The criminal justice suggestions being made by Tim Hudak are so zany as to make me wonder 'is this pure theatre' or 'is there a deeper meaning here'?
Let's look at two suggestions -- work gangs for inmates and GPS tracking devices for life for any sex offender.
Both proposals are, presumably, intended to attract the support of the law and order crowd and solidify conservative support. But let's look deeper.
Deterrence doesn't work.
Everyone who has taken a cursory review of penal studies knows this.
But the demand for 'justice' remains and society wants to vindicate itself with punishment.
So why not make punishment more public? Work gangs put convicts out on the streets to be seen by the public. GPS, while less obvious, makes clear that sex offenders will never be re-accepted to society and will always bear a mark.
Perhaps public display of criminals does strike a chord with retribution? Saying a criminal will never ever be integrated back into society distinguishes the criminal from the community. It may be crude and coarse but if Hudak has any deeper thinking to his policy this must be it.
(Of course, his evolving position on abortion may suggest mere expediency is his guide, but that's another issue).
3 comments:
The abortion card is a flop.
Mcguinty (the son of an adamant pro-life poilitician himself) has said that life begins at conception.
It is difficult for me to believe that most Liberals and certainly Liberal voters,or whatever is left of them,endorse for example public funded gender selective abortion.
At the very least most decent people would pause for thought on the practice. I doubt McGuinty would say he supports this concept.
Hudak had said that government should "encourage" women to keep their babies. You are not suggesting that gov't should encourage women to abort their fetuses?
Why not focus on prenatal care? Why not discuss something positive for the vast majority of women who wish to keep their babies and raise healthy children?
Ultimately those voters who are motivated by The "A" bomb will move to the NDP camp.
Liberals were quick to point out a simpleton arguement that schools not jails should be the focus (fed. election). Now that Mcguinty is building more prisons the Libs have changed their minds.
"Deterrence doesn't work."
How many Canadians, or anyone for that matter, get caught bringing in DRUGS to Asian states with the Death Penalty?
Answer this question.
Would you try to smuggle drugs into a country if it resulted in death?
No you wouldn't Morton, but nice try.
Deterrence doesn't work for people who are insane.
It is UNNATURAL to not feel deterred by the Rule of law.
That's why we label those people psychopaths.
“If you disclose where these individuals are living in the community, it is not unusual that they become harassed and that may cause them to move underground, so we would not be able to have any control of these guys,” said Sgt. Sue Crone, head of the Toronto Police Sex Offender Registry Enforcement Unit.
Police issue an arrest warrant when an offender fails to register but Crone says the noncompliance rate is “minimal.”
But Crone said the strategy is “not appropriate” for the sex offender registry. “Some of these people may have committed one act and they will never re-offend again,’ she said.
Dr. Howard E. Barbaree, clinical director of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s Law and Mental Health Program, said that kind of electronic tracking is actually not necessary for most offenders and should only be done with "very high risk" individuals.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/sex-offender-plan-panned-054000063.html
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