Pubdate: Wed, 09 Feb 2011 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2011 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Dick Harrington HARPER'S TOUGH ON CRIME AGENDA OUT OF STEP One of Harper's central campaign platforms in the next federal election will be his so-called "tough on crime" agenda. Harper will point to his plan to spend billions of your tax dollars to build new prisons. The hope is that by putting more people away for longer periods of times the crime rate will fall. This unbelievably simplistic agenda is ridiculous to the extreme. If a "tough on crime" agenda works, then why is it that every right-wing state in the U.S. has come to realize the folly of this approach? As NDP MPs Don Davies and Pat Martin recently pointed out in parliament, American conservative politicians are now calling for rehabilitation and investments in community services. Even former Republican U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote a piece in the Washington Post suggesting U.S. prison policies are too expensive and don't lead to effective rehabilitation of criminals. Many Americans are advocating initiatives such as drug-courts, mental illness treatments, and keeping the prisons only for dangerous offenders by putting low-risk offenders into community supervision. It has been pointed out in various media sources that in Texas such initiatives have saved the state $2 billion in prison costs and reduced the crime rate to record low levels. So, as you see Harper pushing this antiquated crime agenda, please remember that even in very conservative U.S. states, they have come to realize the folly of their past ways and are looking for initiatives that really work. Don't you think that it is time that we did the same in Canada? Dick Harrington Hope - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom