Why the hell not? Hard core young criminals need to do hard time
The pathetic 18-month sentence handed down last week to a 16-year-old Island Lake teen who took part in a savage beating of a 13-year-old is a perfect example of why the Youth Criminal Justice Act needs a massive overhaul.
The federal Tories promised such an overhaul 21/2 years ago during the last federal election. So far they've failed to deliver. What they have done is tabled a bill that would make a couple of changes to the act, including adding the sentencing principle of deterrence, so judges can consider deterrence when handing down a sentence.
Dog-and-pony shows
That bill is still held up in Parliament. Parties such as the
federal NDP are opposed to putting deterrence into the act. The second
thing the Tories are doing is concluding a country-wide consultation
process on the YCJA, where they meet with regional governments, justice
people and the public to gather input on further proposed changes.
I've seen so many of these dog-and-pony shows over the years that have gone nowhere, it's hard to imagine this one will be any different. The process usually gets hijacked by pointy-headed bureaucrats who insist you can't start incarcerating 16-year-olds for five and 10 years. I say, "Why the hell not?"
The case of the near-death beating of a 13-year-old boy is a textbook example of why these teens — whose actions can only be compared to a pack of wild, rabid dogs — should be locked up for a very long time. Unfortunately, the maximum sentence they face under the YCJA is two years. That has to change.
The Tories promised during the 2006 election campaign to make adult sentences mandatory for young offenders aged 14 or older who are convicted of serious, violent or repeat offences. Mandatory. Not at the discretion of the Crown or a judge. Mandatory.
True, adult sentence are sometimes not that much better. But it's a start. It would at least force the courts to consider higher sentences and to consider adult sentencing principles such as deterrence in cases where serious, violent crimes occur.
A lot of these kids are out of control and have been for a long time. There are all kinds of reasons why. But the bottom line is that they're a threat to public safety. We may not be able to fix them all. But for the sake of public safety, they have to be removed from society. They need to spend a lot of years in a boot camp or wilderness camp setting where there is schooling, discipline, work and respect taught. They need to be in a place where they are segregated from drugs and alcohol and from the poisonous environment that helped create them. But it can't be for 12 or 24 months. It has to be for much longer periods of time. And for the most out-of-control offenders who refuse to change their lives, we need an amended YCJA that allows the courts to incarcerate them indefinitely.
Those would be the kinds of steps Parliament would take if it was serious about reforming Canada's youth laws. But in order to do that, Parliament has to first decide that public safety should come first and that the liberty rights of dangerous, repeat offenders should come second.
Right now, it's the other way around — the rights of young offenders come first and public safety comes somewhere after that. Parliament has its priorities confused. And until they make that fundamental change, youth justice will never change.
Tom Brodbeck
24 August 2008
http://winnipegsun.com/News/Canada/2008/08/24/6556451-sun.html
See also http://www.trib.com/articles/2008/08/24/editorial/editorial/b63a8ba4120afa11872574ae0021007e.txt