Speak Up Against U.S. Style Prisons in Canada

Target:

The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety

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We signed the "Speak Up Against U.S. Style Prisons in Canada" petition!

# 118:

10:56 pm PST, Mar 12, Christine Co, Canada

# 117:

5:34 am PST, Mar 2, Name not displayed, Canada

# 116:

7:32 pm PST, Jan 27, Suzanne Kavanagh, Canada

# 115:

8:25 pm PST, Jan 8, Simon Ch, Canada
In response to a previous post I have just read. "I believe the Government of Canada is doing absolutely the right thing and believe that this will assist in making our streets safer. Michael Jackson and Graham Stewart don't have a clue what it's like to deal with criminals in jail on a daily basis. Making them accountable for their own behaviour is exactely the right move." Well, first off, if we start with Pittsburgh Institution and see how many sex offenders and pedophiles are being housed there constantly fastracked from Millhaven Assessment Unit to minimum security prisons, getting their rehabilitative programs earlier than others, getting released on day passess, work releases, early parole...while everyone else on other convictions gets shafted. How does this promote public safety? When Correctional authorities constantly baby, pamper and release sex-offenders and pedophiles. Unless these types of offenders are high-profile cases their names are hardly published. In fact, they are released into the community under the radar. So, the proposed changes will neverthless only affect non-sex, pedophile crimes. Hows that for public safety?

# 114:

8:04 pm PST, Jan 8, Simon Ch, Canada
Here's an interesting article I read about Bill C-43. http://www.prisonjustice.ca/starkravenarticles/c43_concern_1209.html and this one too: http://joanr73.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/why-we-should-all-be-concerned-about-bill-c-43-an-act-to-amend-the-corrections-and-conditional-release-act-and-the-criminal-code/... Well, apparently Prime Minister Stephen Harper is up for election again soon. You can all thank him for coming up with the idea of taking away all prisoner's human rights and using it as a tool to motivate them to become law abiding citizens. And, Mr. Harper. How will you plan to assure Canadian families will have newly reformed convicts upon release to society? Not to mention the amount of tax dollars that will go into Mr. Harper's pocket for these proposed changes. So, anyone willing to re-elect Harper? Please, sign on the dotted line...

# 113:

4:34 pm PST, Dec 28, Simon Ch, Canada
It's a human rights violation...what do you think August 10, Prisoner's Justice Day is all about. I support Mr. Jackson and Mr. Stewart in whatever way I can and urge others to speak up against this injustice.

# 112:

1:31 pm PST, Dec 14, Cherissa West, Canada
The punitive justice system is, if nothing else a lazy way of dealing with the bigger problems, namely poverty, mental disorders and substance abuse. The prison system in the USA should be used as an example of what NOT to do. Why not spend the extra money this would cost on helping people BEFORE they break the law? Help under privileged kids, support the working poor, make medical and mental health more accessible ect. Oh, and try not going behind the populations back to make decisions like this one.

# 111:

7:48 am PST, Nov 23, Bridget Doherty, Canada
Closing the Prison Farms is part of the "Roadmap to Public Disaster." Time for a Public Hearing!!!

# 110:

6:29 pm PST, Nov 16, Carl Rosenstock, Wisconsin

# 109:

7:46 pm PST, Nov 7, Name not displayed, Canada
I have been working in criminal justice and corrections for almost eight years. Canada would do well to look at countries which have successful restitution policies (see the Scandinavian countries). Instead, the Canadian government wants to imitate one of the most regressive systems in the world (USA), which also costs a fortune and creates a sky-rocketing prison population. The punitive justice system is an immoral, lazy way of dealing with poverty and first nations peoples. It kills me when local programmes helping underprivileged kids are cut due to lack of funding, since we end up paying $110,000 a year to house each one in prison.

# 108:

11:37 am PST, Nov 5, Fiona MacCormack, Canada
Everyone knows that business has no heart - and the US prison system is a business that doesn't care about its no-name, number only, clientele. Priority #1 in business is to process the highest number at the lowest cost. Incarceration & punitive reactionary methods just don't work.

# 107:

11:31 am PST, Nov 3, Carole Hagen, Oregon

# 106:

4:23 pm PDT, Oct 31, Jean Blouin, Canada

# 105:

8:26 am PDT, Oct 26, Stacey Hannem, Canada

# 104:

6:20 am PDT, Oct 22, Jill Edgar, Canada
Increasing public safety does not translate into increased, harsher sentences. Reactive forms of addressing crime does not make the public safer. More attention and funding needs to be geared to prevention. Tougher sanctions, tougher time does NOT increase public safety. All the government needs to do is investigate the natural experiment that is occurring in the U.S to understand this. Perhaps Canada needs to look at more progressive countries, such as Finland and Norway to figure out how to best balance public safety and human rights. Furthermore, public safety would be immeasureably increased if politicians did not use crime (or more aptly, fear of crime) as a major political issue. Violent crime in Canada has steadily decreased since the 1980s and maybe politicians should highlight the successes in this area. If US style prisons worked, the United States should be one of the safer countries, with one of the lowest crime rates. It is not the case. Getting tough on crime is counter-intuitive. Let judges do their jobs. Their understanding of the law and of particular cases in question should suffice. Politicians don't tell doctors how to treat their patients, so why do they feel that they have the right to tell judges how met out sentences. I will vote for the party that has the most liberal, forward thinking stance on crime control.

# 103:

9:50 am PDT, Oct 20, Ian Malcolm, Canada
We must keep rehabilitation in the corrections strategy, and refuse to embrace vengeance. We must use evidence-based research to frame the policies of imprisonment and re-education. We must never turn our prisons into warehouses.

# 102:

9:06 am PDT, Oct 20, Name not displayed, Canada
Policies must be driven not by ideology, but backed by research and intelligent design. Cease and desist prison reform now, before the country is totally revamped to failed American standards!

# 101:

9:40 pm PDT, Oct 19, Diane Piedmont, Canada
No US-style prisons in Canada, please.

# 100:

11:53 am PDT, Oct 17, Name not displayed, Canada
As usual, the plight of people in conflict with the law in Canada, and ultimately of the community at large upon their release from custody, is not in any way considered important by a Conservative government which knows that playing on the fears or the judgmental nature of the public is the quickest way to win votes. The Conservative government funded a study of Corrections in Canada which not only didn't include any of Canada's noted experts on the subject, but was made up of people with no experience or knowledge of the subject. The predictable result was that all of the recommendations of the Conservative government's "tough on crime" proposals were supported. When Canada's experts weighed in on this process, they were ignored. Canada's crime rate has been declining for decades. The incarceration rates for youth and women have been skyrocketing. Despite substantial evidence that a U.S. style prison system is harmful to society on every level, the Conservative government took it's draconian legislation to the Senate to try and push it through. When the Senate did not support these legislations, Harper's response was to suggest that the Senate should be dissolved. Now, it appears that his new, longer term strategy is to appoint illiterate hockey players to the Senate, in order to stack the votes in favor of his policies. In a general way, if we took the United States prison policies as an example, and did the exact opposite, we would be well on the road to be able to construct a justice system that can deal with the complexity of the issues of crime, who is imprisoned in our country, and look at the success of early intervention, social programming that deals with many of the reasons that people are incarcerated in the first place, and alternatives to incarceration that have been proven effective around the world. But then again, i'm probably preaching to the choir....

# 99:

11:34 pm PDT, Oct 16, Shantel Zakaria, Canada
Canada has it's own politics.

# 98:

6:30 pm PDT, Oct 16, Hugh and Margaret MacCormack, Canada

# 97:

10:18 pm PDT, Oct 15, Laura Lorenzetti, Canada
It has been shown that living in the community as opposed to being in prison, is a positive factor in the successful reintegrarion of ex-offenders.

# 96:

2:10 pm PDT, Oct 15, Sara Falconer, Canada

# 95:

9:19 am PDT, Oct 15, Lena Palacios, Canada

# 94:

8:51 am PDT, Oct 15, Constance Vince, Canada

# 93:

8:35 am PDT, Oct 15, Aude Exertier, Canada

# 92:

7:40 am PDT, Oct 15, Andrew Simmons, Canada
They don't work in the U.S. - Some states spend more on mass correctional facilities than they do on education - Community problems need to be solved in the community not in prison. We already imprison more of our people than anyone in the civilized world except the Americans - The current focus takes us backwards in effectiveness and as a society.

# 91:

7:15 am PDT, Oct 15, Name not displayed, Canada
I just did 25 years inside, yet moments after my crime knew I'd devestated many lifes, and never harmed a soul since. I've been in a half way house 4 months work steady and pay taxes, and involved ina positve chaplle program. Succeding in part though help from family (money, support). As a lifer, any indication of returing to a neg life style, with a signature your back in jail. After 12 or 15 if the indications are thier that you are not a danger, as the rest of my life, would show, despite one serious incident, on alocohol. Give the person a chance remebering you not free and any doubts with a signature your back in.

# 90:

6:49 am PDT, Oct 15, Kathleen Myers Griffin, Canada
Incaceration should not be the only option.

# 89:

6:47 am PDT, Oct 15, Gayla Nesbitt, Canada

# 88:

6:20 am PDT, Oct 15, Lisa Finateri, Canada
It is imperative that the government of Canada utilize evidence based interventions in addressing the issue of crime and criminiliaty in Canada.

# 87:

6:03 am PDT, Oct 15, Pascal Bélanger, Canada

# 86:

8:52 pm PDT, Oct 14, Christina Anderson, Canada

# 85:

6:42 am PDT, Oct 14, Name not displayed, Canada
All human beings can change if they are respected and treated fairly. We do not need Anerica's models of anything in Canada.

# 84:

6:09 am PDT, Oct 14, Beryl Pilkington, Canada
This 'roadmap' will not strengthen public safety - it will do just the opposite. To really make a difference to public safety, we should be investing in early childhood education, poverty reduction, public education, and other social programs known to help children and youth develop into healthy, engaged citizens.

# 83:

7:26 pm PDT, Oct 11, Name not displayed, North Carolina
I LIVE IN THE U.S.,AND I CAN TELL YOU OUR SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING!! WE HAVE MANY GROUPS WORKING ON REFORM. PLEASE LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES HERE.

# 82:

7:02 pm PDT, Oct 9, Jennifer McLintock, Canada
The behaviour of Correctional staff is coming more and more ridiculous. Corrections Canada works more as though they were a small nation with their own rules than a public service organization. We are not in any way rehabilitating prisoners, but warehousing them and it is getting worse. This U.S style madness with the Roadmap to Public Safety is completely flawed.

# 81:

2:08 am PDT, Oct 9, Amanda Kane, United Kingdom

# 80:

11:08 am PDT, Oct 6, Lori Kelly, Canada

# 79:

5:40 pm PDT, Oct 3, David Burman, Canada
Magnifying public fears, then pandering to the fear, only creates communities that are less cohesive (them vs us), and therefore less safe (people distrust each other and don't pull together). You may get a few more votes from the fearful, but you will also give them more to be afraid of. Is that the kind of community you want?

# 78:

4:21 pm PDT, Oct 2, K McKinnon, Canada
Any member of parliament that chooses to support the plan put forth by the current government's tough-on-criminals policy does not deserve to be reelected. As we all know, crime rates in Canada have been dropping for over a decade and are now at the lowest crime rate in 30 years. What is shocking is that the plan put forward is based on a model used by a the U.S., whose crime rate has been increasing over this same period. The federal government is putting forward is in effect a plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to increase crime in Canada. It has been proven that placing prisoners in extremely stark environments with no access to educational or recreation opportunities will increase the number of inmates who will become violent in prison, reducing safety both for fellow inmates and for correctional service workers, and remain violent after they are released, reducing safety for the general public. Why would we spend more money to get less safety? The tough-on-crime or U.S.-style approach to corrections is based on moral fanaticism that, contradicts all of the research done by experts in the field of corrections. Please choose reason over reaction: please kill the conservative prison plan

# 77:

10:54 am PDT, Oct 2, Anita Lovett, Ohio

# 76:

6:33 pm PDT, Oct 1, Alan Gschwind, Canada
Follow the evidence not ideology. A punitive system does not decrease criminal activity. Increases incarceration and increases costs.

# 75:

1:32 pm PDT, Oct 1, Sandra Bruneau, Canada
Having now read Michael Jackson and Graham Stewart's A False Compass: A Human Rights Analysis of the Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety, I am greatly alarmed by the Conservative Government's approach to dealing with public safety issues: it's the importation of a U.S. style of prison system. This is wrong-headed right-wing ideology at work. Resist it, we all must do so.

# 74:

7:26 pm PDT, Sep 30, Anne Chiarelli, Canada
Please reconsider this move toward a US style prison system, I know in my heart that it is wrong.

# 73:

7:06 pm PDT, Sep 30, Name not displayed, Canada

# 72:

5:23 pm PDT, Sep 30, Matt Hunsberger, Canada
absolutely appauling that government is this out of touch.

# 71:

4:14 pm PDT, Sep 30, Lauren Jones, Canada

# 70:

6:33 am PDT, Sep 30, Kwesi Johnson, Canada
Mr. Harper to take away is easy but in given back you sustain life. You have the power to be a transformer dont take that lightly. All that we do today will affet out childrens children of tomorrow.

# 69:

7:34 pm PDT, Sep 29, Raejeana Mckinzie, Colorado

# 68:

7:16 pm PDT, Sep 29, Thomas Axtell, Canada
Mr. Harper, Don't make the mistake of increasing incarceration. Prisons are schools for criminals. The more people in prison, the more this will cost society. Put money into social housing, innovative street programs, and substance use education. Poverty is the root of crime. Prisons breed crime. Tom

# 67:

4:15 pm PDT, Sep 29, Davida LeComte, Canada

# 66:

11:14 am PDT, Sep 29, Rahma Siad-Togane, Canada

# 65:

9:56 am PDT, Sep 29, Mary Kaczor, Canada
Every day I hope for an election.

# 64:

9:32 am PDT, Sep 29, Name not displayed, Canada

# 63:

8:24 am PDT, Sep 29, Vibusha Krish, Canada

# 62:

7:54 am PDT, Sep 29, Anne Millyard, Canada
I believe that the American correctional system contributes to the high crime rates in that country. Adopting it here would bring deterioration not improvement to our public safety. Our jails and penitentiaries could be better, more modern, among other things, but under no circumstances ought we to emulate those of our neighbour to the south.

# 61:

7:40 am PDT, Sep 29, Lori Morton, Canada

# 60:

7:01 am PDT, Sep 29, Marc Van Beusekom, Canada

# 59:

6:50 am PDT, Sep 29, Karen Curtis, Canada

# 58:

6:32 am PDT, Sep 29, Tobi Mitchell, Canada

# 57:

6:23 am PDT, Sep 29, Name not displayed, Canada

# 56:

6:22 am PDT, Sep 29, Maureen Wright, Canada

# 55:

6:21 am PDT, Sep 29, Sarah Kam, Canada

# 54:

5:24 am PDT, Sep 29, Chuck Zwicker Cons Helping Cons, Canada
If people knew all the stuff that the Harper Government wanted to do they would think twice about voting for them in the future. We need to understand that getting “tuff on crime” will not work, in fact it will have opposite effects and crime will increase. Real public safety requires you not voting for Harper and giving him the power to implement these changes. Tuff on crime sounds great and wonderful in the media; it makes us feel like the government is doing something. However I spent a lot of time in my life in prison and system in general, and the harder they were on me the harder I pushed back. It was not until some people in the system went above that to give me real help that I changed. Crime is only symptom and treating symptoms does not cure the problem.

# 53:

5:06 am PDT, Sep 29, Wayne Westfall, Canada

# 52:

4:40 am PDT, Sep 29, Jes Looyenga, Canada

# 51:

4:40 am PDT, Sep 29, Jane Drake, Canada
Prisons for profit clearly don't work. Adopting a US-style system would only lead to more people incarcerated and less people rehabilitated.

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