Making crime pay

Lawyer Marc Bellemare, best known for having seized the Quebec Auto Insurance Board (SAAQ)’s $47-million headquarters in 1999 after it failed to make good on a payment to a traffic accident victim, has a new campaign. The car crash specialist wants Quebec’s prisoners to chip in for their room and board that, according to StatsCan, costs $38,788 per prisoner per year.

“Even if the provincial inmates paid just $5 a day, the province could save $7-million a year,” he says. “If a single mother has to pay $5 a day to put her kid in daycare, why shouldn’t some guy who has a paid-off house and two motorcycles have to pay something as well?” he asks.

Bellemare has filed his pay-to-stay proposals to a parliamentary commission studying changes in the correctional system, a brief that notes that parents of juveniles often have to pay over $400 a month for their kids’ upkeep. Bellemare also reports that a recent Leger and Leger poll indicates that 82 per cent of respondents support his proposal.
All government benefits should also be suspended during an inmates’ incarceration, argues Bellemare. Inmates lose welfare and unemployment benefits while inside, but government compensation from other such other sources as workman’s comp and SAAQ still makes it through. :

—Kristian Gravenor