Re: Tories say they’ll space out crime measures, March 13

This is a candid admission that they cannot afford the $19 billion to implement this Act and their pro-prison agenda.

Stephen Harper is returning inmates to Canadian streets without counselling, without rehabilitation, without mental health care, without addiction treatment and without the supports necessary to be successfully re-integrated into their communities.

He has cancelled programs and services for inmates and has lost all interest in rehabilitation in favour of punishment through the denial of human rights. This crime legislation will make us less safe as a country.

Perhaps the crime slush fund should be used to invest in people and not prisons. Lift people out of poverty, improve health care, addictions and mental health care, end child poverty and homelessness, give our seniors a decent standard of living, address high unemployment rates, invest in post-secondary education, address the plight of our First Nations communities and enrich our social programs to narrow the gap between the rich, the poor and the vanishing middle class.

Investing in people and not prisons would be a good start in addressing the problems that so often contribute to other ills in society, perhaps even crime.

David Simpson, St. Thomas