Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is determined to put more people behind bars if he becomes prime minister.

Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada claim that Canada’s criminal justice system is too weak to deter and punish people who break the law. They want us to believe that more incarceration equals more safety.

But the Conservative party rarely talks about the cycles of harm and dysfunction that result from locking people up.

Its proposals for changing the justice system are not evidence-based and will not make the country safer. What they will do is put more strain on the jails and prisons that have become overcrowded, inhumane, and dangerous warehouses for people who are destined to return to the community.