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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Letter of the day: We haven't learned anything

Posted: 02/13/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Enlarge Image

The Dauphin Correctional Institution in western Manitoba.

While handling recycling materials at my workplace the other day, I came across a Maclean's magazine from March 1, 1949. An editorial titled Tough Justice No Cure for Toughs described growing crime among juveniles and young gangsters in Canada.

In detailing the costs of incarceration the writer concluded with two points: it costs more to jail people than to educate them in expensive private schools and jails turn problem kids into hardened criminals. The final sentence stated that if we put half the cost of our prison system into probation and recreation, we could rescue most youngsters and save money.

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Then I came across the Feb. 7 Free Press with the front-page headline A plea for more jails, and I just had to think, "Haven't we learned anything?" But in my heart, I know why these ways cannot be changed.

Our present capitalist system, which demands nonstop growth in all directions including crime and punishment, controls everything so tightly that even a socialist government embraces tougher and tougher justice measures.

Although we know that more vehicular traffic means more pollution and probably more global warming, we are forced to build wider roads and bigger bridges, which soon become clogged with traffic. So, too, we believe we need more and bigger jails and tougher laws to keep them filled and overfilled. It's just the way it is.

Tim Brandt

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 13, 2012 A11

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