Nov. 19, 2017
CTV News – Don Martin
Retired cops chasing pot of gold at the end of legalization rainbow
The provinces are beginning to roll out their individual approach to the new marketplace created by the coming legalization of marijuana. Martin says what a lot are thinking in the revelation of who will be front and center in the new business. All the while, the government is still charging the independent grow ops and the retailers. Says Martin: “They haven’t seen the light. They’ve seen a pot of gold at the end of the legalization rainbow. And they know it’s a fortune worth chasing.” http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/don-martin-blog/don-martin-retired-cops-chasing-pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-legalization-rainbow-1.3681402 Related article: Toronto Star – Royston James It stinks to high heaven when top cops are shilling pot https://www.thestar.com/amp/news/gta/2017/11/14/it-stinks-to-high-heaven-when-top-cops-are-shilling-pot-james.html
Globe and Mail – Sandy Simpson and Stephanie Penny
Don’t link mental illness with violent crime
Simpson and Penny are both CAMH and concerned that the recent mass killings and the easily assigned label or mental illness as the cause of the killings may be misleading. They see the public’s increasing acceptance of the mental health as cause, linked to the policies of de-institutionalization of the mentally ill as key influences in the Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) laws in Canada. One obvious weakness is the virtual impossibility in the US context of seeing the preponderance of gun availability as a cause. Say the authors: “The chance of being killed by a mentally ill stranger is exceedingly rare, based on our study. Our data showed that of the 710 people killed by strangers over this time period, 15 were killed by mentally unwell persons.” https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/dont-link-mental-illness-with-violent-crime/article36921418/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&
CBC News – Michelle Ghoussoube
Public safety minister announces $327.6M to fight gangs and gun violence
Ralph Goodale picked Surrey, BC, to announce a five year allotment to fight gangs and guns, telling people that the government will aim towards spending a $100 million a year after the initial five years. He is also scheduling “a national guns and gangs summit in March 2018, which will bring together experts, front-line personnel and decision-makers.” There were no specifics on how the money is to be spent. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/public-safety-minister-announces-327-6m-to-fight-gangs-and-gun-violence-1.4406860
Capitol Hill Times (US) –
Making juvenile justice a matter of public health – Executive signs order to examine approaches to keeping youth out of jail
Washington State has resolved through its King County Executive “to begin looking at juvenile justice through a public health lens.” For a limited study time, the county will deal with youth offenders differently, “focusing on restorative justice, empathetic response and reduced recidivism until at least Feb. 15. The goal is keeping youth out of juvenile detention.” http://www.capitolhilltimes.com/Content/News/News/Article/Making-juvenile-justice-a-matter-of-public-health/26/337/5318
American Civil Liberties Union – Udi Ofer
ACLU Poll Finds Americans Reject Trump’s Tough-on-Crime Approach
According to the ACLU poll, an astonishing nine of ten Americans think the criminal justice system needs reform. The poll “finds that a large majority of Americans believe the criminal justice system is unjust and needs to be significantly reformed.” The poll was taken across the political spectrum; two thirds do not think that the system is fair to Blacks and seventy-one percent think the system needs to reduce the 2.3 million population in prison, a number that establishes the US with the highest percentage of its citizens in jail. Most people believe that the mass incarceration is actually counterproductive. https://www.aclu.org/blog/mass-incarceration/smart-justice/aclu-poll-finds-americans-reject-trumps-tough-crime-approach
CBC News (Kitchener-Waterloo)
As Indigenous women inmate numbers rise, more supports needed after release – Number of Indigenous women in federal prisons has increased by 60 per cent in a decade
A spiritual advisor for the Grand Valley Institute, a federal prison for women in K-W, says there has been a huge increase in Indigenous women in prison. Part of the solutions says Laini Lascelles, an Ojibwe and Lennape woman from the Delaware Nation, is to drastically improve the re-entry services so that the women do not return to prison after release. At present, 37% of all inmates in federal prisons for women are Indigenous, a rate over ten times the 4% actual population for Indigenous people. http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4405664