It exists to promote rational, informed, and responsible debate in order to develop a more humane, equitable, and effective justice system.
[2] The association has long served an advisory role to the federal government, submitting numerous briefs on proposed legislation.
The committee's findings were highly influential, and led to significant changes in Canadian justice policy, such as the abolition of corporal punishment in prisons,[5] and the creation of the "dangerous offender" designation in the Criminal Code.
[6] Members of the association had previously contributed to the Archambault Commission, another justice-reform body created in 1936, with some of those recommendations also being reflected in subsequent legislation.
[8] The name change came with a new structure: It now had a board of directors and a more distant relationship with the Canadian Welfare Association (it became an "affiliated organization" rather than a division).