Jim Hnatiuk - Leader of the Christian Heritage Party Communiqué Vol 17, No 34 Aug 31, 2010
Last week's Communiqué on Canada's justice system spoke briefly about the need to judge the merits of a system based on its effectiveness.
Recidivism rates are often looked at as the report card for a corrections system. While pointing out the many variables that exist in attempting to produce meaningful recidivism rates, Canada Correction Services studies show the percentage of former prisoners who reoffend. On reviewing these statistics we find that of the 47.8% of prisoners who qualify for day parole, sadly, 41.6% return to prison within three years. Incredibly, of the 28.3% who are released on mandatory supervision almost half, 46.6%, reoffend within three years.
Provincially the results are no better, and actually appear to be worsening. Consider this report from the CBC in March of this year: "Figures from Manitoba Justice show 75 per cent of people released from provincial jails in the last three months of 2007 were accused of breaking a law or court order by the end of last year.
"That's the highest rate of recidivism within a two-year period since 2002."
These statistics reveal that our prisons and jails don't just receive a failing grade; the system itself is flawed.
Now, any educational or correctional institution knows that if half your class is repeatedly failing, then there is a major problem with the program and/or the instructor. Yet, incredibly, our government believes that building more prisons is the answer.
Let's take for instance a small business giving obedience classes to dogs. If it showed similar failure rates we know they would soon find themselves out of business. Yet, if a community applied our government's strategy to this dog obedience business they would build more of the same dog businesses to accommodate the failures. And, they would do so at the expense of those who had been bitten by the dogs!
Today, it doesn't matter if criminals have addressed their criminality, undergone treatment, or followed prison rules -- almost everyone is automatically set free after serving two-thirds their sentence simply to make room in prisons. In effect, taxpayers are paying to house and harden our criminals prior to putting them back on the street to once again endanger our community. Everyone loses.
CHP Canada recognizes that prison programming must change. Canadian voters need to know that there is a party that is not afraid to tackle the issue using fresh, innovative--and successful--programs. We describe below three programs, listed in order of lowest recidivism outcomes, which the CHP would employ in our prisons for the benefit of society and prisoners:
1. The Prisoner Entrepreneurship Program: Catherine Rohr, the founder and CEO constructively redirects inmates' talents by equipping them with Christian values-based entrepreneurial training enabling them to productively re-enter society. This program has accomplished a 98% employment rate and less than 5% return-to-prison rate. Catherine Rohr was the recipient of the "Most Innovative Program" award, presented to her by Christina Melton Crain, Chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. The program is funded by donations from businesses. 2. InnerChange Freedom Initiative®: This is a values-based re-entry program developed by and affiliated with Prison Fellowship. The return-to-prison rate after two years is only 8%, from recidivism as high as 50% plus. This program, given by trained volunteers, is based on the belief that real and lasting change takes place from the inside out, and prisoners learn and live out a new set of values drawn from a Christian world view. 3. Prison College Program: A Post Secondary Correctional Education study conducted by Jon. M. Taylor clearly showed how a Canadian prison college program produced a recidivism rate of 14% compared to 52% of the matched group of non-student prisoners. There is a list of 12 other studies done in the U.S. which have proven that education dramatically reduces recidivism. In Canada today, statistics reveal that most offenders lack the basic literacy skills and education qualifications to be competitive in the labour market, and that without stable employment when released, offenders stand a much poorer chance of being successfully re-integrated.
Prison programming should be made mandatory for all inmates who are within approximately 24 months of release. Each weekday, from morning to night, they should be engaged in an intensive schedule of work, study, life-skills training, leadership development, counselling, and mentoring.
In other words, the serving of their last 24 months will not start until they are actively engaged in a program. The program must develop the whole person--emotionally, physically, and intellectually--and provide for moral transformation. It must stress personal responsibility, the value of education and work, care for persons and property.
And once back out in the community, the parolees should receive 12 more months of mentoring and support, primarily from local churches and trained volunteers. The models have shown that this re-entry component is critical in helping them find jobs and housing, reconnect with their families, and make a successful and long-lasting reintegration into society.
These types of programs and policies would give opportunity for repentance to be translated into lasting achievements. Parolees would have positive closure to their past misdeeds and would be mutual beneficiaries--with their victims and other taxpayers--of a follow-up program of restitution.
If it's broken it should be fixed. Our justice system is broken; the Christian Heritage Party would fix it.
TORONTO, Ontario, August 31, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)
– Pro-life prodigy Lia Mills, whose Youtube orations have amassed
nearly a million views, has set out to prove the humanity of the unborn
in a new video, part of an ongoing campaign to promote the message of
life.
If
the unborn are not human, the 13-year-old Toronto-native explains in
her ten-minute address, then abortion is simply a matter of personal
preference. But, she says, "if the unborn are human, then they have
value and rights."
She points out that textbooks on embryology
clearly state that life begins at conception and human development
begins at fertilization. "At conception, a new life with its own unique
DNA begins,” she explains. "All of the body parts of the mother share
the same DNA, the mother's DNA. But an unborn baby has an entirely
different DNA. He or she is separate from the mother."
“It should
be clear that when two living beings from the same species mate, the
product will be the same species as the parents," she adds.
Lia
argues that all of the claims against the humanity of the unborn
distinguish them from the born based on (1) size, (2) level of
development, (3) environment, or (4) degree of dependency. She goes
through each one and points out that we do not devalue born people based
on these differences.
To take the fourth, for example, she
observes that many argue the unborn should not be given the same rights
as others because they depend so completely on their mother for life and
sustenance. But Lia points out that a one-week-old baby is totally
dependent on her parents, and the infirm are dependent on medical
implements.
"Really if we take this argument to its logical
conclusion, we should be able to kill those who are on welfare, because
they depend on the government," she asserts. "We are all dependent on
someone to a degree and no one goes around saying that those who are
more dependent aren't human or are somehow less human than others."
In
the end, she admits that abortion advocates now accept the humanity of
the unborn, but rely instead on the claim that the unborn are not
persons. “They acknowledge the humanity of the unborn, but are now
denying them their personhood, and thereby denying them their rights,”
she says. "Is it possible to be a human and not a person?"
Having
shown the humanity of the unborn, Lia’s next video, which should be
issued shortly, will answer the question “Are the unborn persons?”
by Rod Taylor – Deputy Leader of the Christian Heritage Party
Communiqué Vol 17, No 33 Aug 24, 2010
“Because
the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore
the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.”
(Ecclesiastes 8:11, NASV.)
One of the valuable constructs of a civil society is the system of
laws, morals, traditions, rewards and punishments by which it deals with
its uncivilized members. Agreeing upon standards is what we call
“lawmaking.” It’s much easier, of course, if we first agree that there
is a transcendent set of principles which is the foundation for all
man-made laws. The CHP endorses this historical basis for British Common
Law, but that debate is beyond the scope of this article. The issue we
would like to briefly address here is the search for tools by which laws
can be enforced or upheld. Canada has a “rule of law” and an
enforcement system, including the police (who enforce the law), the
courts (which ought to adjudicate according to the law as they find it
written), and a range of consequences meted out to those found guilty
(prison time, community service, fines, shaming, or nothing at all).
One way to judge the merits of the system is to measure its
effectiveness. Do Canadians feel safer now than they did in the past?
Stockwell Day recently received flak from the opposition for
challenging the glib media assertions that the crime rate has gone down
(based on StatsCan’s Police-Reported Crime numbers and Crime Severity
index). While the Conservative’s proposed solution to spend $8 billion
to build more prisons is faulty, it seems that Stockwell Day was
absolutely correct in his opinion that a large number of crimes go
unreported.
The Statistics Canada report, “Criminal Victimization in Canada,
2004,” warned that two-thirds of crimes are not reported to police —
including “88 per cent of sexual assaults.” Criminal Victimization
Surveys are currently conducted in Canada every five years.
“StatsCan victimization surveys show that only 34 per cent of crime —
around one-third — is reported to police, so using this to define
‘crime rates’ is simply inaccurate,” says Bernie Magnan, chief economist
for The Vancouver Board of Trade.
There’s something seriously wrong with a ‘justice’ system where
two-thirds of victims don’t have enough faith in the system to report
the crimes.
As to the severity of crimes, most Canadians would be shocked to know
that StatsCan assigns a value to each crime, based on the length of
prison sentence. Since sentences for violent crimes have been getting
shorter and actual time spent behind bars is often only a fraction of
the sentence, this affects the statistical reporting on crime in Canada.
Thus the severity index seems to be going down while all around us
hoodlums and vandals terrorize neighbourhoods and damage and destroy
property.
First, we need serious and appropriate consequences for violent and
sexual crimes. Secondly, the process of trial and sentencing must be
streamlined to reduce costs, to accelerate the demands of justice, to
provide timely deterrence and to restore confidence in the public
justice system. Public safety and effective deterrence must be our
number one priority.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of examples of inappropriate
sentences, but two for comparison should suffice. Karla Homolka, after
lying in her plea-bargain, spent a mere 12 years in jail for her part in
the brutal murder of three young women. Vince Li, perpetrator of the
brutal Greyhound bus murder and act of cannibalism, was found not
criminally responsible for his crime, and after two years, has been
offered escorted walks around the grounds of the Selkirk Mental Health
Centre. Despite public outrage and fear, no fence will be constructed at
the Centre, and the walks will proceed.
As so many have pointed out, the “revolving door” justice system does
not protect us. But the Tory government plan to spend $8 billion on new
jails will not provide the needed solution. The CHP’s “Restitution and
Public Safety” policy would empty more than half the jail spaces and
compel non-violent criminals to pay restitution to their victims. The
emphasis in sentencing for non-violent crime must be that crime does not
pay. This would open more than enough jail space for the violent
criminals where a sentencing structure that made eventual release
dependent on proven repentance would prove much more successful.
Voluntary reformation is proven to reduce recidivism.
The issue of restoring justice to our courts and public life is
broad, complex and necessary. But there are better, more effective ways
to meet these challenges, make Canada safer, and improve the life
outcomes for those who may find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
For Better Solutions, visit www.chp.ca.
CHP Skeena-Bulkley Valley Youth again showed their enthusiasm for the CHP cause by putting together a great float for the Fair. The sun came out in time for a very pleasant ride.
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 20, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)
– What do serial killers, slave-owners, eugenicists, and abortionists
have in common? According to Michael Hitchborn of American Life League,
all these groups can only carry out crimes against human beings by first
de-personalizing or trivializing the humanity of their victims.
In a new ALL report released on YouTube,
Hitchborn makes his case beginning with the famous 1991 film “Silence
of the Lambs,” where a crazed transsexual killer pursued by an FBI agent
(Jodie Foster) continually refers to his latest female victim as “it.”
In doing so, says Hitchborn, the killer “depersonalizes his victim, reducing her to the status of an object or animal.”
“The
thing is, if his victim isn’t a person, then in his own mind, there is
nothing wrong with what he is about to do,” continued Hitchborn.
The
pro-life leader explained that a similar process of depersonalization
and dehumanization is evident in the way that abortion advocates speak
of a child developing in its mother’s womb as a “fetus”, “fertilized
egg”, or a “clump of cells.”
“The use of terms like these is the
first step in reducing humans to the status of non-persons,” he added,
saying history was replete with such examples.
Hitchborn referred
to a clause within the U.S. Constitution prior to the enacting of the
13th amendment, where slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person.
The agreement he said was a compromise with a culture that “viewed human
slaves as property.” Proponents of slavery would claim that slaves were
not people, and eugenicists of the 19th and 20th century would do the
same thing, referring to those with disabilities or of certain
ethnicities as “undesirables.”
Taken to its logical conclusion,
these ideas led to the forming of the Nazi racial purity movement, which
defined certain people as “subhuman” in popular propaganda.
“The
excuses, and they are excuses, for denying the humanity or personhood
of individual human beings is done for one reason and one reason only:
it is the only way to create a class of humans without any rights.”
Hitchborn
said that Planned Parenthood, just like slave-owners, has to offer
similar arguments dehumanizing or depersonalizing the unborn in order to
justify their actions, with a motive for profit at the end of the line.
Hitchborn told LifeSiteNews.com that “Planned Parenthood’s sole agenda
is to gain money through the murder of children.”
Hitchborn
pointed to a Planned Parenthood White Paper written in 1985 and
republished in 2002 in response to the pro-life film “Silent Scream.”
The paper argues that a “fetus” of 12 weeks gestation “cannot be
compared in any way to a fully formed functioning person” – arguing that
the unborn child’s dependency on his mother for survival, its
undeveloped organs, and lack of conscious thought, means he does not
merit the status of person.
“It is instead an in utero fetus with the potential of becoming a child.”
Planned
Parenthood said they were responding to Silent Scream, because they
feared it could jeopardize the “constitutional right to abortion” as
well as “the lives and careers of abortion providers.”
“It really
is a simple concept,” Hitchborn told LSN. “The only people making the
argument that a human is not a person are those who want to create a
class of subhumans that have no rights.”
Hitchborn praised the
personhood initiative in Colorado, which is a ballot initiative to amend
the State Constitution to recognize the personhood rights of all
humans, from their biological beginning to their natural death. The
amendment states: "the term 'person' shall apply to every human being
from the beginning of the biological development of that human being.”
“The
personhood initiative out in Colorado ties in perfectly with what
[pro-life groups] are doing, because they are working on establishing an
amendment that would recognize there is no do distinction between that
which is a person and that which is a human,” said Hitchborn.
“They
are establishing that we are all human, and that we are persons: that
we all have a beginning and that beginning takes place in the womb, and
not outside the womb, or some random spot on the spectrum by people who
have an agenda to fulfill.
“There is no distinction between a
person and a human, and the only people that make that distinction are
those that have an agenda.”
The newest and fastest-growing branch of the CHP in Canada----the Skeena-Bulkley Valley CHP Youth Caucus----is drawing attention across the country as young people in Northern BC are pouring their energy and enthusiasm into practical efforts to transform society! The group has had several fundraisers and is reaching out to young people across the riding who have a heart for righteousness and a willingness to roll up their sleeves to see Canada lead the world with sound family values, a respect for human life and the personal freedoms we all cherish.
Last week's Communiqué on Canada's justice system spoke briefly about the need to judge the merits of a system based on its effectiveness.
“Because
the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore
the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.”
(Ecclesiastes 8:11, NASV.)
By Peter J. Smith
