Justice Reform Initiatives ~ Early Solutions, Faster Justice
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Criminal Justice Reform
Prolific Offender Management Project
About 50 per cent of reported crimes in British Columbia are committed by about 10 per cent of offenders. Although these are primarily property crimes, the impact of prolific offenders on communities and public safety, as well as public confidence in the justice system is substantial. These offenders’ criminal behaviour reaches well beyond the justice system to cause disproportionately high costs to the health care system, housing and social services, as well as to individuals, businesses and communities through property and financial losses.
Much of these offenders’ behaviour can be linked to substance abuse and addictions, mental disorders, lack of job skills and other issues. Evidence shows that focusing law enforcement on prolific offenders while referring them to the services they need to prevent them from committing more crime, has broad benefits for communities by reducing crime rates and chronic criminal behaviour.
For this reason, the prolific offender management project is being set up in five pilot communities – Kamloops, Nanaimo, Prince George, Surrey, and Victoria (Capital Regional District) and Williams Lake - to test an integrated approach to reducing crime by more intensively managing the small number of offenders who commit a large proportion of crime.
The prolific offender pilot project brings together resources from enforcement agencies (police, corrections and Crown) and health and social services. The project aims to use more intensive supervision of and timely intervention with a small group of prolific offenders to reduce crime, whether that is through treatment or incarceration.
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