Project description: The Judicial Review is a federal program established in the 1970s in response to criticism of right-wing sentencing policies.  Fifteen years into a sentence, a prisoner may pass before the Judicial Review to earn a reduction in their minimum sentence – i.e. an earlier date for parole eligibility.  However, the Judicial Review program has undergone changes and is inconsistently applied across provinces. 

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

Research will be both historical and statistical and will include critical analysis.

Historical:

A.  What is the Judicial Review, and how was it established?  What were the politics surrounding its evolution? 

B.  What policies currently govern the Judicial Review?

Statistical: 

A.  Investigate regional differences in Judicial Review outcomes.  How do success rates in winning early parole eligibility vary between provinces/territories?

B.  How do the recidivism rates of Judicial Review winners compare to other paroled lifers?  How do they compare regionally?

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.

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 with and following-up with the group.  

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).