Pubdate: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2010 Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.edmontonsun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135 Author: Russell Barth Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk. "FISCAL PRUDENCE" INDEED To The Editor, RE: Justice Minister wants opposition to reinstate crime bills: Tory crime bills will necessitate the building of 12 brand new billion-dollar jails, and cost Canadians about $500 million every year. Why do we need so many new jails when crime has dropped for almost 30 years? Bill C-15 - which promises to pass this session - will impose mandatory jail sentences for simply growing one pot plant or passing a joint. Making more things illegal, or making illegal things even more illegal, guarantees attendance in these new cells. A US-style for-profit prison industry will likely do for Canada what it has done for the US: Increase crime, increase partisanship, fill the airwaves with balderdash, increase our debt, and make a handful of wealthy people even wealthier. "Fiscal prudence" indeed. Russell Barth, Ottawa (The drug war is archaic, pricey and dangerous.) - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D