence or a parole violation? How do recidivism rates compare between lifers and non-lifers?

Research would consist of searching for hard-to-find statistical data, to answer and analyze the following questions:

A.  How many lifers are currently on parole in Canada?

B.  What is the recidivism rate for lifers convicted of a major violent offense?

C.  Of recidivists, how many are re-incarcerated due to breach of parole conditions?

D. How many lifers are successful once on parole? (Success means not going back to prison)

Research would also ideally cover broader themes relating to the history and current status of federal life sentencing policy.  This project may be done in conjunction with “Demystifying the Life Sentence in Canada”.

This research would address a critical lack of knowledge about the life sentence, by producing information valuable to prison justice organizers, to the public, and to incarcerated individuals and their families. 

Final product: The final project would be a well-cited report and analysis.  Alternative formats, such as information pamphlets and workshops, would be supplementary possibilities. The final report would likely be between 10-30 pages, depending on the arrangement.  Data and information gathering are the most time-intensive aspects of this project, and may require Access-to-Information requests.

Skills required: Undergraduate or graduate level, familiarity with statistical research a plus, writing skills a plus.  The ideal student would be interested in prison justice issues, and be committed to communicating and following up with the group.  French language comprehension is recommended.

About the organization: Re-Con is a prisoner initiated re-integration program, created in 1999, for lifers and long-term prisoners pending release at the Federal Training Center in Quebec. The motivation behind its inception was to establish a connection between the prisoner and the outside community, after a long period of incarceration. It is Re-Con's main goal to establish links with the community, especially regarding the community resources that may aid in the reintegration process and in diminishing the effects of long-term incarceration (institutionalization).