Downtown Eastside - DTES Issues

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Changing City View Post
We can theoretically lock them up, if they've broken laws...,

Originally Posted by scryer

Full stop. We should always be appropriately punishing criminals if they have broken laws. No one is above any law. Why is this only a "theoretical" in your mind? Would you care to explain to this rape victim that her perpetrators will not be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because they are homeless? Why are we perpetuating a mentality that individuals who are homeless are above the law? The change begins with us.

Theoretically we could lock up more criminals, but that's not what the law requires. "The Criminal Code mandates that all sanctions other than imprisonment are to be considered for all offenders. Historically, persons sentenced to community supervision have been shown to have a reduced risk of recidivism, when compared to those sentenced to custody".[source] There are at least twice as many convicted criminals on probation or some other form of community sentence than there are locked up. You would need to have a prison system like the US to adopt a 'lock them all up' approach. You might think the US system is better. I don't share that view.