Our justice system can do better

Re: “Man sentenced to 3 years for home invasion,” May 3, Lethbridge Herald, by Delon Shurtz.

Incessantly, day after day, 365 days a year, the media informs of another poor soul committing a crime, going through a complex judicial system, being hammered with a sentence for that crime, languishing in jail, coming out, often drifting back into the only life they know — crime. We can do better!

In a recent Lethbridge court case the Crown sought a 64-month sentence for a 26-year-old fellow who participated in a home invasion in a nearby community where several people “were attacked and beaten.” Presiding Judge Gerald Debow reduced the sentence to 36 months, leaving me wondering (as it has in hundreds of other cases) if jailing this man in the present system will produce a finer human three years from now.

The poor fellow in the above instance didn’t have a chance in life, and it doesn’t appear he ever caught a break either. His formal education ended in Grade 10. He grew up in a home where both parents were drug addicts, and predictably now he’s society’s guest. Where he ends up after being released, with a background like he has, with a grade school education, is most predictable.

Canada can do better. We could clean up the runaway crime that exists in our penal institutions of which plenty is known and documented. We can develop places of incarceration into learning institutions — trade schools or junior colleges — where people who’ve lost their way could be taught a trade or profession so at the conclusion of their sentence they depart with a smile on their face, a certificate in hand, employable with a reasonable chance at life as a proud, contributing human being. A better scenario than a bitter criminal with a one-way bus ticket to the nearest city to resume a life of crime.

Alvin W. Shier

Lethbridge