Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Is This Crazy Or Just Fucking Stupid?The Conservative government plans to bring in an American-style prison system that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars and do little to improve public safety, according to a report to be released Thursday in Ottawa.The 235-page report, A Flawed Compass, is a scathing review of the government's plan, which it calls "immoral, unethical and illegal."University of British Columbia law professor Michael Jackson and Graham Stewart, who recently retired after decades as head of the John Howard Society of Canada, prepared the report.A panel led by Rob Sampson, a former corrections minister in Ontario's Mike Harris government, drafted the government plan, which is being implemented by the Correctional Service.In addition to constructing super prisons and implementing work programs, the program will eliminate gradual release and deny inmates rights that are now entrenched in the constitution.By stressing punishment rather than rehabilitation, the plan ignores lessons of the past, which led to the prison riots and killings that dominated Canadian news in the early 1970s, said Jackson."My greatest fear is with this road map's agenda and its underlying philosophy, we will enter a new period of turmoil and violence in Canadian prisons," he said."I do fear that prisons will become more abusive, prisoners will become more frustrated and that we could go back to a time not only when the rule of law was absent but a culture of violence is the dominant way in which prisoners express their frustrations."The plan attempts to emulate the American "get tough" system, which incarcerated hundreds of thousands of people and has left some states on the verge of bankruptcy, said Stewart.He called the plan "an ideological rant. All their recommendations are just that they believe in something.… There's no evidence for anything they recommend, there's no research, no background." The federal road map flies in the face of the Correctional Service's own research of what works to rehabilitate prisoners and ensure community safety, said Stewart."The fact is that you cannot hurt a person and make them into a good citizen at the same time."The government has already allocated hundreds of millions to the plan, even though it has had no input from either Parliament or the public, according to the report.http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/09/24/conservative-prison-plan024.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phishtaper Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Is This Crazy Or Just Fucking Stupid?difficult. do we have to choose one or the other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balogna pogna Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I heard this on the CBC today and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I assumed it must be an exaggeration because it just sounded so crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 The thing I can't get my head around is imagining educated people discussing all the benefits of the US incarceration system. It truly boggles my mind, and the scariest part is that the article seems to indicate this is beyond the planning stages."A panel led by Rob Sampson, a former corrections minister in Ontario's Mike Harris government, drafted the government plan, which is being implemented by the Correctional Service.""The government has already allocated hundreds of millions to the plan, even though it has had no input from either Parliament or the public, according to the report."Fucking loser fucking asshole conservatives. If these pricks hate Canada so much why don't they just fucking move to the US? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I saw a bit of the press conference just now on CBC Newsworld, and they raised some interesting "red flags" against the government's proposal, but missed a big one, I think: do we need a change at all? Are crime rates going up or down? Are the rates of re-offending for released/paroled prisoners increasing or decreasing? In other words, leaving aside the types of changes the government wants to make, the government first needs to show that a change is actually necessary, and I haven't seen that they've done that. (As well, I also want to see what measurements the government either has in place or will put in place to gauge how well the changes are [or aren't] working, and what the government will do if these changes [assuming they're implemented] don't improve things.)Aloha,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 This smacks of enthusiastic lobbying (keep in mind that in the US prisons are privatised and are HUGE business).For further reading see Mother Night by Vonnegut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 It's a pretty simple concept.Incarceration on it's own does less to help an inmate rehabilitate versus a system of incarceration and rehabilitation.This proposal sickens me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davey Boy 2.0 Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hux Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Keep wasting your vote on parties who can't form government and this is what we get folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigger Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Keep minority Governments and this will never happen, most of the 1st world governments have forms of Coalition Governments. which means no one party can abuse our system like the liberals and the tory's have for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phishtaper Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Hux skates across the blue line, winds up ... Keep wasting your vote on parties who can't form government and this is what we get folks.ohhhhh, fans on the shot ... Off the boards, passed up ice to tigger, into the zone, past the defenceman, he shoots ... Keep minority Governments and this will never happen, most of the 1st world governments have forms of Coalition Governments. which means no one party can abuse our system like the liberals and the tory's have for years.he scores! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YearsAlongTheSea Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 wow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hux Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 But there are a ton of powers that the governing party can exercise regardless of the will of Parliament (ie. not subject to any vote) in a minority or majority situation, ie. appointing members to the panel that determines "Correctional Service procedures" as in this case.And the last time I checked, the only party in government that ever reached out to the other parties in a minority situation is the Liberal Party, ie. Pearson in the mid 60's, Trudeau '72-'74, and then Martin in 2005 until the NDP turned their backs for 10 extra seats.The Conservatives have only used the bulldozer approach in minority governments, ie. everything a confidence vote, you're with us or it's an election.:::hits five-hole::: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deranger Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Stephen Harper is a douchebag and needs to be removed from any lever of power. This is the same shit we've been getting from them since day 1. Super prisons huh. Just in time for crime to be going down. Why can't the average Canadian see the parliamentary system for what it is and realize co-operation between parties in coalitions might actually represent the best exercise of democracy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hux Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Why can't the average Canadian see the parliamentary system for what it is and realize co-operation between parties in coalitions might actually represent the best exercise of democracy? I'd say fear of the unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigger Posted September 25, 2009 Report Share Posted September 25, 2009 (edited) Better than the Known....could you give me some cash in a bag that I don't know about.. (wink wink) Edited September 25, 2009 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaggyBalls Posted September 25, 2009 Report Share Posted September 25, 2009 Politics Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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