Ahh; This is a breath of fresh air. And, Congrats on landing this appointment, Mike.
While I can easily be convinced that Mike will be allowed to pursue his priorities on the provincial level, I would be concerned about chicken-s**t support from our new federal government. Can I be wrong?

Pop the hood ? Low level drug crimes ? Wow what an over achiever . How about looking at Howe street ? Turn over a few rocks there and have a look a the slime where the real money goes .

You are so right nuffsnuff1. Can this new Liberal government be as good as the last 10 years of Con rule. Where we have had no issue with gang violence. But now the liberals will just let it all back in.

At least we have Todd

I guess

by pop the hood he means getting in and getting familiar with the ministry, just like you would look under the hood of a car that is new to you

“last 10 years of Con rule. Where we have had no issue with gang violence”?????
What fairy-land have you been living in? You must be partaking of that “low-level drug activity” Morris refers to. Between 2008 and 2014 there were 281 gang-related homicides or attempted homicides in BC.

Morris has a huge job on his hands and I wish him every success, but it worries me when I see him quoted as saying, “I’m just going to take each day as it comes.” This has a whiff of lacking a cohesive plan.

Ummm. Sarcasm

“last 10 years of Con rule. Where we have had no issue with gang violence”?????”

What? Almost daily – mostly at night – there are gunshots heard in Lower Mainland communities, the odd dead body found, bullet holes in houses and vehicles…and the police trying to calm down law abiding citizens by saying that there is nothing to fear because it was a targeted gang related shooting? Take off your rose coloured glasses!

Dave….hard core cons don’t have a sense of humour.

I can’t think of a better person to take this on. His talents will finally be put to use.

This is interesting comment. “That was a frustration in my era when I was still in the force and is still a frustration today. I think it’s something we need to sit down with the judiciary and see what we can do about it,” he said.

The judiciary is independent of government. Doesn’t even fall under his Ministry, it’s Justice that deals with them. In any event, they aren’t tools of government policy. You can’t ask them to start giving out longer sentences – that’s why they’re independent.

Besides, where are you going to put all these new prisoners? Is our jail half empty? Who knew.

Are the courts running under capacity. News to me. I just had an acquaintance wait 2 years to a get a court date for a civil suit.

The reason they walk Mr. Minister, is because there’s nowhere to put them. Judges would love to increase sentences, but what’s the point, if the offender get’s released upon arrival at the already full jail. Need to talk to your buddy over at Finance about getting a few billion to increase low-life storage capacity.

This guy and Christy should make a great pair. Maybe they could create a new cottage industry of building prisons instead of dealing with the underlying causes of chronic recidivism and the societal decay that results from it.

Easy way to open spaces in our jails. Make them a place you don’t want to be. Right now prisoners are treated better than seniors and low income families.. 3 meals a day, medical, dental, excersize room, etc.

Every fall a bunch break the law on purpose so they get to spend winter in a warm comfy place that feeds them well.

Start with the low life that squeaked into office with 29% of the vote.

What with Obama V2 as a PM wanting to “fundamentally change Canada” and part of it is to legalize low level drugs you’re gonna be rock in a stream there Mr. Morris.

Am I yet another hard right con? Nope. I call ’em as I see ’em. This guy is another empty suit making naive promises and judgment calls.

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but the worm turned on me yesterday when I heard that now he wants to make changes to our federal electoral process without a referendum.

I didn’t vote for him, but he had my support up until recently.

Yay. Another pocket dictator. Way to go you feel-good liberals.

“Low life”, eh?

Need to learn a new vocabulary and a bit of composure during media interviews as a Minister of the Crown.

Your background is showing!!

“Start with the low life that squeaked into office with 29% of the vote.”

Better get your facts straight, Grog!

“Easy way to open spaces in our jails. Make them a place you don’t want to be. Right now prisoners are treated better than seniors and low income families.. 3 meals a day, medical, dental, excersize room, etc.”

This is utter nonsense, but makes for feel-good right-wing propaganda. Ever been in one of these places? I used to work in the system and believe me, you do not want to do anything that lands you in one of our prisons or jails.

I guess Mike forgest the judicial system doesn’t allow the bad guys to pay the price.

About filling the jails, Morris is talking about the few repeat offenders with rap sheets as long as a toilet paper role that keep getting released over and over by the unaccountable grossly overpaid liberal left judiciary.

These few will hardly fill the jails but if thrown in jail and left there the judiciary maybe under threat of being reduced. The revolving door for the repeat losers is job security for the judiciary.

Krusty, PVal is anything but a right-wing propagandist. When he wrote the comment I thought someone had stolen his identity. He’s got a point though, if it’s such a horrible place, then why do repeat offenders keep repeating.

I guess Duane Chapman was unavailable . Low-life’s . Don’t you just love the dumbing down of even our language . Sounds to me like something that usually comes out of hyperbolic caricatures like Donald trump or some other tea party types .

sounds like a lot hollow tough talk . how about taking on the kingpins in the crime world , without them I’d think the so called ” low-lifes ” would have less to work with . the way it seems now is that the crown just makes cash deals with the hoods when there caught and then turns them loose to continue their business .

“if it’s such a horrible place, then why do repeat offenders keep repeating.”

I will take that and move it into the USA. In those states where the penalty for murder is the death penalty and they actually execute people, why does the USA have such a high murder rate??????

It is well known that punishment is not the best deterrent. When you are mentally ill, down and out on your luck, born on the wrong side of the tracks, the probability of you ending up on the wrong side of the law is considerably higher than the rest of the population.

Until people understand that. nothing will change.

They just voted down a new jail in Whatcom county, Washington, to replace existing one which is overcrowded. The local rural population, where the jail was to be built voted for it ….. for the jobs it would create, not to improve the conditions for the prisoners. The urban population in Bellingham voted against it because they have had enough of the same olde same olde.

Based on what some other more enlightened countries are doing, the US needs to work on their problem. Punishment is not the solution, that has been shown time and time again.

I stand corrected. I fat fingered and hit the wrong digit.

Justin won 39 % of the vote.

Still, 60 % of voters did not give him a dictatorial mandate.

And I stand with Mike Morris. Warehouse the dirtbags.

I’m willing to pay a tax increase to see more prisons built.

I witnessed two little angels breaking into my neighbour’s truck at 5:45 am a few days ago.

Shakes a person up to know if they were caught, they would have received a milq toast sentence.

Criminals know they have more rights than the victims now in this stupid society of ours living by pathological altruism.

In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population.

While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 22 percent of the world’s prisoners

prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/wppl_10.pdf

Germany has an incarceration rate of 76 per 100,000 population (as of 2014),
Italy is 85 per 100,000 (as of 2015),
Saudi Arabia is 161 per 100,000 (as of 2013)

Comparing other countries with a zero tolerance policy for illegal drugs, the rate of Russia is 455 per 100,000 (as of 2015),
Kazakhstan is 275 per 100,000 (as of 2015),
Singapore is 220 per 100,000 (as of 2014),
Sweden is 60 per 100,000 (as of 2014).

The rate in Canada is about 120 total for provincial and federal institutions and I believe it included provincial remand.

statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2015001/article/14163-eng.htm

The war on drugs ain’t workin’ on this side of the Atlantic. Prison is not the panacea that some people have thought it would be. Derogatory comments are sure not going to help!

Better look under the hood of a few more jurisdictions to see which ones are the most successful within the context of a western industrial society. In other words, forget about the ISIS solution.

“Justin won 39 % of the vote.

Still, 60 % of voters did not give him a dictatorial mandate.”

Guess what, the popular vote has not mattered in Canada ever since we have had more than two parties which can get a significant number of people voting for them.

Harper was not different. Both Harper and Trudeau got a majority of the seats in Parliament.

That is our system. I cannot see anything simpler to understand that that.

If you want to change it, suggest how!!

Harper got just under 32% of the vote. That means that 68% of the population voted him out.

If there were only Cons and Libs in Canada, Harper would have been voted out as well. Every single other party that ran – Libs, NDP, BQ – was left of the Cons.

If we had had two parties, I suspect the vote would have gone no higher than 40% for the Cons, if that.

The USA does not even have as wide a split as that anymore between Republicans and Democrats.

gopg2015 – those are good points, but we tend to forget U.S. and Canada appear culturally similar, but have core differences. Our country was settled as a colony, given nationhood, and most problems have been solved by law or treaty. The US went to war with England, with it’s first nations, and went to war with each other, went to war with Mexico, and I think that solve it with violence mentality is deeply embedded in their culture, hence, more violent crime, more prisons. Education, healthcare, more universal here vs there. There’s a reason why Trump strikes a chord with these people.

I think we’re a more civil nation except when you fail to merge properly, or keep right except to pass – then, your life is pretty much worthless. I’m probably making your argument for you, in that the problem Mr. Morris seeks to stamp out, can probably be more effectively dealt with other ways.

A drug addict needs drugs, and will do whatever they have to no matter what the consequences. Increased jail time only helps in that, the longer they’re in there, the less crime they can commit out here. But addiction is believed to be more a function of an unstable home life than chemical dependency. Maybe we need to put Family’s First. Pun intended.

Krusty, in my former job I had a part in sending some of these people to jail, reoffenders just laughed about going back.. They thanked me and others on the panel for the free housing and food that was paid for with our taxes. Don’t miss that job at all.

Ski51. Merry Christmas :-)

Since the 1950’s in Canada, any changes to the federal electoral system have to be made by a referendum where the entire country participates.

I don’t trust the Twerp’s cabal of social justice warriors to do it without tainting it so that it favours their party to win elections ad infinitum.

If Harper was still in power, and wanted to change the federal electoral system without the checks and balances of a national referendum, I’m pretty sure gopg2015 you’d be on the highest soap box with a megaphone screaming in protest for the very same reason.

And I don’t ever advocate an election win, from any side, being a cart blanch blank cheque to do whatever the hell they want.

All governments should be responsible to all the electorate, even those that didn’t vote for them. That means, analyze the voting data, and govern with that in mind.

The USA is the most medicated country on this planet. Gee, you think that has something to do with the crime stats? It’s like a country entirely made up of Liberals.

Pg101,, nice stretch.. The USA also has the best golf courses in the world…gee you think that has something to do with crime stats ;).

He can do what he likes but until the judges pull their heads out of their proverbial dark spots and get serious with these “people” nothing is going to change.

PVal, you are correct that some people will gladly accept jail time instead of living their “regular” existence, so imagine how deplorable their lot in life is if incarceration is preferable to their usual digs. Furthermore, as you likely know, some become “institutionalized” so that they function better on the inside than they do on the streets. For those folks, most of whom are drug addicted, mentally ill or sociopathic, or all three, there is no rehabilitation whether in jail or out. Once they get there, they stay there and the only real option is to try to get them the services they need before they get that way. Should we warehouse these people once they’re lost to society? I can’t answer that, but I do know we’d all better be prepared to pay a lot more in taxes if that’s the decision.
One thing I do know is that I don’t want to see prisons privatized in Canada like they do in the states – once you make incarceration profitable, there is no incentive to reduce jail populations – hence, the disproportionate number of Americans in prison.

Goog2015, what’s the incarnation, and execution rate in China? Trudeau has stated he admires China.

Grog:”Still, 60 % of voters did not give him a dictatorial mandate.”

The 60% who did NOT vote for Harper’s majority government did not give him a dictatorial mandate either! He did use his majority in the Parliament to become a strict one-man-show and nothing got past him without not being fully scrutinized first! Did you consider Harper to have been elected fairly or being a dictator?

Your worries about a change in Canada’s electoral process are premature and founded on speculation.Let’s just wait and see before hyperventilating needlessly!

Krusty I do agree that some do get institutionalized. And last time I looked it cost about $85,000 a year per prisoner. A hefty bill for sure. The one reason there is a far larger number of prisoners in jail in the usa is the 3 strike rule.. Also the ease of getting a hand gun makes their use in any criminal activity increase the jail time for them.

I still like that one warden in the states that is a harda$$ and treats the prisoners like prisoners.. if they want to better themselves he is all for it..but they live in tents..no AC.. just like the American soldiers are doing in the middle east.. he will not treat them better than the soldiers.. gotta respect him for that.

I have had my share of visits to correctional facilities throughout this province. I don’t like them, the stench of fear is palpable. Some like to go in to dry out, alcohol or drugs, but no matter how many programs you throw at them, if they don’t want to change, they ain’t gonna. They’re back on the street, doing the same old thing, breaking in to our houses and vehicles, assaulting their girlfriends, because they want total control, or because of their mental disorders(And there are lots of those),
doing anything they can do to keep their addictions fulfilled.
I hope Mike takes in to consideration the work camps that we used to have, be it Hudta Lake or Terrace CCC, let these folks work their time and perhaps find another purpose in life. It takes parliament to toughen up our laws,hire some top notch lawyers to kill the loopholes so lawyers quit making a ton of money finding them. Has a federal liberal government got the balls to do that? It would be real nice to see a guy, with his 21st conviction going away for fed time instead of 3 months, which amounts to one. Gotta give that damn time off for good behavior, stat release, and all the rest of the reasons to release way too early. Way too many bleeding hearts out there wanting to help and the con sucks it up and robs them blind.
And Mike’s got it right, get the lowlifes off the street and keep them off. A pipe dream for others, but not if he’s given a broad mandate, he’s got the knowledge and the skills, let him work it.
Read Krusty and Ski’s comments again, they got it right.

PG101 wrote ” USA …. It’s like a country entirely made up of Liberals.”

There is a huge difference between Liberals and Libertarians. There is also a huge difference between having two key things enshrined in a constitution which Canada does not:

Here’s another one. Get those with degrees off the parole boards, get some folks who are down to earth, with some common sense and good judgement, perhaps they will quit letting these fools out.
Same with review boards. Allowing a Psychiatrist to decide who should be let out is begging for a biased decision.

oops … hit the wrong key

enshrined in the US Constitution are:

The right to bear arms.

The right to pursue happiness.

If we are ever going to see a more “liberal” USA in the context that people are writing about here, the more people support the likes of Trump the sociopath, the more the country will actually begin to swing a bit to the political left.

bcracer wrote: “until the judges pull their heads out of their proverbial dark spots and get serious with these “people” nothing is going to change.”

One does not have to re-invent the wheel. The USA has already done that. They do not have more people in jail than any other nations because the judges went easy on people.

Has not accomplished much for the country to have tougher judges that put more people in jail and instituted the 3 strikes and you’re out policy.

On top of that their whole privatization of federal jails has backfired on them.

gopg2015, also unofficially enshrined in the USA is a culture of violence that can be traced back to colonial days. Listen to or read the words of their national anthem. It has amazed me for a long time how America abhors anything of a sexual nature, yet a person can see multiple acts of violence in most tv shows (even the so called comedies). Unfortunately a good portion of the civilized world tries their best to emulate the American culture.

The simple fact of the matter is that by the time someone gets to court or jail, they have already committed the crime.

The only way to deal with it properly is to focus on the drivers of crime and those can largely be traced to social, economic or mental health issues. Until we start looking at solutions that account for those, we won’t accomplish much.

Build lots of low budget prison camps and lock’em up!

gopg2015:-“If we are ever going to see a more “liberal” USA in the context that people are writing about here, the more people support the likes of Trump the sociopath, the more the country will actually begin to swing a bit to the political left. ”
————————————————————————
That’s more than likely the exact ‘plan’ those providing the real money and media coverage of Trump hope to achieve. It is highly unlikely that Trump is paying his own way in his attempt to become US President. He seems about as relevant to the businesses that bear the name ‘Trump’ as Colonel Harlan Sanders was to Kentucky Fried Chicken, or old man Roebuck was to Sears, Roebuck and Co., in their latter days. They were the still the visible faces, and got something for being so, but the real power had long since passed to others. My guess is Trump is simply doing what he’s been doing to divert attention away from Hillary Clinton, who, at the appropriate moment, big money and the media will make the next US President. She comes with considerable unfavourable baggage, and anything that keeps those who could honestly offer something better from focussing the public’s attention on that, is a necessary diversion for those who stand to gain most from her as President, and a more “liberal” USA.

gopg2015:-“Has not accomplished much for the country to have tougher judges that put more people in jail and instituted the 3 strikes and you’re out policy.”
————————————————————————-
It has kept that number of people off the streets and out of circulation. Hard to commit any further crimes against other people and their property when the perpetrators have been locked up. Is it “the answer”? No, it is not. It’s a stop gap solution to a complex, multi-faceted problem. The largest segment of which ~ the ‘economic’ one ~ no one wants to try to deal with. It challenges long held ‘moral’ beliefs inherent in that “old time religion” of the Old Testament, and carried over, to a degree, into the New. Namely, “Let no man amongst ye eat unless he has first worked.” Something entirely right and proper in an age of scarcity, where if every man’s shoulder wasn’t harnessed to the plow actual starvation might ensue. But in an age of plenty? Where the increasing application of modern technology has banished scarcity and famine and the NEED for ‘full employment’? THAT’S the issue no one wants to face. And least of all those who call themselves “liberals”.

NMG:-“The only way to deal with it properly is to focus on the drivers of crime and those can largely be traced to social, economic or mental health issues. Until we start looking at solutions that account for those, we won’t accomplish much. ”

————————————————————————-I think you’re exactly right, NMG. Most of the ‘social’ issues can be traced back to ‘economic’ issues. ‘Mental health’ issues, too, in many instances.

Socredible: please explain how you rationalize that the reality that full employment is not required in times of plenty is an issue that the left leaning political thinkers do not want to face.

It is the recent generation of right leaning thinkers who are the creators of the increasing gap between the rich and poor. That was not the case when many of those posting on here were in their early years.

Socredible wrote: “It has kept that number of people off the streets and out of circulation. Hard to commit any further crimes against other people and their property when the perpetrators have been locked up.”

You and the promoters of increased incarceration are forgetting the free/uncontrolled market in which crime operates and the insatiable wants and eventual needs of the customers of the illegal services and products which they supply to the general population.
Make gambling illegal and people will fill the gap. New criminal enterprises are created.
Make alcohol illegal and people will fill the gap. New criminal enterprises are created.
Make prostitution illegal and people will fill the gap. New criminal enterprises are created.
Make marijuana illegal and people will fill the gap. New criminal enterprises are created.

Of course all those enterprises create jobs to replace those which were legal. Thus we create the underground economy of illegal jobs.

Removing criminals from illegal jobs leaves gaps. The demand for services does not go away. That is simple minded wishful thinking. What it does do is provide gaps which are filled by new people and sometimes also new ways of doing things. The criminal underground economy has tech changes in the same way that the legitimate economy changes over time.

So, people are removed from the streets only to be replaced by new people ready to take their place. The equilibrium is quickly returned when people are removed and locked up. It is also returned if people are taken off the streets and rehabilitated.

When those four “vices” mentioned at the top are decriminalized, however, there is an almost totally new shift in the equilibrium which may result in new opportunities arising or older ones increasing – fraud, scams, identity thefts, for instance.

PVal, the tough sheriff you mentioned is Joseph Michael “Joe” Arpaio and has, since 1993, been the elected sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.

He maintains a tent city out in the desert where criminals serve their sentences. No frills, no luxuries of any kind, no individual TVs, no Internet, no smart phones. Cold showers after roll call early in the morning, then on to the daily physical work routine which consists of maintaining medians and ditches on freeways and so forth. Cost of keeping a prisoner there is just a few bucks a day, most of the food is donated, some is grown by the prisoners. The diet features bologna as the main ingredient.

The re-admission rate into Joe’s camp is amazingly low, close to zero. After serving one term they are very afraid of ending up there again!