Sometimes it can be difficult to follow the left's condemnation of the Tory tough on crime agenda, with frequent criticisms of plans to expand our prison capacity, followed by outrage that we have more prisoners than our prisons were built to hold. There is a consensus that our prisons are indeed overcrowded leaving Corrections Canada to repeatedly cram multiple inmates into cells designed for single occupancy. The argument is what to do about it. The Rosemary Barton Show today discussed the overcrowding issue and is running a poll question asking if the Conservative tough on crime agenda is increasing violence in prisons (65% of their audience say yes the rise in prison violence is the Tories fault). The contention is that overcrowded penitentiaries create violence, and that the Tories are responsible for the overcapacity problem. The Mark Hollands of the world might not want to come right out and say it, but their solution to the overcrowding problem seems to be putting fewer people in prison. Too noble by half if you ask me.
Today's poll question; what do you think should be done to solve the problem of overcrowded prisons?
Bunk beds.
ReplyDeleteA room 8WX8LX8H, bunks 3 high on each side. That will make returning somewhat undesirable.
ReplyDeleteRob C
Fred and Anon, it is not that I disagree, but if my memory is correct our liberal court ruled several years ago against even double bunking in federal prisons, just like the ruling that inmates can vote in elections and a lot of other outrageous rulings.
ReplyDeleteBuild more prisons,far away from residential areas. The guards can do 7-day on,7-day off type of work schedules.
ReplyDeleteInitiate work and training programs,and force the convicts to take part in them,every day a con refuses to take part is another day added to his sentence. Make them work until they're too tired to get involved in jailhouse lawyering.
Make the prisons drug-free by having everybody who enters the place subjected to a once-over by drug sniffing dogs,guards included.
Make sure every convict who leaves prison has a trade or skill to enable him to find work. Hire an employment agency to find the parolee work,and make sure he stays at it, or back to prison.
Give convicts the ONE chance to rehabilitate,and if they are still too lazy and stupid to get onto the straight and narrow, lock 'em back up in "Lost Cause" prisons,and throw away the key.
I worked with convicts for eleven years,and saw the same faces year after year,most because they were too lazy to work a real job,where you have to get up early in the morning.
Cons need discipline and order,and the system currently fails them with almost no mandatory work or training programs,so when they get paroled,there's nowhere to go but back to the criminal side.
One of Jean Chretien's first projects when he was elected PM was to build a prison in his riding,so it MUST be a good idea to build more prisons.
DMorris
DMorris, great suggestions.
ReplyDelete-- Gabby in QC
Iceman, I notice you're referring to Power & Politics as "The Rosemary Barton" show. I guess you're being sarcastic, since, like many conservatives, you don't have much use for the CBC and its personalities.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I hope Power & Politics becomes permanently Barton's show. Despite her aggravating occasional giggling and her plastered down hair-do (meeooww!) Barton is a far better interviewer than Solomon. Her questions are not convoluted like Solomon's, she's more to the point, and she even peppers them with occasional flashes of disarming humour -- even when she's covering a serious subject. She also doesn't feel the need to rephrase her interviewee's answers, as if the interviewee is not clear enough AND/OR the audience is not bright enough to follow the argument. Plus, anyone who chides that media diva Ian Capstick for his sometimes catty remarks is OK in my books.
Barton also does not come across -- at least to this observer -- as partisan as Solomon does. The latter often says "to be fair ..." in pretending to present the Conservative POV but he's often less than fair -- again, just my perception, a partisan one, I admit.
I'm sorry, Evan Solomon, for passing harsh judgment on your interviewing skills, especially since you have a young family to support. But your own opinions should not be at the forefront of your interviews. Please go back to reviewing books. Now there's a place where your opinions can be in the spotlight. Shine on!
-- Gabby in QC
Solution - Outsource prisons. Send off prisoners with sentences longer than 3 years to a third world country by ship. Businesses in that country will run the prison.
ReplyDeleteWin win. We don't have to worry about overcrowding. Third world country gets jobs. (And prisoners get to find out what a REAL prison is like) -- Oopsy there's another win!