Prisons -- The more things change

The current "tough on crime" and mandatory sentence routine is based on the assumption that prisons are a good way to deal with criminals.

In 1831 a Select Committee of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada investigated the jails in what is now Ontario. They found, far from rehabilitating prisoners, they corrupted them. Persons awaiting trial or sentenced for minor offences were made hardened criminals by those they were forced to live with:

"Imprisonment in the common goals of the province is inexpedient and pernicious in the extreme, as there is not a sufficient classification or separation of the prisoners, so that a lad who is confined for a simple assault ... or even in suspicion of crimes ... may be kept for twelve months in company with murderers, thieves, robbers and burglars, and the most depraved characters in the province, and a man must know little of human nature indeed who can for a moment suppose that such evil communications will not corrupt good manners... . Gaols managed as most of ours are ... are seminaries kept at the public expense for the purpose of instructing His Majesty's subjects in vice and immorality, and for the propagation and increase of crime."

Change the language a touch so it sounds more modern and the very same words could be said today.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777