Underfunding in the Canadian Criminal Justice System

Underfunding in the Canadian Criminal Justice System Underfunding is the greatest Challenge that is faced by the Canadian Criminal Justice System. This paper will discuss the Police Forces aging population and the challenges to replace them when they retire, it will also look at the insufficient quantity of officers needed to investigate all crime. The underfunding of the legal aid program and the effects on the courts and family law will be discussed. Finally the effects of long-term underfunding of the countries prison system and its effects on the most vulnerable inmates will also be measured. Not Enough Police Officers Baby Boomers One of the challenges the Canadian justice system faces is lack of personnel, specifically police†¦show more content†¦More than ever people are losing access to justice. Even though the global economic crisis affected everyone, and every jurisdictions budget there needs to be a minimum level of funding for legal aid to protect the rights of those that cannot afford legal aid (Hainsworth, 2010). According to Hainsworth, (2010) the Canadian Bar Association has asked for national standards for legal aid, just like there are standards for health care and education. The CBA believes legal aid reform is needed to ensure access to justice for low income people, it also believes funding must be increased and national standards for eligibility and civil coverage are necessary to make the system function properly again. Underfunding also causes the court system to get backed up due to the fact that 13% of accused people did not have legal counsel on their court date, whi ch causes more delays and even more visits before a judge, confirmed by a report by the justice department (Hainsworth, 2010). This causes waste of the money that is currently being spent because of court delays; it also causes waste in other sectors of the justice system with so many court dates being rescheduled. As a comparison on just how much money has been cut from the legal aid budget we can look at the budget of Ontario during the years of 1996 to 2006. During this period education spending rose 20% and health spending increased by 33% conversely legal aid