What we have here is failure to punish/CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD

[Yrys]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070120.wxcoblatch20/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20061204.wxbikers04

The phrase that leapt out at me in the parole-eligibility report that was prepared for Kuldip Singh Samra's faint-hope hearing was this: "Mr. Samra is well-known for his baking at Ferndale."

Well, that's good. Mr. Samra is a convicted multiple murderer who fled Canada and evaded justice for a decade and who, even now, blames his victims for making him shoot them -- but God forbid he shouldn't be baking up a storm and otherwise broadening his horizons at the Ferndale (minimum security) Institution.
...
But it is in the most recent psychiatric evaluation where that is revealed as a crock.

Dr. Johann Brink interviewed Mr. Samra just last year for almost four hours, and found that despite the testimonials to the contrary, and his own proclamations of new wisdom, "Mr. Samra has still not accepted his conviction of first-degree murder," still blames the trial judge for not having accepted his explanation of manslaughter (after all, as he still says, he was at the dentist's earlier that day, so how on Earth could he have had the necessary intent to kill?), still blames the other side in the temple case for making his "blood boil" that day and, critically, remains the unbridled narcissist he has always been.

In his time with Dr. Brink, Mr. Samra went to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate his own goodness (born with, it appears, what the doctor describes as his "life-long identification with Mahatma Ghandi -- well sure, but for the murders and attempted murder, the men are indistinguishable one from the other), detailed his shootings "without any discernible emotionality" and, while he's less loud and intolerant than he was 15 years ago, showed that his narcissism is, in the main, intact.

In other words, while incarcerated, Mr. Samra learned to pretend he's sorry, sort of, but neither means nor feels it.
As another psychological evaluation, done in 2001, noted, "He also projects a victim stance position with relation to his criminal charges," and described his opponents that long-ago day in court as "almost thuggish in their behaviour."

Mr. Samra's lawyer, Dan Scully, argued this week in his opening statement that his client has changed in prison and that his good behaviour should entitle him to early release. Not so, said Crown attorney Allison Dellandrea, who, with senior Crown Paul Culver, is vigorously opposing any such break. "If you accept that this conduct makes him deserving of some kind of 'reward' " she told the jurors, "he has already received his sizable reward" -- his place at lovely Ferndale.

Another decade of baking there, I say. It's not quite "Off with his head!" but, this being Canada, it will have to do.

 

[Exarecr]

Thanks for"cooking up" this little tidbit of info. Nothing like a little rage in the pm to work up an appetite for supper. Sad thing is, this kind of foolishness is the norm in our prison system.

 

[IrishCanuck]

Interesting article.

I really get tired of the "Club Fed" statements. It's a minimum security facility, its taking away his freedom, thats the worst thing you can do.

If the problem lies in the classification system, in asking how did he get to minimum security, I can see the validity of the article.

That being said, if he is a model inmate and does his mandatory time in max then medium, there is no reason to keep him out of minimum.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I tried about three different ways to respond to the above post but actually knowing the system, and realizing this kid is getting fed drivel from his books and professers it's probably just as well that he maybe gets the chance to work in the system someday and he will look back on this post and chuckle at his naiveness.

 

[Yrys]

reason to keep him out of minimum.

well, maybe because he's felling the victim there, so next time
he fell that somebody is going thug on him when not giving him what he want,
he will go KABOUM ?

Time done has no relation to how you conduct yourself, seem to me.

Just a thought...

 

[IN HOC SIGNO]

I am not familiar with this case but my question is this.
What is the point of posting an article written by someone else without any comment?
What is your purpose in posting it? ???

 

[geo]

I think he posted it because it was written by Christine Blatchford.

 

[IrishCanuck]

I tried about three different ways to respond to the above post but actually knowing the system, and realizing this kid is getting fed drivel from his books and professers it's probably just as well that he maybe gets the chance to work in the system someday and he will look back on this post and chuckle at his naiveness.

Maybe I am, but I can't learn until you enlighten me.

I have no experience admittedly.

The only position I hold on the subject of corrections is this:

--If you want incarceration's objective to be punishment, thats fine. If that's what society wants we should do it.

--When people suggest "locking up" offenders for long lengths of time as justice I compare it to putting a dog in a cage for a long time, and shaking the cage and kicking the cage, and spitting on the dog while in the cage. (This is not a depiction of CSC officers)
-> The dog is not going to come out of the cage reformed, if nothing else, he's going to be just slightly annoyed.

-Then in my opinion, people have their justice, but they should not be surprised if the offender recidivates.(The offender could recidivate no matter what the system, lets be honest.)

And finally to quantify my opinion on that analogy, this may be the case for only a few dogs out of a hundred. Maybe the rest of the dogs are scared straight into behaving.

 

[neko]

A dog's thought process is a wee bit different from a human's, so stating that one thing won't work with dogs does not provide validation that it won't work with humans.  For example' generally one needs to punish or reward a dog immediately or the act, good or bad is forgotten, this is not the case with most humans.