criminals have it good in canada
http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/local/article/71710
In no other city do chronic criminals serve sentences as lenient as those here, and stricter punishments are needed to protect the public from people who?ve made a career of crime, the Vancouver Police Department said yesterday.
That?s why it?s calling for a policy where ?super chronic? offenders are automatically given significant prison sentences once they?ve been convicted of 30 offences.
?Several of these criminals have more than 100 convictions (but) the average length of jail sentences are going down, not up,? said Chief Const. Jim Chu.
?One offender we?re tracking, his record is so long it will not fit anymore on the national computer system.?
The VPD monitors 379 chronic offenders ? those who have been charged at least 12 times in 12 months.
A 30 Strikes and You?re Out policy would incarcerate 205 of those offenders.
Insp. Rob Rothwell said there has to be some ?meaningful sentencing to protect the public.?
?The rotating door of bringing them in for a short period of time and returning them to the community does nothing but perpetuate the problem.?
Albert Des Lauriers, who owns a supermarket on East Hastings Street, has been broken into five times in as many weeks.
?People don?t care, and it?s mainly because there?s no punishment. They?re bragging about what they get away with,? he said.