EDITORIAL – Caputo’s melodramatic video aside, prison system needs review
Frank Caputo speaks on his video. (Image: Facebook)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
MP FRANK CAPUTO’S video on killer Paul Bernardo’s living conditions is dramatic, even theatrical, but it turns out it might not be totally accurate.
With thumping background music, file footage and a declaration that “I came face to face with Paul Bernardo,” the seven-minute production has gone viral on social media.
In true Poilievre style, Caputo claims Bernardo and notorious murderer Luka Magnotta are living better than most Canadians. I doubt most Canadians want to live in a prison cell but it makes for good dramatic effect.
Caputo, who got an official tour of the medium-security La Macaza prison in Quebec, says he was shocked to find it has a hockey rink and other recreational facilities. He paints an image of Bernardo and Magnotta playing tennis or shooting a few pucks.
Trouble is, Correctional Service Canada says the hockey rink hasn’t been in operation for the past couple of winters, so nobody’s been playing — as Caputo’s video claims — “taxpayer-funded serial killer pickup hockey.”
And, regarding Caputo’s anecdote about coming “face to face” and “eye to eye” with Bernardo near the killer’s cell, the correctional service says its understanding is there was no “interaction” between Bernardo and delegation members.
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Who is to blame for the injustice of the criminal justice system. The blame can be traced to the breakdown in society, family and the modern lifestyle. In the present-day society unachieved goals and expectations drive young people to drugs and crime. If we want to do away with crime, we must do away with the conditions which produce it.
Modern society through the media glamorizes, drugs, sex, guns, alcohol, fast cars, infidelity, and gluttony and much of this one can see all day on several TV sets in their homes. This desensitises morality and many want to share in it and when they don’t get it through hard work, they try to get it through crime.
Recent article on crime in Canada state that seventy-five percent of all youth crimes is related to property. Young people through the family community and school must be given more realistic goals so that they will not turn to crime to get what the media tells them everyone should have.
Furthermore, there is still a continuation of an ineffective, expensive, “unjust” and barbarous method of dealing with delinquency that only produces more delinquency. We cannot place all of our blame on the lawyers, judges, policemen and the press since they are all working in a system functioning by rules made by the collective will of the society. Family Law produces victims and must be reformed and taken out of the hands of lawyers and the ministry.
The answer then is to change the rules. As an example, we should have stricter penalties for murder, eliminate plea bargaining, standardize sentencing and make prison life productive and unattractive. For young offenders boot camps and education should be a priority. For older inmate’s hard work, education and if possible as much rehabilitation as is necessary before release. People like Olsen, and Bernardo, however, forfeit the right to luxuries and no possibility of parole.
The history of the justice system in the past fifty years has rested on the Youth Court,
Probation and Parole. Each of these must be examined to see why they have failed and why
Canada locks up more of its youth per capita than any other country in the world except the United States.
I feel the answer lies in the fault that the Youth Court does not set reasonable conditions for release. The sentence should stipulate job training, restitution to the victim and education. This needs to be done before any individual is released.
Probation, and 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 must be eliminated as this is a soft approach to the criminal justice system. Probation should be earned not just by good behaviour but by deeds such as working towards a vocation. Parole I feel is easy to get and should not be given to repeat offenders or to the offenders that have convictions for violence.
Youth Court, Probation and Parole may serve to rehabilitate marginal offenders but it has failed the violent offenders. The justice system must separate the marginal offender from the violent offenders and the justice system must treat them differently. For the marginal offender diversion and community service should be the direction while for the violent offenders we must have a more punitive process and I am opposed to Capital punishment but in some cases like Clifford Olsen and Paul Bernardo a life sentence means in jail until you die.
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It’s a bit of asphalt with boards which can be used in the spring, summer or fall with next to no maintenance and serve as recreational space at next to no cost, in short, it’s just about the cheapest use of the space possible. Put aside the optics and melodrama and think rationally, is the tax payer better served by having them in expensive maximum security or cheaper minimum security jails? This is the sinister part Caputo, Poilievre and the pitchfork gang ignore to generate anger in the citizenry. I’d rather spend less and have these guys in jail than spend more for their incarceration and I’m sure Caputo does too.
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The prisons don’t need any more “review” than the charter of “too many rights and not enough responsibilities”. That aside, the melodrama is a useful tool of propaganda.
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What is clearly missed in the reaction to this video, is that there IS an ice rink at the prison, it just hasn’t been operational for the last couple years. It WAS operational.
We need to throw criminals in prison and feed them bread, boiled carrots and unfiltered tap water. Our criminal justice system is pathetic. A convicted child molester in a Kelowna was taken to a horse riding facility that predominantly serves children, and assaulted a minor while his supervisor was sitting in the car in the parking lot.
How on earth does that happen?
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I think the point is that the rink was inoperable before Bernardo was transferred there, so MP Caputo’s suggestion that Bernardo and Magnotta could be out shooting a few pucks together is off the mark.
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That may be the case, however one does not need ice to play hockey.
I think the point is that the most heinous prisoners (one of them is a cannibal) have a rink space.
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The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) is independent of government and they estimate the cost of a standard max prisoner as twice the cost to house a min security prisoner and this number does up to tenfold if the max security prisoner is in segregation. So you want to send the cannibal back to a max security prison where he no doubt would be in greater personal danger requiring greater security with corresponding greater costs rather than allow him to stay at the cheaper med security prison where the same dangers wouldn’t apply, hence less need for security with significant cost savings. Personally, I’d prefer to save our tax dollars and spend them on people who aren’t in jail rather than spend them on those who are in jail. You might say it’s a case of fiscal responsibility over needless retribution.
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