TOEWS WANTS THUGS LOCKED UP LONGER

Justice Minister Says Tories Will Push Mandatory Sentences For Gun,
Drug Offences

OTTAWA -- Locking up the most violent dangerous offenders for longer
prison terms will be cheaper than processing repeat offenders through
a "revolving door" of justice, according to Canada's chief lawmaker.

In an interview with the Sun, Justice Minister Vic Toews said the
Conservative government will move swiftly to introduce mandatory
minimum sentences for gun and drug offences and to abolish
conditional sentences that allow sex offenders, violent convicts and
drunk drivers who kill or maim to serve sentences under house arrest.

Proposed changes, intended to boost public safety and deter would-be
criminals, aren't expected to add costs for taxpayers, Toews said.
"One of the things people have to understand is that even if you
increase the number of people in prison at any one time, what you're
also doing is you're lessening the burden of the revolving door," he said.

"So many of these individuals are in and out of the remand centres,
the courts and other facilities, that the expenses and the resources
needed to continually process the same individual is then gone."

He said monitoring criminals outside prisons is a "very expensive
proposition" -- not just for government, but for businesses who
endure thefts by released cons.

Tony Cannavino, president of the Canadian Professional Police
Association, applauded the move to adopt mandatory minimum sentences.

"The time spent before they get the sentence was counting for double
or in some cases triple. It was ridiculous," he said.

"We would be arresting those people again without even having
finished our paperwork on the first crime."

Cannavino agreed longer incarceration for certain crimes will likely
cost less than recycling repeat offenders through the system, and
said it will send a strong message to potential cons.