A former Crown prosecutor says Canada needs to look south of the border when it comes to effectively deterring repeat offenders of alcohol-related crimes.
Harold Johnson says the American justice system does a much more effective job of monitoring alcohol consumption for offenders on probation for such crimes as drinking and driving.
“Right now, in northern Saskatchewan, we put people on these orders all the time and about 85 per cent of the time they’re breached,” he says. “People drink and they do something stupid, they get arrested.”
He says Canada could use tools such as transdermal bracelets to better monitor alcohol consumption for those on probation.
Johnson adds we need to stop looking at alcohol-related crime as a black and white issue. He says the people who commit these offences are not all alcoholics and can come from pretty much anywhere on the drinking spectrum.
“Fifty per cent of the harms from alcohol are caused by people who don’t drink that much. To solve the problem with alcohol, we’ve got to look at the people who aren’t in the obsessive-compulsive range.”
Statistics show Saskatchewan’s three northern health regions are amongst the highest in Canada when it comes to alcohol-related hospitalizations.
Two-thirds of vehicular-related deaths in northern Saskatchewan are also alcohol-related.
It is also estimated the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority takes in approximately $258 million in revenues per year from alcohol sales.
However, this pales in comparison to alcohol-related costs to both the healthcare and justice systems at about $680 million.
Harold Johnson, who is also a consultant with Saskatchewan’s Northern Alcohol Strategy, was one of the keynote speakers at a justice symposium in Prince Albert on Thursday.
(PHOTO: Harold Johnson. Photo by Fraser Needham.)