ladybonerz:

Say no to C-10 project

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post about canadian politics, I’m overdue. The conservative government is pushing for the C-10 reform that would instate mandatory minimum prison sentences for minor offenses, mainly drug offenses. We’ve seen what it did in other countries. (Thanks you, USA, for acting as lab rats for the last few decades). It does not work. There is a time when the whole “Tough on crime” vicious circle (because you always need to make tougher laws than your predecessors to look good at elections) simply stops working. Cramming prisons with more people for small offenses is not the solution. On top of the cost of actually keeping someone in prison, you have to take into account all the costs of getting that person there (policemen who made the arrest, lawyers on both sides, judges and the whole justice system behind them, etc…). For a sentence of a few years, we can easily talk of a few hundred thousands dollars, for ONE person. And when they come out of prison, chances are they won’t have an easy time getting reinserted into society. They have been marked. “You’ve been to prison? Sorry school program X is not available to you, and you can forget about getting a job in domain Y, no matter the reason you got into prison.” Why not use this money in social programs instead? Some organizations will do small miracles with a budget equivalent to sending one person in prison. They can break the circle by helping people staying out of trouble and ending up in prison in the first place. I’m running out of ranting breath, but there are other good arguments against C-10. You get the idea…

I hate the government. Why we chose to have an election only to give the party we wanted out more power is beyond me. This will not work, and it is pointless to use the tax payer dollars to fund it. This whole bill proposal has me rattled.