WHY DUPLICATE AMERICAN CRIMINAL CASTE SYSTEM?

With the return of Stephen Harper and his long sought after majority
to Ottawa, his law and order initiatives should soon be on their way.
Harper will have no problem enacting his justice reforms, particularly
since he now has a majority in both the House of Commons and the
Senate.Harper is bent on implementing his "tough guy on crime" bills,
modeled after many American states, despite falling crime rates and
California releasing an estimated 37,000 prisoners it can no longer
afford to house or care for adequately.

Why repeat the mistakes of the American model that has largely
resulted in simply creating a criminal "caste system" that once
entered into, offers very little hope of ever returning to society as
a functioning productive adult?

Obviously those deserving of tough prison sentences should be
incarcerated appropriately. But those engaged in non-violent crimes,
especially driven by a drug addiction, need to be treated as
individuals with a problematic health issue. Meanwhile, the Canadian
government's tough-on-crime agenda includes 20 crime bills either
passed or pending that would create minimum jail terms of six months
for growing a handful of marijuana plants, reduce the use of house
arrest even in some non-violent crimes and put new limits on early
release. Given the expense of incarceration-$343,810 a year for women
and $223,687 for men in maximum security, according to Parliament's
budget officer, this does not appear to be a fiscally conservative
approach at a time when the crime rates have dropped and our national
deficit is growing. What is even more bothersome about this whole
approach is that it does nothing to solve the inherent social ills
that cause many people to turn to crime and seems to be more
concerned with winning political goodwill. Unfortunately there is no
simple fix for the many social issues currently facing Canadian
society but simply giving up on the concepts of rehabilitation of
offenders has been proven to be a short sighted solution. Anyone
connected to the justice community in Merritt will attest, it is not
the length of sentences or the amount of incarcerations meted out that
will make our social issues disappear, but the availability of
re-habilitation services and alcohol and drug counseling locally that
keep many from achieving crime-free lives.

The only way to solve the social issues facing our communities is to
embrace them and work together to ensure that the proper balance
between justice and compassion is reached-not simply hiding behind
blind ideology.