But, I do think Matthew 25 is properly read as saying live recognising that your actions make a difference and you have a duty to be careful in how you behave.
So what has that to do with the story below? I suppose one reading could be that prisons are a proper corrective tool and so building more prisons is a good thing. But in general prisons are not seen as a good thing in the Second Testament (see Acts 22:4 for example).
To some degree building more prisons is sensible -- overcrowding at, for example, the Don Jail, remains appalling. But I still think prisons remain, at best, a necessary evil and one best cut down as far as possible:
OTTAWA — A majority of Canadians support the Conservatives' costly prison expansion plan but think the government should be compelled to provide the estimated price tag for its entire law-and-order agenda, according to the results of a new poll.
Fifty-seven per cent of those surveyed said the prison expansion program, estimated to cost at least $2-billion, is a worthwhile initiative, while 43% said it is unaffordable. Those results will take some wind out of the sails of the opposition parties who argue that Canadians don't want bigger jails and the government is wasting money at a time when the country has a massive deficit.
But when it comes to calling on the government to disclose all estimated costs for crime-related legislation, Canadians are clearly on the side of the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois. Eighty-two% said the government should be compelled to release the figures. Eighteen per cent said they should be kept secret if the government says they should be.
The government and opposition parties have been locked in a battle over releasing cost estimates for justice bills, which combined, could reach into the billions of dollars.
The poll of 1,097 Canadians was conducted Feb. 15 to 17 by Ipsos Reid for Postmedia News and Global National. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
4 comments:
That resonates so well with the addict in the down town East side who has a dozen convictions this year. Any compassion, reverence or dignity has been burned out by the drugs and whatever it takes to get them. They show up at the rinky-dink community court for the same thing over and over again, getting less and less of a sentence, just marking time till they die.
The taxpayers foot the bill. Small businesses can't get insurance but somehow they are the villains because the poverty pimps make the addicts out to be the victims, while the whole justice industry passes blessing and rakes in the the wealth stolen by these addicts.
Long sentences in jail, away from the drugs and the uses wound that is the Downtown east end.
It's sad that the $B's that will be spent to build and run for-profit prisons could have been spent on positive social programs that may have even lowered the already high incarceration rate.
Many people with an addiction can also suffer from mental illness. The first priority for treatment is to treat the addiction and then the mental health problem, but sometimes these must be dealt with at the same time.
Our social systems don't always have enough resources to do this, so people who suffer from mental illness end up in jail.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12532538
Ridenrain makes a good point -- but i don't think the answer is more prisons or longer sentences but rather recognizing the addiction as an illness and having compulsory treatment. This may feel like prison -- but it's goal and effect is very different. Sadly Canadian prisons are full of drugs and putting a drug addict in prison is no assurance they will get treatment.
Post a Comment