Day says new prisons needed for 'unreported crimes'

Day says new prisons needed for 'unreported "I'm saying one statistic of many that concerns us is the amount of crimes that go unreported. Those numbers are alarming and it shows that we can't take a liberal view to crime." If the crimes are unreported, how does he know what the number is?

Bill from Guelph
Day says new prisons needed for 'unreported crimes'

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Day says new prisons needed for 'unreported crimes'

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CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Tue. Aug. 3 2010 10:50 PM ET

Stockwell Day is facing criticism after he suggested that Ottawa needs to spend billions of dollars on new prisons in order to lock up people who commit unreported crimes.

The president of the Treasury Board made the comments at a press conference on Tuesday, which centred on the Conservatives' plan to cut the federal deficit.

When asked by a reporter why the government intends to spend billions of dollars to expand the penitentiary system in the face of falling crime rates, Day replied: "People simply aren't reporting the same way they used to."

"I'm saying one statistic of many that concerns us is the amount of crimes that go unreported. Those numbers are alarming and it shows that we can't take a liberal view to crime."

The minister declined to cite specific evidence regarding the rise in unreported crime. Nor did he elaborate on the types of crime that are going unreported in larger numbers.

Later, a spokesperson for the minister of justice said that Day was speaking of Statistics Canada's General Social Survey. In 2009, it found that the proportion of crimes that are reported to police dropped slightly to 34 per cent, from 37 per cent in 2004.

Day also said that the government's "tough on crime agenda," which includes lengthier jail sentences, could produce "an up-tick in incarceration."

However, Statistics Canada last month that crime rates had declined by seven percent since 2007 and have been dropping continually for nearly two decades.

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