Shooting up Toronto

[cakadu]

To play devil's advocate for a moment, and before we get too carried away locking everyone up, bear in mind that it costs anywhere between $40 to $55,000 per year to house EACH inmate and that is without any kind of special handling. Prisons are already filled to capacity and in many cases are bursting at the seams. This can and does create all kinds of problems, particularly for guards in terms of safety, working conditions etc.

I am no bleeding heart - if they have done the crime, then they do the time. I am also horrified that this has occurred and my heart goes out to all the families affected by this.

Where are all those convicted of crimes going to go given the current capacity of our correctional facilities? How many more prisons are we going to have to build? or are willing to build? In the US, inmates sometimes serve as little as 1/6 of their sentence before they are paroled. Here it is a minimum of 1/3 before they are eligible for parole, depending of course upon the crime, the sentence and the rehabilitation.

One also has to bear in mind that those on the street are far from calling the shots. Think of it as an inverted iceberg with those at the tip being pretty insulated from ever going to jail.

We've had drugs, everything illegal you could name in this country for a very, very long time. It is a sad fact that since the Americans declared a war on drugs, the drug problem has gotten significantly worse. By doing the same here, could we expect anything different?

The answers aren't as simple as they first appear - as is the case with almost anything.

[cowman]

You are very correct Linda about the high cost of keeping these boys in prison...that is one reason we should be deporting them as soon as they commit the crime?
Obviously the war on drugs isn't working...prohibition never does? Someone is always going to take a run at the big money? And while the drug scene is totally ugly the fact is two "government drugs", tobacco and alcohol, kill more people than street drugs ever will.
My nephew was home from Thailand over Christmas. He said basically over there, there are no laws in country. Try to smuggle dope and they execute you. He said two guys tried to rob a bar and one waitress was killed the police shot it out with the robbers killing one instantly, wounding the other. The sargeant then finished him off as he lay in the street! Instant justice!
He also says there are no gun laws. You can pack whatever you want wherever you want! Not sure if they have much of a crime rate as nothing much is illegal there. Kids who get into minor sc****s get beat with a bamboo stick down at the police station, not jail time.