CRIME BILL'S PROGRESS SHOULD BE ARRESTED

Re: Ottawa seems determined to cut youth act, Column, Nov. 5 I agree
wholeheartedly with Peter Mcknight's article arguing that Bill C- 10
will have the result of putting more youth in prison.

If estimates are to be believed, it costs the Canadian taxpayer about
$ 200,000 annually to keep each and every prisoner in jail.

I suggest that 90 per cent of these people in prison probably showed
characteristics in their teenage years that they might be on the path
to self destruction.

As anyone who has experience of children with bi-polar disorder,
depression or low self esteem can attest, it is far easier to handle
this problem before they reach adulthood and before all sorts of
privacy rules are thrown up as roadblocks.

Depression or just low self esteem leads children to experiment with
drugs and mix with undesirable peers who want nothing more than to
recruit vulnerable children into a world of drugs and drug dependency,
which ultimately leads to acts of criminality and, often, jail.

Surely a better solution would be to give each high school in the
country $ 200,000 to identify children with these traits or problems
and get them help or treatment before they reach 18 years old and
parents are all but impotent to intervene.

If this money kept just one child out of prison, the expense would
have paid for itself.

If it kept two children out of jail, we would be ahead of the
game.

Once some of these people experience prison, they might feel they have
no future and will, no doubt, become repeat offenders giving our
politicians the satisfaction of being able to say, "You see, we did
need more prisons."

Alan Gray

White Rock