40 Years old . . . 53 Prior Criminal convictions.

Seriously, when will we ever have a deterrent to reoffend?

I would support the creation of a serial criminal designation that would allow the court system to keep career criminals like this man behind bars indefinately.

The designation would border along the same lines as the dangerous offender law.

damm marijuana addicts

Robbing Valu Village um okay.

I'm sure he is just misunderstood.

arctic jail

better still, bring back the lash

Make a law - 3 strikes your out.

Guess his mommy wasn't very nice to him?
This is what happens when "rehabilitation"
takes precedent of "punishment".
This guy is a classic example of someone who is NOT going to learn from his mistakes.
We don't have a treatment plan or a pill for that.
Lock him up and keep him there!

Does a rational person do this? Probably a result of downsizing of mental health care and 'streeting' the mentally ill. How bad can life be when you rob a value village?

Exactly Geek!

Our gov't puts these people out on the streets instead of institutions. Proof the gov't allows the mentally ill to run free making more and more victims in society.

Pretty sad when a gov't treats the citizens it is supposed to protect the way they do.

Hey Don there is no way this had anything to do with marijuana but there is a good chance he needed pack of Export A or a bottle of wine both being much more addictive then pot could ever be

Just a thought? But if some regular law abiding citizen were to have one offense of beating this guy senseless so he couldn't walk again - would he go to jail or could he do it 50 time as well. The reason I ask is the whole criminal element could be wiped out by law abiding citizen as long a we were sure we wouldn't go to jail too. Just a thought :)

if all these convictions had sentences that were not concurrent to each other, he would be in prison for life.

He was looking to go back into jail. With 53 prior convictions, he is likely dysfunctional in open society and needs the routine and culture of jail to cope. This is what happens to career criminals or those that have been incarcerated for a significant portion of their life.
He knows nothing else.

We have a "justice" system that purports to be about rehabilitation. It does not do rehabilitation, it does incarceration only. basically the prisoner waits out their time, says what the parole board wants to hear about being remorseful for their actions and that they feel rehabilitated. No deterrent therapy, very little if any psychiatric work, and they have access to all the wonderful recreational pharmaceuticals.

Too bad the police were there fast. "bang bang".

After he is charged will he be let out "on his own recognizance" to await trial? Betcha he will. Good time for him then to move to another province for a while. Warrants for arrest have stifling limitations.

Actually Harb, didnt they change the laws so that warrants are now interprovincial? Having said that, this is still a rediculous case. People say they want rehabilitation, but to what end? He obviously has no family that cares, or they would step in. He obviously has no real friends other than his "street buddies". So those people who demand rehab should step up and open a center and look after these people themselves. The rest of us taxpayers are willing to pay for a concrete room that will keep this kind of scum off the street. You may have convinced me of different about 50 offenses ago.

Could be the poor fellow just needs a hug.
Then again maybe not. Build more prisons. Build very large prisons. Build lots of prisons. Provide jobs for folks to house and guard these folks. Three strikes and your off to prison for a minimum of 20 years. Clean up the streets and get this scum where they belong. I can understand making a mistake and maybe running afoul of the law but after three times buddy you have a debt to pay the the law abiding taxpayers who have to have to fund your defense and house you once you are convicted. If they are behind bars they are not likely to re-offend and they are keeping people employed instead of being a major drain on the rest of the folks.

All you people who think that more prisons and longer sentences are the answer need only look to our southern neighbours. They incarcerate more of their population for longer average sentences, and their crime rate is enormous. Deterrents don't work. People commit crimes when they see no other viable option, and deterrents don't factor in. Even the ultimate punishment, the death sentence, doesn't deter criminals; in fact, states in the US that have the death penalty have, on average, higher murder rates than states that do not.
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/deathpenalty/us-homicide-rates-and-the-death-penalty/

You really want to eliminate recidivism (that's a big word that means "tendency to continue to commit crimes" for you Conservative voters)? Eliminate criminal records. Reserve incarceration for only those who are an immediate threat to others. Institute community-based justice. Involve offenders in their communities. Stop stigmatizing people for past acts. When people are invested in their community and have options beyond crime, they will choose to do right. Conversely, when you stigmatize, label and ostracize people who commit crimes, you leave them with little choice but to continue to break the law. By choosing to maintain a "tough on crime" justice system, you are choosing to maintain higher crime rates.

Never mind adopting a block. Adopt a criminal.

Headshake, did you just beam in from fantasy island? Your utopian solutions to crime may make great academic theory but the reality is much diffrent. Sorry if I stigmatize the crackhead who ripped off my garage for the third time. I don't care if incarceration does not deter these criminals. I just want them off the streets and out of my garage. I am not a fan of the huge senteces handed out for relativly minor crimes in the US, but letting habitual carrer criminals free in Canada to repeat their crimes is not the answer either. you seam more concerned with the criminal than the victim and the victims are fed up.

one more thing headshake, "recidivism" may be a big word for conservative voters, but common sense is a foreign concept for a pompous Liberal.

I once had a debate with a current MP (conservative) who used to go to UNBC. He thought that the debate between cons and ndp centered around wether you thought people were naturally good or evil. I proposed that how you treat people has a pretty good effect on wether they turn out to be 'good' or 'evil'. In other words you 'grow' a society like a farmer.

This theory is proved by the low crime and drug abuse rates in the socialist 'utopian' societies in Western Europe, and the high crime and drug rates in the United States, or Russia.

The problem is that when a crackhead rips you off we tend to get all lower brainstem and want to kick some a**. The ability to nourish a flourishing garden takes time and patience and you have to put up with weeds at first. When that weed has just ripped off your lawn-mower its hard to be patient.

However, as the garden becomes stronger, and has lower FAS or ADHD, and the streeted mentally ill, social pressures cause it to self-weed.

The question in Canada, is it going to have a garden, or a vacant lot? That's for us to decide.

As it stands, we tend to be rewarding the rich with our tax breaks ( they over benifit ) and because we then can not afford initiatives to offer better mental health care, better programs for those in jail, better early child care initiative, we then have these people (who have a higher birth rate) become exponentially more of a problem for the rest of us.

So because they will outbreed us, do we embrace Islam? Islamic countries still have stupidly high crime rates - no hope=nothing to lose.

So, you need to offer hope. Its not utopian, it just the facts.

Sorry.

The fact of the matter is most Criminals know exactly what they are doing. For the most part they think the average Citizen is a fool. (Afer reading headshakes post they could be right)

Some people need help, and would respond to it, others can make a good living being a criminal and thats what they do. Going to jail means nothing to them, as that is where all their freinds are, and they can hang out and talk tough, and essentially have a good time.

Part of the problem is how these people are raised, and educated, and the issue of self worth, however regular Citizens do not need to be robbed, beaten, and killed while society figures out how to deal with the problem. So until we find a solution we should put them in jail.

I have dealt with some of these people over the years, and I can tell you that a lot of them really think we are stupid. They have no qualms of receiving your help on Monday and robbing you on Tuesday.

Parole for life for any violent crimes. It would cost hardly anything, and it would save a lot of lives making it well worth it. Parole for life for violent criminals makes sense.

Why shouldn't those people be tracked and restricted from having the rights of a non violent citizen?