Dear Editor,
Now that there is a law against smoking and the proposed new laws against the singing of "bad" music and the penalties for not paying these new inflated property taxes, I think that our leaders have forgotten one important plan - the need for more prison space.
Smokers will tell you that smoking is a habit that is very difficult to break. How many times have we seen smokers smoking their cigarettes or "weed" on the sidewalk or other "publicly accessible" places, especially during recreation times?
What about the many street dances where young men sing whatever comes to mind, which is usually some gangster crap? Don't even talk about the land owners who will be unable to pay property taxes that have skyrocketed.
I really think that the police will turn a blind eye to many of these offenders - especially those who smoke their ganja spliffs or sing their gangster songs, as there will just be too many of them. Either that or the police will have to exchange their police cars for trucks, as they will be picking up a lot of offenders!
I saw a case where the property tax obligations of one home owner moved from $17,000 per year to $120,000! How will property owners pay these new inflated taxes, especially the unemployed and the retired? More prisons will definitely be needed for these people!
I would want to suggest that for the expected increase in the number of prisoners that we may have soon, the government may look at the possibility of converting some of our unused state buildings, like the old Forum hotel and the former Jamintel building into new prisons.
Also, we need to strengthen our court system, as they will soon be overwhelmed with these cases. If we think our courts have a serious case-backlog crisis, we haven't seen anything yet!
If the government is serious about these new laws and it doesn't have an expanded prison plan or court system for us, they will need them soon. These laws are going to create more prisoners!
Michael A. Dingwall.
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
New laws, more prisons needed
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Now that there is a law against smoking and the proposed new laws against the singing of "bad" music and the penalties for not paying these new inflated property taxes, I think that our leaders have forgotten one important plan - the need for more prison space.
Smokers will tell you that smoking is a habit that is very difficult to break. How many times have we seen smokers smoking their cigarettes or "weed" on the sidewalk or other "publicly accessible" places, especially during recreation times?
What about the many street dances where young men sing whatever comes to mind, which is usually some gangster crap? Don't even talk about the land owners who will be unable to pay property taxes that have skyrocketed.
I really think that the police will turn a blind eye to many of these offenders - especially those who smoke their ganja spliffs or sing their gangster songs, as there will just be too many of them. Either that or the police will have to exchange their police cars for trucks, as they will be picking up a lot of offenders!
I saw a case where the property tax obligations of one home owner moved from $17,000 per year to $120,000! How will property owners pay these new inflated taxes, especially the unemployed and the retired? More prisons will definitely be needed for these people!
I would want to suggest that for the expected increase in the number of prisoners that we may have soon, the government may look at the possibility of converting some of our unused state buildings, like the old Forum hotel and the former Jamintel building into new prisons.
Also, we need to strengthen our court system, as they will soon be overwhelmed with these cases. If we think our courts have a serious case-backlog crisis, we haven't seen anything yet!
If the government is serious about these new laws and it doesn't have an expanded prison plan or court system for us, they will need them soon. These laws are going to create more prisoners!
Michael A. Dingwall.
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
New laws, more prisons needed
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