Friday, September 22, 2006
This is shooting fish in a barrel
I actually laughed out loud yesterday at a clip I heard in a radio news item. The story was about how our "New Government" (have you heard about that ridiculous to-do?) wants to enact a kind of 3-strikes-you're-out legislation similar to the US's, but without the death penalty. (Isn't it kind of funny how they use a baseball term for something that ends in an execution?) The people who run Canada's jails immediately reacted to this bonehead initiative saying that there's no room in our prisons as it is, and unless you're willing to build more prisons, this legislation would be a very very bad idea. The government's response (and this is what made me laugh, at the sheer willful ignorance of it) was that the legislation will act as a deterrent, and therefore there will be fewer people committing crimes and going to jail. Now, I've seen maybe 2 documentaries on prisons in my life, and would happily admit that I'm an ignoramous on the subject, but even I know that the 3 strikes law in the States hasn't acted as a deterrent. I'll bet there are reams of studies to show what a bad idea it was in the first place and how it's bunged up the prison system real good, to speak eloquently.
How stupid are the people in this (gack!) conservative government, and how stupid are the people who voted them in to power?
I actually laughed out loud yesterday at a clip I heard in a radio news item. The story was about how our "New Government" (have you heard about that ridiculous to-do?) wants to enact a kind of 3-strikes-you're-out legislation similar to the US's, but without the death penalty. (Isn't it kind of funny how they use a baseball term for something that ends in an execution?) The people who run Canada's jails immediately reacted to this bonehead initiative saying that there's no room in our prisons as it is, and unless you're willing to build more prisons, this legislation would be a very very bad idea. The government's response (and this is what made me laugh, at the sheer willful ignorance of it) was that the legislation will act as a deterrent, and therefore there will be fewer people committing crimes and going to jail. Now, I've seen maybe 2 documentaries on prisons in my life, and would happily admit that I'm an ignoramous on the subject, but even I know that the 3 strikes law in the States hasn't acted as a deterrent. I'll bet there are reams of studies to show what a bad idea it was in the first place and how it's bunged up the prison system real good, to speak eloquently.
How stupid are the people in this (gack!) conservative government, and how stupid are the people who voted them in to power?
# posted by becca : 8:16 AM
