Most Alberta offenders sentenced to weekends in jail, now serving at home due to pandemic
CBC
A program hardly used before the pandemic has seen a massive increase in Alberta offenders who are sentenced to weekends in jail, serving their time at home, CBC News has learned.
In September, 70 per cent of people handed intermittent sentences by a judge were serving their time at home, under conditions, compared to 13 per cent in September 2019, according to numbers provided by Alberta Justice.
In Canada, the criminal code allows for certain offenders sentenced to 90 days or less to serve their imposed jail time over certain days of the week, most often weekends.
Typically, an inmate would show up at a jail on a Friday evening and leave Monday morning, getting four days' credit toward their sentence.
The Temporary Absence Program (TAP) has been around for decades and was established under the Corrections Act.
Although eligibility criteria has not changed, now, because of the pandemic, the provincial government is fast tracking TAP applications which allow people to serve their intermittent sentences at home.
"As a measure to minimize the potential for the spread of COVID-19 in centres, the application review timelines have been expedited," said Katherine Thompson, spokesperson for Alberta Justice and Solicitor General.
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