The inmates are running the asylum

[Wezil]

I could think of many things that are "only natural".

[Pekka]

Well, it wasn't long ago (maybe a year?) when murderers where denied vacations. You see, in here, you get to go on vacation if you're an inmate. Even murderers got to do it, but the papers raised hell because something happened.

Oh, and if people escape, they usually do it during their "vacation". And it's not even an escape at first, like the first day or two, it's just "shooting over the deadline".

It's a joke, that's what it is. I don't mind if non violent people get out every now and then if they have been there for some time already and are behaving good, but just to let everyone out is not only stupid but kind of counterproductive.

[Wezil]

Are we taking tips from you guys? Where else can these ideas be coming from?

[Pekka]

I don't know. Sweden might have it even worse, or at least the same.

[Kuciwalker]

Wait what the ****? Vacations?

[Pekka]

Kuci, yes. Vacations. Unsupervised. Get a weekend off every now and then etc. Need to blow off some steam

[Kataphraktoi]

You guys didnt know about this?

The inmates are running the asylum

leftists

[Wezil]

We find the best solution to that is to just not bother keeping them locked up at all.

Wonder who will explain to a 5-year-old girl named Tatianna that the man charged in her father's brutal shooting murder was the same guy wielding a handgun on the front cover of the Toronto Sun less than four years ago?

Wonder if Premier Dalton McGuinty will come to another young man's funeral and explain to that same 5-year-old daughter why for such a serious crime that same man charged in her dad's murder was free in the first place?

Or maybe the judge, who decided upon this sentence that allowed for parole, can give it a shot?

None of it is going to bring Ronell Williams back. He's as dead as you can get -- shot to death outside a birthday party in the Salisbury Circle and Queen St. area of Brampton Sunday.

And the guy charged with his murder, Andrew Dexter Bourne, is back on the front page again.

The last time was Feb. 12, 2004 under the headline "Sun photog nabs gun suspect."


That photog is gutsy Dave Thomas, who took the great picture first and tackled the suspect second. He did his job as a journalist and as a citizen. When the dust settled, Bourne, a cousin of recently slain teen Jordan Manners, was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

And yet there was another incident and more weapons charges and a conviction after a gun was drawn in a road rage incident just months later in 2005. There doesn't seem to have been much prison time served by Bourne, who is on federal parole and has been ordered to not possess a firearm. A handgun allegedly was taken off him after his arrest early Sunday.

Meanwhile, tears formed in her eyes as the little girl held the picture of her slain father.

"He lived for his daughter," Williams' mom Angela said last night. "He was such a good father."

Turns out the latest victim of Canada's sick justice system is Tatianna.

"I miss him," she said.

She will forever. It's just wrong since her dad was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Her mom, Barbara Durdle, has explained to her that her "daddy is in heaven" so they are pretty sure she gets the concept that she doesn't have her dad any more.

What she is too young to possibly understand is the man charged in his brutal shooting murder was a parolee who after repeated gun charges and convictions had been given a weapons ban.

Bourne will get his day in court and Lord knows he's been there before.

But Ronell Williams will still be dead. And Tatianna will still be fatherless.

"He was such a sweet boy," said his devastated mom, Angela. "He would do anything for anybody. All I want is to have him back."

The 27-year-old East York man, a recently laid off Chrysler worker who had no criminal record and had never had any contact with police, was gunned down at a birthday party that the suspect Bourne had allegedly just been kicked out of. "It is so senseless," said a police source. "Some people had been held up at gunpoint for their cellphones and wallets and when Ronell asked that person to leave he was filled full of bullets."

Bourne, who appeared in Brampton court yesterday and will return Sept. 24, has not been convicted of this horrific crime. But he has been convicted of others and it must be noted we did have him in custody for weapons convictions but chose to set him free.

It's something that is very troubling for the Peel Police homicide detectives who are working on this case. "We have to take a look at our justice system," said Insp. Norm English, a veteran cop who has investigated many terrible murders and is always looking for ways to prevent them.

He is frustrated how such a person could be on the loose so soon after being involved in so many serious crimes involving guns.

And while this case -- Peel's ninth homicide of 2007 -- is already as bad as it gets it actually had potential to be even worse. "When we took the suspect down he was reaching for his firearm which was retrieved at the time of the arrest," English alleged.

So we won't have a police funeral this time. But we will have another funeral for another young man. Maybe?

His family came to Canada nine years ago from Trinidad and has recently fallen on hard luck. Ronell was recently unemployed and so is his mother Angela Williams.

With funeral costs at $10,000 they are not sure what they are going to do and Peel Police are helping them apply for provincial assistance. I'd like to see Premier McGuinty, Opposition Leader John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton suspend campaigning for a day and spend it with the Williams family at that funeral.

No matter who wins this election there has to be a commitment to fix this drastic epidemic of death because it is out of control and we should not tolerate it any longer. The tools are in place and the police are doing their jobs. It's the sentencing and access to bail that needs to be addressed.

There seems to be lots of money for cricket clubs so perhaps they could also find some extra coins to help bury our latest victim of the Summer of Death that is the year 2007?

An effort was also being made last night to create a trust fund at the TD Canada Trust branch at O'Connor and St. Clair to raise some money for the funeral costs and to help sustain young Tatianna, whose future has been severely affected. A special account should be set up by noon today for those who want to help the family out.

As a columnist I wonder when one of these families will embark upon suing the justice system in one of these cases?

Nothing has been proven in court this time and the family is in to much shock to even think about that. "He should not have been out on the street," said his mom. "They should have kept him inside. You can feel angry. But that is still not going to bring him back."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2007/09/11/4486647-sun.html

[Pekka]

Kuci, it's just a different reality in here when it comes to these things.

I'm not saying it's all bad. I fully support good facilities and things to do like sports, some sort of work etc for inmates. I don't believe in violent prisons, I don't think it should be part of the punishment. I definitely don't believe in ass rape.

I think it is enough to be isolated from the society and that's it. There's no need to make it too cozy, but just ... keep it humane. But this can be taken too far as well. It's not too long ago when inmates trashed this one prison, broke the new TVs and Playstations (not kidding) because of soem reason they weren't happy with. Fortunately the chief of that places simply noted that I guess they didn't need those luxuries since they smashed them, no reason to get new ones at the moment.

And it's not like it's a nice place. The lost freedom is a big deal. Also your neighbours might not be very nice, lots of prison gangsters, like bike gangs that are hardcore, all kinds of big dudes that you would expect in movies as well.

But in the name of "fixing people so they fit society" we should first find the ones that are "broken". If someone stabs another person, I don't consider them to be broken. Maybe a bit anti-social in certain cases, but oh well, that's life. Keep them occupied, give them humane condition and protect their inmate rights, but do not let them on vacations, because that's defeating the damn purpose already.

[BlackCat]

Norwegian prison.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6983186.stm

'Green' prison softens tough convicts
By Neil Arun
BBC News

Convicts at a remote Norwegian prison are striving to save the planet while serving time.

Inmate cleaning Bastoey harbour
The prison is located on a lush island in a fjord near Oslo

From its peaceful island location, lapped by fjord waters, the Bastoey prison aims to become a beacon for environmentally friendly incarceration.

Inmates at the minimum-security facility have been recycling their rubbish and installing solar panels to shrink their carbon footprint.

Bastoey's mixed population of drug smugglers, fraudsters, rapists and murderers grow organic vegetables and tend to animals that eventually find their way back to the prison kitchen.

Many of the men are nearing the end of sentences served in Norway's tougher jails.

Bastoey is the beginning of their rehabilitation - a way of easing their re-entry into society.

"If you are sentenced for a long time in a high-security prison, you are afraid of going back into society, going out and about," prison officer Trina Smith told the BBC News website.

"On this island, the whole environment cools them down," she says.

Fewer guards, no guns

Bastoey prison has its own beach and fields. Cows, sheep and chicken kept at a farm are looked after by the prisoners.

The animals are reared for their meat but are not allowed to be slaughtered at the site.

Bastoey inmate, serving three years for drug smuggling, outside prison building
Convicts sent to Bastoey can expect a more relaxed regime

Horses are also kept, used instead of trucks to do much of the haulage work, Ms Smith says.

She says Bastoey's inmates lead busy lives. Besides tending to the livestock, they can maintain the prison's buildings, work in its kitchen or look after the boat linking Bastoey to the mainland.

Ms Smith believes society at large reaps dividends from the drive to make the prison greener.

"We want to make the prisoners more aware of their environment," she says, adding that those released rarely re-offend.

According to a press release issued by prison director Oeyvind Alnaes: "Living in an environment that gives them individual responsibility, challenges and demands ... can motivate inmates to change their behaviour."

Prison officials have also been quoted as saying the facility is cheaper to run than other prisons.

The jail meets many of its own energy and food needs and is policed by fewer staff than other, more secure, facilities.

According to Ms Smith, no more than four guards watch over some 115 prisoners during the evenings. They do not carry guns.

'Responsible' escapes

Prisoners who break the jail's rules risk being transferred to a more secure facility - a potent deterrent, Ms Smith says.

Bastoey inmate in workshop
Inmates gain experience that can help them find work again

Those who flee the facility before their time is up have one obligation - to phone the jail.

"We tell all the prisoners that if they escape, they must telephone to let us know they've made it safely to the mainland," Ms Smith says.

The phone call spares the prison from having to organise an expensive search-and-rescue mission in the fjord.

Ms Smith says no one has escaped successfully in the last five years.

"I was on duty one night when we noticed a boat had gone missing," she says. "We called the police, who rang back an hour later to say the boat had been found."

"They found the prisoner too - by following his footprints in the snow."

Green goals

Some prisoners at Bastoey have been unwilling to leave at the end of their sentences, Ms Smith says.

Bastoey inmate feeds a sheep
Animals kept at the site are reared organically

"Their sentences might have been reduced for good behaviour - but they will then apply to serve their full sentence, so they can stay at Bastoey."

"It's usually when they have no one waiting for them outside, nothing to look forward to."

The authorities at Bastoey hope other facilities in Norway and beyond will copy their example. Visitors to the site so far have left impressed, Ms Smith says.

But, she says, much work must still be done on Bastoey's path to carbon-neutrality.

"We are now looking to reduce our electricity consumption and to recycle all the waste from our old landfill sites."

Guess it wouldn't work in US.

Oh, and Pekka is rigth, scandinavians is apparently a bit strange on some points - in Denmark it isn't illegal to flee a prison.

[Pekka]

""We tell all the prisoners that if they escape, they must telephone to let us know they've made it safely to the mainland," Ms Smith says."

This pretty much sums it up. ALso, it is VERY difficult to be sentenced to actually serve time INSIDE of a prison. You realllly really have to **** up, usually multiple times.

Just like this dude who raped a woman didn't go to jail because he would have lots his job. No ****? Of course you lose your job if you have to go to prison, that's pretty common I'd suppose and does it make the crime any lesser? No. Does it help the victim? Definitely no, most likely the opposite.

Now we had this nurse who had murdered like 3 people adn they're digging up graves to find more since they're suspecting the nurse of poisoning bunch of people, so she was caught some time ago in her previous job, she had stole stuff from there, A LOT of stuff. Just a big store, but she stole stuff worth of like 40k during a year. So she got caught, but she cried her eyes out in the court, so they would _reduce_ the sentence she would have gotten because she was "clearly feeling guilty and ashamed". OH, and she only had to pay HALF, 20k back. Because she was sooooo sorry. Then of course she went on to kill bunch of people . Then all these legal experts said that wait a minute, it is not OK to not punish someone because they are cute and/or cry. Again, no **** Sherlock?

[Wezil]

We'd provide a safe boat trip to ensure they don't drown.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Wait, since when do government agencies have the authority to directly contravene a law passed by Parliament?

The head of Elections Canada is claiming that they are upholding all the various laws that Parliament has passed, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Oh, and the Canada Wheat Board took the government to court because they don't like recent ministerial directions.