Nicholson to kill two-for-one prison-time credit ASAP

[capricorn]

I am absolutely behind tougher sentences for violet crime. However, the quickest way to reduce the numebr of criminals in Canada is by eliminating some of the ridiculous things that constitute crime. MARIJUANA is a good place to start. Prostitution is another. Legalize, control and tax. It's a no-brainer.

I'm anxious to see if any of your ideas will be adopted at the Liberal convention next month. I mean, you did submit this "no brainer" in your policy submission online through En Famille, didn't you? Should be a slam dunk.

[eyeball]

And what's wrong with private prisons?

The lure of profits will motivate the owners and their lobbyists to lobbyt politicians and bureacrats to produce laws that fill them up with criminals.

Economics trumps justice too, probably for the same reason it trumps virtue. But I suspect you know all this already.

I know I don't even have to go look to know that prison stocks have probably held their own or even gone up while everything else was crashing. Hard times bring hard time.

Edited March 27, 2009 by eyeball

[blueblood]

You mean besides everything?

For starters, their focus is on profit, not rehabilitation. Who will they answer to? Shareholders? We tried one in Ontario and it was a complete and utter failure.

Ontario to take back control of private super-jail

Canada's only privately run jail, in Penetanguishene, Ont., will return to public control on Saturday after a performance evaluation found a public jail of equivalent size had better security, prisoner health care, and reduced repeat offender rates.

Failure in your opinion.

Rehabilitation has also been a failure. We have very high repeat offenders in our current system. Instead of costing money incarcerating them, why not make some money at it? For one there would be less children working in sweatshops. The public also wins by having offenders jailed for longer as it makes fiscal sense to keep them locked up instead of our current joke.

I'd have no problem with our federal jails contracting their inmates to do menail work for corporations for long hours. The deterrent of not wanting to work for 16 hrs. a day would be a plus as well.