Conservatives like to talk about "consequences" a great deal. Usually they mean it in the most malicious sense - usually in terms of punishment.
Today we were treated to the next bit of conservative agenda - "Gettin' Tough On Crime"(™).
There's two bits that the HarperCons unveiled today:
1. Tougher Young Offender Sentences
2. Minimum Sentences for Drug Possession and Trafficking
Okay, the second part is merely "expected later this week", but that doesn't make it any less brain damaged.
Making it easier to try young offenders in the adult court system, or impose harsher sentences isn't going to change how young offenders think and act. Except in the most egregious of cases such as repeat violent offenders. Long sentences are little more than incubation periods for hardened criminals.
As for "mandatory minimum sentences" - especially for drug possession - will do little but put more people in prison, increasing the size of the prison industry. This has been tried in the US already, and has done little but put a lot more people in prison.
Putting more people in prison for longer does not address crime in any meaningful way. Worse, the Con$ervative attitude on "drugs" is something freshly resurrected from the 1950s, when most Canadians have long since moved beyond that.
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2 comments:
In response to Conservative's 'get tough on crime' message, one should review this link, pointing to the added cost and ultimate failure of the US justice/penal system. Instead of deterring crime it appears that the US prisons are filling up faster than ever.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7102054.stm
One has to wonder why more and more US citizens end up in jail? And this is the model we want to emulate? Thanks, I'll pass. Maybe the reason the US wants more inmates is to 'satisfy' the US corporations need to have cheap labour for their 'Made In the USA' products.....
We have more than enough laws in the books, with plenty of punishments to enforce. People need to take responsibility for their actions, hold our politicians and civil leaders accountable for the failings, and ultimately realize that no system is perfect.
E.
Responsibility is one thing, this much abused notion of "consequences" is another altogether - one that is ultimately destructive more than constructive.
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