I cannot sit back and take the rhetoric any longer about the new crime bill which has to follow due parliamentary process, not rushed as the media touts.
You want to discuss costs. What cost do you put on a life taken by a repeat offender released on parole? Why do you think 37,000 lawyers are against this bill? Could it be because if the criminals are all in jail, the lawyers won’t have any work? Maybe to keep the revolving door of the justice system going so lawyers stay employed, just count the repeat offenders sometime.
If the youth of this country were taught respect for people and property by their parents, these kids might not need to see the inside of a prison. To commit a crime and then hide behind the young offenders act has to stop, and just maybe a short stint in prison would scare them straight. I know for a fact that some people as a youth had this experience and it worked on them.
Do you people not watch the news? Almost every week there is a press release by the police that a predator/criminal has been released into the community on parole and that this person is a high risk to re-offend. How many people do these criminals have to maim, traumatize or kill, before we say enough?
More addicts in jail, are you suggesting that they can do as they please and not expect any repercussions? If you do the crime, you do the time, I don’t care what ethnic background you are or what problems you have, and, yes, there should be help in the prison system for them, but they must use that help and graduate from it to gain their freedom so that they stop being a burden to society through their criminal acts.
I have a proposition to help protect society. As a criminal, you get a sentence of prison time, you do that sentence in full. During that time you rehabilitate yourself through programs which have to be offered in the prison system, and you are only released when a panel of, say six, experts in the field unanimously say you are completely rehabilitated, only then do you get your freedom. Sound tough, I will 100 per cent guarantee as long as that person refuses help to get rehabilitated and stays in prison, society will be a lot safer.
Something has to change to prevent the criminal element from walking our streets doing as they please. It seems obvious to me the current system is not working when killers are allowed out of prison only to kill again. Just ask yourself how you would feel if a loved one happened to be a victim of one of these repeat offenders. Maybe you wouldn’t be so quick to rely on some overworked parole board or psychologist to grant releases.
I believe the Conservatives are on the right track and support them fully. It is time to kick these criminals’ butts and quit kissing it. When our pensioners receive better treatment and care than prisoners do, then we will be getting closer to being a just society. Until then, keep the criminals off the streets until they are ready to contribute positively to society.
Brian Litzenberger
Vernon
