Lawyer Geoffrey Cowper recommends establishing a Criminal Justice and Public Safety Council within the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General to include senior bureaucrats assisted by a secretariat. It would have responsibility for managing the criminal justice system and developing a public safety plan.
The plan must recognize that timeliness is fundamental to both public safety and justice, and include system-wide performance measures for timeliness from the time a complaint is made until it is resolved. It would also include development of performance measures for the criminal justice system as a whole.
It would have responsibility for public reporting on criminal justice data and progress reports.
Cowper also recommends creation of a Justice Summit which would include all levels of court and justice system leaders to facilitate collaboration among all justice participants, to consider progress in the process of reform, and to discuss changes in direction or new initiatives.
The council should be supported by a secretariat to assist in the development of a public safety plan, as well as the development of appropriate performance measures.
The secretariat should include responsibility for criminal justice policy and project management expertise to improve the rigour with which projects endorsed by the council are implemented.
The secretariat should have an advisory board with independent academic or outside expert representation, as well as police, victim and broader public representation.
The secretariat should be responsible for the acquisition, analysis and reporting of criminal justice data.
The secretariat should establish methods to systematically gather data about performance measures and other useful data which can be regularly reported on and featured as part of the councils annual report.
The Ministry should distribute key business intelligence information, related to both the strategic system goals as well as branch- specific goals, to local professionals and staff and encourage discussion and debate on the information.
A provincewide crime reduction plan should be developed under the direction of the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police in collaboration with the council.
Statistics Canada should be asked to increase the frequency of the General Social Survey to better understand trends in self-reported victimization that are particular to British Columbia, and the survey should provide information respecting regional and cultural concerns as well as particular offences.
A provincewide plan for diversion, including restorative justice, should be developed to include education, quality assurance and control, performance measures, reporting, and evaluation.
Cowper also recommends a new approach to pre-charge resolution maximizes the opportunity to resolve matters before formal charge approval is complete. An abbreviated form for reporting to Crown counsel should be considered for appropriate cases by the Police/Prosecution Liaison Committee in consultation with Legal Services Society and defence lawyers.
The Legal Services Society should be supported to provide legal services to promote early resolution by assigning duty counsel to the same courts on a continuing basis.
Police should advise everyone who is given a notice to appear in court on a future date of the possible availability of legal assistance and how to obtain it.
The council should support initiatives to create timelines for early resolutions which would substantially reduce the time to trial; and reduce the current case backlog to bring all pending cases into compliance with the new standards being developed by the Provincial Court.
Broader use of judicial justices should be considered by the Provincial Court for the hearing of all preliminary inquiries and expansion of their use for bail applications.
The Supreme Court Criminal Committee should have the resources to retain project management experts to assist in developing best practices in pre-trial and trial management.
B.C. Corrections should educate and inform other justice participants of best practices in the assessment of risk. Consideration should also be given to enhancing the role of corrections staff in providing relevant advice on risk and behaviour management in relation to release and sentencing decisions and conditions.
In consultation with the Provincial Court, the Provincial Court Act should be amended to clarify and affirm the role, powers and duties of the Chief Judge and amend the term of office to seven years.
Recognize and clarify the role of the Executive Committee and the Management Committee of the Provincial Court.
Provide for a specific judicial complement, subject to review every three to five years.
Permit the attorney general to refer questions concerning judicial administration to the Court.
Provide for a professional judicial administration officer with a defined role and responsibility.
The Court should establish a voluntary Advisory Committee on Judicial Administration, including people with expertise in private and public management.
The charge approval function and responsibility should remain with the prosecution service.
Government should consider a web-based service to remind subscribers of developments and resolutions in particular cases, and government could provide online and courthouse user surveys that focus on service standards and ideas for improvement.
Improved scheduling of witnesses via modern information technology should be considered.
Victims should receive online exit surveys after the resolution of a complaint.
The new Provincial Office of Domestic Violence, working with the council, should prepare a plan to reduce domestic violence, which includes an informed role for the victim, diversion if appropriate, and early resolution, timely hearings, innovative sentencing, and transparency in the goals and progress towards achievement.
Identify best practices for determining the terms of release into the community pending trial, and the best practices in enforcement and supervision of those conditions, with the goal of achieving the best outcomes for the victim, the community and the offender; and develop a pilot to test the strategies.
New approaches such as that taken by the Victoria Integrated Court, should be fully evaluated to determine whether they improve outcomes for offenders with mental illness and addictions, so that they can be considered for broader implementation.
The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Plan for the province should include a performance goal for increased use of restorative justice programs. Expanded funding for restorative justice programs should be made available, and innovative methods of funding, such as funding referrals, should be assessed in cases where the offender would otherwise be subject to a significant criminal penalty.
No recommendation is made as to the general level of funding for the criminal justice system.
Within the scope of available funding, priority should be considered for reducing the backload of cases, enhancing the managerial capacity of the courts, and enabling the full realization of the early case-resolution process. To enable the aggressive resolution of the backlog of cases, an additional five judges should be appointed to the Provincial Court.
