Crime Prevention

2012 10 31 – Crime Prevention

I have just receieved a powerpoint presentation that gives me information on what is being done by different levels of government about crime prevention and the growing gang economy. 

It tells me that the gang economy is 3.6% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product or, in other words, among the world’s top 20 economies.  It compares in power and financial strength to a country, but it does not have the public accountability of a country.  It is a completely private and independent economy with only its own self-interest at heart.  It is comparable to a very large multinational corporation, or perhaps several.

It tells me that Ottawa doesn’t have a very big problem compared to  Los Angelos (9.8 per 1,000)  Saskatoon (3.86/1000) Toronto (1.23/1000) Edmonton (.58/1000) Ottawa .53/1,000) (Density per 1000 people in a city’s population.)

Then it gives me the names of government programs and how much money it has thrown at the problem through which agencies.  Now don’t get me wrong.  We need government programs and qualified professionals from social workers to scientists, computer specialists and communicators to tackle many social and environmental problems.  I am grateful for their dedication and service.

But I do get frustrated with the many political responses I receive describing the money they have allocated to solve our country’s problems.  I don’t know what it means to throw money at a problem.  I don't know if a few million dollars is a lot or a little for that problem.  I don’t know what these programs are doing, or how they are being evaluated.  I don’t know if they are even addressing the problem.  I certainly don’t know how much of this money the Federal or Provincial or City government has spent actually gets down to the people who need it.

It would seem as though the government believes if it has spent money it has done something.  The politician has completed their responsibility.

Meanwhile, gang membership continues to grow.  Young people continue to choose gang life over an education.  We know what could be done to prevent this, but we are not doing it.  We have to fund education right into the post-secondary level, and we have to go back to a scholarship and bursary system rather than a student loan system to finance education.  We have to keep our commitment to educate all First Nations students through to a trade or a University Education.  We have to provide employment opportunities for high school and post secondary students – equally available for all people.

We could take away the reward for our youth to deal marijuana by legalizing drugs and selling them through a government-regulated establishment like the LCBO, but we don’t.  That would make access into the gang setting much less attractive.

We could fund adequate affordable housing so that people could afford to buy their own food instead of using food banks.  If people were not hungry they would not resort to gangs for their living.  Hungry people do desperate things.  You have to have a system that gives people a chance so they will have hope.  But we don’t.

We think we can scare people into accepting their hopeless condition with legislation like Bill C-10, but we can’t.  Desperate people take risks without thinking.   They may believe it is their only chance for the good life.  Threat of punishment and intimidation and fear will not succeed and will be very expensive. 

These are not the tools that will generate community and respect.  If we want our young people to grow up to be strong citizens then they must face the consequences of their action and take responsibility for what they have done.  Our court system does not encourage this.  The punishment has no relationship to the crime.  Our system is more and more punishment-oriented and the person may never even admit their crime.  We do better  when we find creative sentences that allow the person to pay the victim back or face their community and decide together how a person can be held accountable and be restored to community as a contributing member.

In this regard, the work of prison chaplains is extremely important.  They have time to establish a relationship with a transgressor, and to help the person realize the harm they have done.  They have the opportunity to make creative interventions that help inmates who want to learn more about the impact of what they do on others and to develop their capacity for empathy and compassion.  We could support such programs and make more such services available to inmates in institutions but instead, we are taking away all the chaplains who may have spoken to a particular minority group.  I guess we think that people in jail are just throw away people. 

The population for whom these statements are most true is our First Nations’ and Inuit peoples.  We keep them as poor as we possibly can. We fail to honour our treaties.  We fail to have meaningful consultation with bands about what will happen on their territories.  Many of our aboriginal peoples have inadequate housing and poor quality water.  We devastate their land with our invasive strip mining techniques, and strip their forests.  We take away their ability to hunt and fish and push them to buy low quality food at exhorbitant prices out of their non-existent incomes.   We don’t fund their education to the same level as other Canadians enjoy.  It is a policy of social exclusion.

Does the money the government boasts having spent get through to the people who really need it?  I think very little trickles down even though the bureaucracies are very well-intentioned.

When will we see real programs that have an effect making improvements in people’s lives?  And what do those programs look like?  Let’s start with a guaranteed annual income, available to everyone, that will allow all people, the elderly, the disabled, the refugee, the unemployed  to have access to decent housing and enough food.