Truth in sentencing

Truth in sentencing (TIS) is a collection of different but related public policy stances on sentencing of those convicted of crimes in the justice system. In most contexts, it refers to policies and legislation that aim to abolish or curb parole so that convicts serve the period to which they have been sentenced. Truth in sentencing advocates relate such policies in terms of the public's right to know; they argue, for example, that it is deceptive to sentence an individual to "seven to nine years" and then release the individual after he or she has served only six years.

In some cases, truth in sentencing is linked to other movements such as mandatory sentencing (in which particular crimes yield automatic sentences regardless of the extenuating circumstances) and habitual offender or "three strikes" laws in which state law requires the state courts to hand down mandatory and extended periods of incarceration to persons who have been convicted of a criminal offense on multiple occasions.

In Canada, the Truth in Sentencing act, or Bill C-25 came into effect on Monday, February 22, 2010. This bill amends s.719 of the Criminal Code of Canada, limiting the discretion of a sentencing judges to give credit to individuals who have spent time incarcerated prior to conviction. Until then, as discussed by Justice Arbour in R v. Wust, credit for pre-sentencing custody was not determined by a 'mathematical formula', but many judges frequently granted a two-for-one credit.

That is justified by the quantitative and qualitative differences between pre-and post-sentencing incarceration. Most individuals who are incarcerated will not serve the full length of their sentence, and because time spent incarcerated pre-sentence does not count towards remission time, if a lengthy pre-sentence incarceration is credited equally to post-sentencing incarceration, the convicted individual will serve a longer sentence compared to an individual who is given the same sentence without a lengthy period of pre-sentencing incarceration. Arbour also points out that pre-sentence incarceration is typically served in detention, in harsher circumstances than the sentence will ultimately call for and without access to educational, rehabilitative and vocational programs.

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