To the editor,
Re: Repeat offender issue requires more resources, report suggests, Sept. 28.
The province released the report into repeat offenders and random stranger violence, the result of pressure from the public, B.C. mayors and meetings at UBCM. Will they implement the findings?
Our justice system is designed to manage discipline and behavioural matters, but not substance addiction and mental health issues which drive violent crime sweeping our communities. I’ve reviewed the report’s summary and recommendations. It is fact-based, with solutions considered by subject matter experts.
The report identifies the lack of facilities, procedures and programs within our communities and correctional facilities for courts to manage criminal issues. It promotes psychiatric assessments before the trial process. Cases could be diverted to mental health treatment before criminal proceedings. Few addiction treatment options exist within corrections for courts to consider within sentencing guidelines. First-time offenders can agree to treatment similar to probation. Non-violent repeat offenders can be directed to court-supervised residential treatment programs on a voluntary basis. B.C. Corrections would have to develop treatment programs within their facilities for addicted violent offenders. Variations of these programs already exist across Canada and have favourable results. The remaining crimes should be treated as criminal with sentences meeting public interest.
B.C. has cemented its efforts into housing-first and harm-reduction policies without reassessing successes and failures. Six years of emergency measures, over 10,000 deaths, far too many victims of murder, violent assault, robberies and billions of dollars already spent with very few productive results. I’ve watched this provincial government fumble this before – will they again?
Darrel Gyorfi, Nanaimo
READ ALSO: Horgan cites ‘multi-faceted’ crime approach amid debate about arrests
To the editor,
Re: Citizens rally, demanding public safety, Sept. 21.
I read with disbelief what the average Nanaimo citizens and business owners are going through: tortured by crime in our city.
Governments are there for everyone else, except for those who work, pay taxes and abide by the law. These are the victims.
I look forward to more protests. I am with them – and you need to be, too.
J.C. Broderick, Nanaimo
RELATED: B.C. attorney general says increasing arrests to fight violent crime won’t work
To the editor,
Re: Repeat offender issue requires more resources, report suggests, Sept. 28.
The provincial government bungles everything it touches and it is continuing to put every B.C. resident in harm’s way while we are getting punched, kicked, shot at, stabbed and even killed – right here in Nanaimo.
Like the B.C. Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions’ non-announcement a month ago, the province has made an even bigger, blundering non-announcement. It isn’t going to do zippo about the crime and social disorder plaguing our city and the entire province.
Its long-awaited report on prolific offenders says hard-line enforcement on prolific offenders is not the answer. This has to be an April Fools spoof.
This NDP government wolfs down our tax money so we have little to pay rent, a mortgage, buy a loaf of bread, and while we’re walking out of a dollar store, a senior gets stabbed and robbed. Young people playing on the swings at Maffeo-Sutton Park get bear-sprayed and one gets stabbed to death. A senior gets pushed to the ground by three thugs in broad daylight after she simply took money out of a bank machine. A pregnant woman has a paving stone thrown at her stomach by a prolific offender with 105 incidents on the B.C. Courts website.
But the provincial government says in its new report it’s not nice to call folks prolific offenders. The criminals are obviously running the government.
Matt Snelgrove, Nanaimo
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