MINIMUM SENTENCING NOT MONEY-MAKING PROPOSITION

You have been receiving letters concerning the Conservatives' minimum
sentences law. Many complain that because it has not worked in the
United States it will not work here. This argument is unconvincing
for two reasons.

First, what Canadians do not realize is that mandatory minimum
sentencing laws passed by the U.S. government were mainly put in
place to pacify voters. The reality is that the judicial system
almost completely ignores them.

Secondly, the U.S. justice system has one very significant difference
from the Canadian system. Their penitentiaries are not owned by the
government. They are mainly privately owned. They are a business, and
are run like a business. They make money when they are full and they
lose money when they are empty. So, it is in the best interest of the
corporations who own them to keep them full, which they are, to overflowing.

If you were the owner of the huge cooperation which runs numerous
penitentiaries, and you were only in it for the money, would you want
to see laws enforced that would actually reduce the number of your clients?

A Johns Hopkins University study notes this change of focus in the
U.S. "The incarceration of convicts -- once perceived as a grim
governmental responsibility -- has become a thriving, recession-proof
industry. Prison officials have shifted their priorities from inmate
rehabilitation programs to budgetary concerns; instead of focusing on
the prevention of recidivism, they focus on the reduction of "average
daily inmate costs."

It will work in Canada if we hold judges accountable if they do not
obey minimum sentencing, and do not allow anyone to make money if our
jails are full, or lose money if they are empty.

GREG GIRARD

Windsor