The latest salvo being fired at the Conservative government is that if crime rates are declining, then how can we justify spending money expanding our prison capacity? The crime rates that are declining are measured in average per 100,000 people, not the total number of crimes committed. You can site the crime rate numbers from 1960, but our population has nearly doubled since then. Crime rates can go down while the number of criminals goes up. Over the past 50 years as our population has doubled, we have not adequately expanded prison capacity to keep pace with population growth rate. The problem is too many prisoners and not enough prison cells, such that to make room for new prisoners, we have to release existing prisoners early.
The latest op-ed at the Globe and Mail (which again does not list an author, but Jane Taber "sets the agenda") criticizes the government for spending more money to expand our prison capacity. What the unknown editorialist neglects to mention anywhere in the attack is that Canadian prisons are desperately overcrowded, and have been since long before the crime rate began to decline. If you want to have tougher sentences for serious crimes, then you increase the demand for prison space and you need a place to put the prisoners. We have to build more cells, either by building a new prison or expanding the existing institutions.
A drop in the crime rate is great, but as our population expands the absolute numbers are not as impressive as the weighted average.
You need to lower your standards if you are looking for the MSM to provide a balanced factual story.
ReplyDeleteIf if does not bleed it will not lead!
The 57k reflective water effect is sexy @ $ 2 million fake lake!
The nine billion JSF story is more potent at $ 16 billion.
The arrival of 120 seconds later for a photo is serious journalism at the G8.
He hid the communion wafer in the pocket media?
Seriously, you will find better journalism in high school papers.
The pattern has been firmly established. The Liberals nitpick some aspect of EVERYTHING we do. The usual suspects in the media pile on, not even pausing to research their criticism. There's not much we can do about it, but just plough ahead with our agenda, table legislation, and let the election chips fall where they may.
ReplyDeleteI remember at the start of the 2005 campaign, Harper was pushing a tough on crime agenda, while Paul Martin was pooh-poohing it with the usual gobbledygook about prevention and all that. Then Jane Creba got killed while shopping in Toronto on Boxing Day. And man, talk about a case of whiplash, as Martin started singing a totally different tune.
As Rick Mercer said in that video--the Liberals are flexible.