SourceWatch.info Indexes Home Subject Index Title Index Author Index Chronological Index Dewey Index Library of Congress Index Experts & News SOURCES - Experts & spokespersons News Releases Event Calendar Arts Business Communications Educatiion Government Health Human Rights International Labour Law Media Media relations Nature Politics Media relations Religion Science Sexuality Sports Sources Bookshelf Universities & Colleges Health Practitioners Other Resources Getting Publicity Membership Form Be an Affiliate Sources Shop Media Directory Government Directory Twitter Connexions Library Subject Index Connexions Library Title Index Google Scholar ibiblio Online Books Page Project Gutenberg Radical Digressions Wikipedia

Submission to the Sub-Committee on the Penitentiary Systems In Canada Hearings Year Published:  1977   Pages:  4pp   Resource Type:  Article/Report/Letter Abstract:  Besides the brief itself, the Hansard for the day also reports the discussion with Mrs. Culhane at the hearing. W e begins by quoting "Crime in America" by the former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, to the effect that prisons make prisoners a threat to society. Dealing meaningfully with crime means coming to terms with racism, poverty, ignorance and violence, unemployment, mulnutrition, sickness, addiction and anxiety. Four recommendations follow: 1) Encouragement of private citizens' visiting committees in order to provide maximum access to the entire prison system by responsible, concerned people. 2) The total elimination of solitary confinement as a violation of elemental concepts of decency in our society. 3) A moratorium on all new prison construciton. Since less than 20 per cent of offenses are acts of violence against persons, releasing the other 80 per cent for supervised work, training and therapy would eliminate the need for prison construction. 4) Operative alternatives need to replace the existing prison system. "We must stop placing the blame for the immense problem of our society on a criminal class. The community must go back into the prison and prisoners must be accepted and welcomes back into society, integrated, not alienated. Prisoners must be given full civil rights, fair speedy trials, right to vote, furlough programs expanded, family ties maintained, opportunity to earn decent wages....they should be able to become doctors, nurses, architects, lawyers, licenced technicians, recreation directors, etc."

SourceWatch.info
c/o Sources, 812A Bloor Street West, Suite 201, Toronto, ON M6G 1L9.
Phone: (416) 964-7799 FAX: (416) 964-8763

© Sources 1977-2011. The information provided is copyright and may not be reproduced
in any form or by any means (whether electronic, mechanical or photographic), or stored in an
electronic retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher. The content may not be
resold, republished, or redistributed. Indexing and search applications by Ulli Diemer and Chris DeFreitas.