Providing Alternatives to Isolation and Ensuring Oversight and Remedies in the Correctional System Act (Tona’s Law)
An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act
Summary
- Caps confinement in structured intervention units at 48 hours unless a superior court approves an extension, effectively curbing segregation and requiring judicial oversight.
- Mandates mental health assessments within 30 days and requires transfer to hospitals or mental health facilities when disabling mental health issues are identified.
- Expands community-based corrections options, allowing transfers (with consent) to Indigenous and other community entities, and requires the Parole Board to provide reasons if it rejects community reintegration plans.
- Broadens recognition of "Indigenous and Marginalized Populations" and defines disadvantaged or minority populations for correctional purposes.
- Creates a judicial remedy allowing courts to reduce sentences if unfair or unlawful actions by correctional authorities affected the person.
Builder Assessment
Principles Analysis
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Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.
Primarily a justice and human-rights reform; any growth effects via reduced recidivism and improved reintegration are indirect and uncertain.
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Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).
Judicial oversight reins in bureaucratic overreach in corrections, but it also adds procedural steps; net effect on economic freedom is indirect.
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Drive national productivity and global competitiveness, including removing interprovincial trade barriers and improving labour mobility (one country, one market).
Could modestly improve productivity by supporting rehabilitation and workforce re-entry, but the linkage is indirect and not guaranteed.
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Grow exports of Canadian products and resources, and move up the value chain by processing resources domestically rather than exporting them raw.
No direct connection to trade or export capacity.
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Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.
No direct measures affecting investment or resource development; reputational benefits on rule of law are possible but diffuse.
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Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).
Shifting from segregation to treatment could lower long-run costs, but added court oversight and hospital transfers may raise near-term costs; net fiscal impact is unclear.
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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.
No tax policy changes.
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Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.
A targeted justice reform with limited macroeconomic scope; potential social benefits do not directly translate to large-scale prosperity levers.
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Email [email protected]
PartySenate
StatusAt second reading in the House of Commons
Last updatedMay 28, 2025
TopicsCriminal Justice, Healthcare, Indigenous Affairs
Parliament45