Politically correct criminology

The Canadian government, ever solicitous of the well-being of the disadvantaged members of society, employs a full-time "prisons ombudsman" -- an official charged with monitoring the country's federal corrections system. According to a recent CBC report, the ombudsman is launching an inquiry into the reasons for a dramatic rise in the proportion of black offenders [disadvantaged yoofs, surely! Ed.] rapidly filling up Canada's prisons.

In the last decade, the investigator reports, the proportion of black convicts has risen from 6% to over 9% -- a 50% increase. People of colour account for just 2.5% of Canada's population. The ombudsman wants to find out why the numbers have increased so rapidly, and thus identify the challenges faced by the corrections system.

Howard Sapers told CBC News, "We've decided to commence an investigation into both the increase and to help us determine whether the CSC [Correctional Service of Canada] is meeting the needs of this population of offenders." According to the CBC, Mr. Sapers hopes to get an answer to a key question -- what distinguishes black offenders from other inmates.

Without waiting for the answer to that very good question, the Canadian Minister of Justice, Peter MacHack, has announced federal funding for a new course to be offered at selected Canadian universities, entitled Politically Correct Criminology 101. The course will explore the causes of black crime and how to implement "culturally appropriate programmes" to enable Canada's justice and corrections system to live up to its responsibility to provide ethno-cultural services that are specific to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse group of miscreants.

Walt has been able to obtain a copy of the new course's exam questions, which have already been formulated but until this very moment have been kept in a hermetically sealed jar behind the front door of Kingston Penitentiary. Here are two of them.

1. According to the Correctional Service of Canada, the proportion of black inmates in Canadian prisons has risen by 50% in the last decade. In not more than 500 words, show how this is due to systemic racism abetted by the police and other agents of the white establishment.

5. The CSC wishes to adjust its policies and practices to accommodate the corrections system to the needs of an increasingly diverse prison population. Explain why you think this is a good idea and give at least three practical suggestions as to what measures could be taken to make persons of colour feel more at home in Canada's prisons. (For example, should guards' uniform jackets be replaced by hoodies? No marks for suggesting this one.)

Lest you think Walt is making this up, check out this video.


Since Walt knows some of you want to ask, the anchorperson doing the intro is Reshmi Nair, presently toiling away on CBC's Wally World, but surely destined for greater things.