It seems to me there is a major increase in the crime rate in this country because the criminal element is laughing at our toothless justice system. We hear lots of talk about cracking down on crime (like the recent announcement by Stephen Harper declaring a war on drug crimes), but we never see follow through on this tough talk.

I think our justice system has a lot in common with our health care system, in that they are both slowly but surely getting worse every year.

It really puzzles me why our elected politicians are allowing this to occur.

Politicians aren't really responsible until they are up for re-election. By that time most voters just don't seem to remember any issues that bothered them anytime in the past. Seeing as how they don't hang people anymore, most criminals see no problem having the cops looking for them only to become recipients of a nice warm bed and three hot meals a day. Plus a trial months away. Some penalty, eh?

If Harper gets a Majority Government you can rest assured that a number of these guys will get jail time. Drug dealers especially can count on getting some mandatory jail time. I suspect the same will happen to repeat offenders, committing such crimes as B.E. Assault, etc;

We have already seen that with the new car racing laws that there have been a number of arrests where peoples cars have been, impounded, huge fines assessed, and in some cases jail time. We have had an instance where the big time racer was using his Mothers car, which was impounded, and he ended up crying like a baby. These guys are big shots as long as no one takes them on. I suspect that in the next few years a large number of them will be cooling their heels in a maximum security prison.

Oh c'mon palopu. Did you see the story in the citizen about the woman in quesnel getting a conditional sentence for trafficking? She had over 5 pounds of cocaine, and over 200 ex tablets - all within the confines of her home when she was arrested. Harper is only paying lip service in order to get re elected. The courts are the ones who decide who gets what in terms of sentencing.

I agree somewhat dgdiggler, however Harpers intent is to bring in mandatory sentencing for some crimes. This in essence means that there will be a minimum sentence upon conviction. At best the judge would have to give the convicted felon the minimum under the law. He could of course give him the maximum, however whats the chance of that happening.

I think you will see some major changes in the next few years.

so lets stir the pot here and ask.....has anyone actually seen the research on how the tough penalties actually deter drug related crime......guess what.....the penalties do not. All the tough penalties do is push up the prices and make the business much more lucrative for the big crime bosses. Many states have been doing the "throw the book at them" process for years.......the states are drug free and crime free......right??.....come on now...RIGHT????

"This in essence means that there will be a minimum sentence upon conviction."

Been tried a million different times and a million different ways. Didn't work, makes people like you sleep better is all.
You just fell for the oldest and dumbest trick in the book.

Once upon a time, people were hung for cattle rustling....and people were still caught rustling cattle...and people hung for it....and people still rustled cattle....and were still hung for it...and Palopu slept better at night, but that's about all it accomplished.

It's a deeper problem than just slapping their hands harder or even cutting them off. It's not totally a "punish it away" problem. If we could punish crime away, we would have already accomplished that.

As for the stories above, how many years do you want to see someone spend in jail for being a common street drunk and causing problems ? You think a couple years in jail would fix their lives ? Change them around forever ?

All minimum sentences do is put people away in "high-cost" institutions that do not necessarily need to be there. If you want to line the streets with new jails, fill them up with petty criminals and pay the cost of running them all, then go ahead.

You think you're taxed now, wait until we are spending up to $75,000 each, processing and housing people like this, where the value of the items involved in the crimes were insignificant.

You need to find some balance, and we need to also look at solutions that have some promise of working, not some re-hashed southern hillbilly "hang-em-high" gunshow.

And your suggestion is? The alternative is? In all the world, has anything been successful in dealing with this problem? Letting them go and continue on with their unacceptable behavior is not one of mine. Chester

China has somehow "arrested" the recidivism issue in their own country. One bullet. Not ten or fifteen years for appeals to make lawyers richer. As one is wont to say, "I bet the Chinese bad guy says to himself as he is being taken outside to be shot, "Boy, has this been a lesson to me, eh?"

As usual a lot of hyberbole but no solutions. One would think that society does not pay a huge cost because of the number of people on drugs, who rob stores, houses, people etc, to support their habit.

By not convicting the felons (Those who manufacture and sell drugs, or commit major crimes) and sending them to jail, then by default we are supporting them. This of course is unnacceptable. At the very least we should be incarcerating them until we come up with a better solution. Doing nothing is hardly the answer/

Just look at the number of B&E's, Stabbings, etc in the last few years, it is pretty obvious that we have let the criminals take over.

I dont have the answers, however to let criminals continue to commit crimes with impunity, is probably one of the worst things we could do. We have to be able to show that crime doesnt pay. Its as simple as that, and if it means more jails, then I suppose thats what it means.

I would much sooner pay out some of my tax dollars on crime prevention, and incarceration, than spend it on a **stupid** million dollar replay board at the CN Centre, or pay out $600,000.00 per;year so a few hockey fans can sit on thier butts and watch a hockey game. Or spend it on any number of other **dumb** ventures such as a $33 Million dollar expansion to an Airport Runway that may or may not create a few jobs over 20 years. Or $30 Million for a Sports PLex that will have to be subsidized for the rest of eternity to the tune of $600,000.00 per year by local taxpayers.

There is lots of money around to fight crime, and jail criminals, and to set up some kind of a facility to help those that actually want help, if we wanted to do it. However to this point in time it seems we would much rather P--- our money away on useless programs, that make real estate developers, and construction companies rich at our expense.

Have a nice day.

go to statscan, crime rates down, media hype way up

The reasonable man, I think that you are wrong about this, in a general sense anyway. The scum just laugh at our 'justice' system, because they are only inconvenienced, and barely punished for breaking the law. If you make their time in jail really unpleasant, and make them serve out the sentence, with no time off for good behavior, and make them work for their keep, don't you think that they might not want to risk going back? It is true that the jails are already overcrowded, and that it is expensive to house these creeps, but that does'nt mean we should'nt try to make things better. One of the reasons the costs are so high is because of the relatively high standard of living that we are required to keep them in. It is true what some say, that the criminals live better on the inside than on the outside. Think about this; they always have a comfortable environment, no extremes in temperature (what about the honest workers who are out in the sun all day, or in the cold, or rain?) they always get three hot meals per day, unless the kitchen has to be shut for a while, then they have to eat sandwiches for lunch (what about the low income family that has to make a paycheque stretch, are they guaranteed three hot meals?) All of their clothing and anything ales they need, not want, need is supplied at no expense to them. About the only hardship the cons have to endure is that they are not free to come and go as they please. So don't talk about how we have to change society to help these poor unfortunate creatures who have just run into a little hard luck. All that accomplishes is more inane laws like having to pay for your gas in advance. Punishing 98% of the people for the crimes of the other 2% does not make sense to me.
metalman.