ARE WE SLOW LEARNERS?

The Harper government's proposed crime legislation, including
mandatory sentences for some drug offences, currently being
scrutinized by the Senate's Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee
is ideologically and politically driven, not evidenced-based. Can we
not learn something from our southern neighbour in that a flawed and
discriminatory criminal justice system does not and has never
prevented crime. A case in point! California's prisons are so
overcrowded it has had to turn thousands of criminals loose. Some
other states have also adopted this practice. That state now spends
about two and a half times as much per prison inmate as it does per
student in its world renowned University of California system. Do we
want to emulate this in Canada? Or are we slow learners or simply do
not care?

Emile Therien

(Many Canadians are sick of seeing criminals coddled.)