Pubdate: Fri, 27 Oct 2006
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Tom Brodbeck

BOOT 'EM INTO CAMPS

Boy, Canada's youth crime laws are working well, aren't they?

The pointy-headed, social worker gurus who have hijacked our criminal 
justice system have been telling us for years how coddling young 
criminals, keeping them out of custody and rehabilitating them in the 
community is the only answer to kiddy crime.

You can't incarcerate 12-year-olds and expect them to return to the 
community and be grounded, responsible members of society, the social 
worker types say. No, you've got to keep them in the community where 
they can continue to develop their ties with gangs, drugs and 
dysfunctional family members.

Yeah, that's working well.

Canada decided some years ago that keeping young criminals in custody 
was wrong and that parole orders were the preferred choice for 
dealing with kid criminals, even violent repeat offenders.

And where has that brought us?

How about the three young girls -- one aged 12 and two aged 14 -- and 
a 15-year-old boy who allegedly attacked and killed a Winnipeg woman 
like a pack of wild dogs.

Kids who were out at 2:45 a.m. last weekend, evidently with no 
parental supervision.

The kids allegedly beat the woman repeatedly, kicking and punching 
her, leaving her for dead at her Spence Street home, only to succumb 
to her injuries in hospital.

It was brutal, unthinkable and exceptionally violent for a group of 
young kids who should have been tucked away in their bedrooms, 
resting up for Sunday morning hockey and ringette practice.

It was, in a word, evil.

It's not an isolated incident, either. Cops say they're seeing an 
increase in violence from young kids, especially from young girls who 
are falling deeper into the world of violent crime.

We can come up with all the reasons in the world why these kids are 
doing this -- screwed up parents, bad neighbourhoods, domestic abuse, 
boredom, etc. And they all have validity.

But you can't tell me these kids don't know if they're caught doing 
something really bad that very little will happen to them.

After a while, it becomes street knowledge that if you're under 18 
and you commit a serious crime, you're going to face few, if any, 
consequences for your actions. It's human nature, and these kids aren't stupid.

Especially kids who have already been through the system.

That's what the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and how it's applied in 
the courts, has brought us.

It's a social experiment that has failed miserably.

There's only one answer for kids who commit serious crimes -- we need 
some form of military-style boot camp.

You have to take these kids -- whether it's chronic car thieves, 
arsonists or murderers -- out of the community for public safety purposes.

And you have to put them in a controlled, disciplined environment 
where there is structure, sobriety and education.

In many cases, these kids have little or no parenting in their lives. 
And if you want to turn their lives around, you have to try to fill that gap.

The only way to do that is to remove them from the destructive 
environments they're living in and give them discipline, life skills and hope.

There's no other way.

These ridiculous parole sentences where kids go back to their 
communities and hang out with the same destructive people who got 
them into a life of crime in the first place don't work.

They do nothing to help rehabilitate kids and they send a message out 
to the public that if you're a kid and you commit serious crimes, 
virtually nothing will happen to you.

It's time for boot camps.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman