JAIL IS NOT THE ANSWER

I thought it ironic that on the day the House of Commons sent the
crime bill for royal assent, NBC news reported that the United States
jailed the highest number of prisoners per capita in the world. One
in every 100 United States adults is incarcerated. This comes at a
time when we have decided to follow the U.S. example, which means
building more jails rather than spending on prevention. Mandatory
sentencing is part of the problem. It ties the judges' hands when
they are not allowed to take into consideration all the facts of a
case before deciding the sentence.

I believe we have just taken a huge step backwards in passing the
crime bill. The war on crime should be changed to the war on poverty.
That would do more to lower the crime rate than building prisons.

GRACE IVEY

Winnipeg