We are in a ridiculous situation here in British Columbia, where, for example, Vancouver city police have called for “30 strikes and you're out”. Of course they're asking for that, because we know the incredible damage that's done by that collection of people. When Vancouver asks that, we should be reminded that they're talking about a group of people who have, on average, 47 prior convictions each. That's just for that small population.
Across the board, if we look at the successes that have been enjoyed in the province in terms of reducing crimes, it is a function of a multiplicity of prevention kinds of things, but in the main, one of the most significant things has been removing those highly recidivistic offenders off the streets. You can clock it down to the crime. If you want crime to go down, get those people off the street.
Of course it makes sense. We've known this for over four decades. That small group of highly recidivistic people needs to be in a custody situation to address the primary goals of sentencing. It is absolute nonsense, as I've told you before, for us to believe for a minute that you're going to rehabilitate anybody with a three-month sentence. That is not going to happen. Only an idiot would think that we're going to provide for public safety...provide specific deterrence, general deterrence.
We absolutely have to get people off the street. It's not a question of getting tougher on sentencing, it's a question of getting more effective. We want to make a difference. We know we can. We've seen it happen. Let's do more.
I absolutely applaud the government on the initiatives to get mandatory penalties.