Posts Tagged ‘corrections’
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U.S. approach to corrections doesn’t work
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Aug 10 2010
Almost $10 billion to beef up our jail system! …proactive initiatives will have a far greater positive impact for our at-risk citizens than lumping them together for longer periods of time in bigger, fancier prisons… If we look at the United States, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world along with full-to-overflowing jails, incarceration for longer periods for every petty crime just isn’t working.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, economy, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
The new Prohibition
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Aug. 7, 2010
There is no… need here to review the already well-documented grotesque criminal culture and social deterioration spawned by the U.S.-led war on drugs — a war the Conservatives are now bringing to the streets of Canada. The enforcement of these new regulations, aimed a low-level providers of services that have willing buyers, will be as effective in curbing genuine criminal activity as the other organized crime measures have been, which is not at all. They are likely to make things worse.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Fight call for more prisons
Monday, August 9th, 2010
August 8, 2010
Day, how about tackling important under-reported crime? Consider offences that are consistently under-reported in our society. Start with rape, domestic violence and child abuse. Spend our tax dollars on programs that can help women and children get out of abusive situations and extend to them the social services and the protection of the law they deserve… This particular justification for building more prisons so we can get tough on crime is Grade A horse manure that reasonable people should be able to smell from a mile away.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
We need more prisons for statistical crimes
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
August 4, 2010
… we can’t necessarily take those crime statistics at face value is because crime reporting is voluntary, which leads to an array of challenges that can skew the numbers. With the reporting pool self-selecting, some groups may be more likely to report criminal events: the middle-class, for example, or the the family of a murder victim. And those who live in high-crime neighbourhoods, or who are the victim of a minor crime such as j-walking, might not bother to report… That’s why they’re really building all those prisons.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
My prison education
Saturday, July 31st, 2010
July 31, 2010
It had been an interesting experience, from which I developed a much greater practical knowledge than I had ever had before of those who had drawn a short straw from the system; of the realities of street level American race relations; of the pathology of incorrigible criminals; and of the wasted opportunities for the reintegration of many of these people into society… And I had the opportunity to see why the United States has six to twelve times as many incarcerated people as other prosperous democracies, (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom), how the prison industry grew, and successfully sought more prisoners, longer sentences, and maximal possibilities of probation violations and a swift return to custody.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, featured
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Don’t be fooled by the statistics
Friday, July 30th, 2010
July 28, 2010
As for the “crime is going down” claim, here’s the reality. Crime rates rose dramatically through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, then peaked and started to fall slowly in the early ’90s across North America. No one knows why… despite continuing small drops in the annual crime rate, they have never returned anywhere near the lower levels of 50 years ago. Combating crime effectively involves not just law enforcement, but addressing issues such as poverty, unemployment and drug abuse.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Old Toronto’s farm for minor offenders
Sunday, July 25th, 2010
Jul 25 2010
… in the Toronto of the 1910s, the notion of diverting minor offenders from the Don had gained broad popular support. “We have a barbarous system of handling the fellow who gets drunk,” as one controller put it. “He hasn’t done anything or stole anything. He is a victim of his own weakness.” … the city finally spent $60,000 to acquire the Russell farm… The property, according to a council report, could someday house facilities for very poor seniors and “the indigent.” Conspicuously absent from the plans were bars, fences and other symbols of incarceration.
Tags: corrections, mental Health, poverty
Posted in Child & Family History | No Comments »
Crime figures belie policies
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Jul 22 2010
… crime-fighting is at the top of the Conservative government’s agenda. And why not? Preying on people’s fears is an easy sell for politicians seeking votes. But the hard sell isn’t based on hard facts. As the latest Statistics Canada analysis released this week shows, crime rates are going in the opposite direction… There is no reliable evidence that longer jail terms act as a deterrent to crime. There is every reason to believe more time in prison makes for more hardened criminals.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
The true costs of ‘truth in sentencing’
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
June 29, 2010
There’s a difference between being “tough on crime,” as the federal Conservatives profess to be, and being stupid about crime, which is what they are. A case in point is their Truth in Sentencing Act, which will do next to nothing about bringing down crime, the rates of which are falling year after year. The act, however, will do a great deal to increase the costs of incarceration in Canada… More crowding would fit nicely with “tough on crime” or “let ’em rot in hell” rhetoric. It would do nothing, of course, in reducing recidivism rates, let alone rehabilitation.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Budget officer sounds fiscal alarm on Tory sentencing law
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
June 22, 2010
… the Harper government’s Truth in Sentencing Act will cost federal and provincial governments an additional $8-billion by 2016. That’s the total cost of constructing new prison facilities on account of the act. The federal cost is projected to be about $1.8-billion, while the provinvial cost is roughly $6.2-billion. The new law, passed in February, will keep offenders in jail longer, taking away a judge’s discretion to compensate an individual for pre-sentence time spent in detention.
Tags: budget, corrections
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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