Federal, provincial governments responsible for prison overcrowding: professor

The provincial and federal governments both contribute to overcrowding in institutions Canada-widedespite a historically low crime rate, a University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor says.

• Manitoba jails bursting at the seams while crime rates continue to fall

On Thursday, a CBC analysisrevealed the ballooning inmate population is having far-reaching consequences for the most vulnerable members of society, and alsotaxpayers.

At the federal level, tough laws, including mandatory minimum sentences, are responsible for the high lockup rate and low crime rate, Michael Weinrathtold the CBC.

However, Weinrath said despite having no control over Canada's Criminal Code, the province can have "quite an impact" on the number of people in custody, particularly as increasing numbers of police officers and Crown prosecutors are hired.

"So, you have very aggressive policing," Weinrath said.

"A lot of enforcement of curfews, administrative offences, and you have the Crown actively resisting bail, and so suddenly what you're seeing is an increase in the number of people in our provincial jails despite the fact that the crime rate's going down."

Inmates are directly impacted, as conditions of confinement decline with the rising lockup rate, he said.

"In Manitoba, particularly over the last few years, we've had unprecedented growth. Butcertainly prison construction of beds has not kept up with [that]," Weinrath said.

"So, you have a lot of people crowded, you have a lot of double bunking, you actually don't have as much access to recreation.You also have less programs or more superficial programs being run because you don't even know how long the inmates will be there."