The contribution of judicial discretion to a greying Canadian prison populatio

Growing numbers of older incarcerated offenders raise a number of challenges for Correctional Services Canada (CSC). Without codification, the method for accounting for the relatively advanced age of older offenders before they become the responsibility of CSC is through judicial discretion. However, planned federal justice sentencing reforms would reduce the ability for judges to use discretion to account for the specific circumstances of older offenders. This raises the question: would sentencing policy changes result in a greater numbers of older offenders being incarcerated thereby aggravating the current greying of Canadian prisons? Using a sample of judicial decisions from the British Columbian Provincial Court Database, it is determined that judges are considering the 'older age' of offenders. Since judges are tempering the problem of prison population aging, the elimination of judicial discretion through sentencing policy changes would result in an aggravation of the current problems associated with prison population aging.;Keywords: older offenders; aging offenders; greying of prisons; aging prisoners; correctional programming; sentencing policy; mandatory minimum sentences; judicial discretion.;Subject Terms: Older offenders; Older prisoners; Correctional institutions; Sentences (Criminal procedure) -- Canada; Mandatory sentences -- Canada.