How does that rate of between 2 and 8% innocents jailed compare to other countries?
It would seem to be terribly high, if you take the number of people in jail in the USA as an input and you work out the numbers that comes down to 2% of 2.3M which is 46,000 and 8% of 2.3M which is 184,000!
That's crazy, total Canadian prison population (which is at an all time high) is 15000 people. Granted, it has 10% of the population, but you're saying there might be, per capita, more innocent people in American jails than people in Canadian prison.
What differs is that we keep them there much longer. Cocaine trafficking will get you a few years in Canada in most provinces, versus 5 years minimum in the U.S. and potential 10 or 20 depending on quantity and prior convictions. There is no three strikes law in Canada. In the U.S. many states will give you a life sentence for three violent felonies (in California, even three non-violent felonies).
In custody doesn't even necessarily involve being charged.
"Q: How many men and women are in a Canadian prison on a given day?
A: In 2010/2011,on a given day 38,219 adults [1] and 16,279 youth (aged 12 to 17 years) [2] were in custody in Canada (federal and provincial), for a total of 54,498 inmates.
2,818 were in custody in British Columbia’s provincial correctional system. [1]
13,758 were in federal custody. [1]
In total, just over 24,461 adults were admitted to provincial or territorial jails in 2010/2011. [1]
However there were only 10,916 admissions into provincial or territorial custody to serve a sentence. The difference is accounted for by the number of people held in remand while awaiting their trial or sentencing.[3] "
It would seem to be terribly high, if you take the number of people in jail in the USA as an input and you work out the numbers that comes down to 2% of 2.3M which is 46,000 and 8% of 2.3M which is 184,000!