Recently I made my strongly held views about the Corrections Department’s decision to bring PD and parole centres to a busy street near you, very clear.
In that piece I referred to criminals frequenting these facilities and I have been taken to task for that. I’m told it is disrespectful to call them criminals, they are people who somehow society has let down. I’m told that it is not the criminal’s fault they decided to break the law, it is the honest citizen’s fault for somehow failing them.
What a lot of rot. If a white collar worker commits fraud and is convicted for it he is a criminal. If a storeman steals from his employer and is convicted for it he is a criminal. And if an unemployed person is convicted of a crime then he is a criminal. Calling them clients is just crap.
Sure society could do more for the underprivileged in our society to guide them into positive activities rather than anti-social ones. And sure it is better to attend to the ills of society than simply parking an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. But if individuals make a personal decision to indulge in criminal behaviour, it doesn’t matter what socio-economic group they come from or whether they are black, white or brindle, they are criminals.
I am certainly not saying – and never have said that the criminal justice system is the answer to all of society’s social problems but it is a necessary evil and the facilities need to be put in appropriate places.
So what is an appropriate place? Well it is certainly not on a busy arterial route into the CBD with houses down one side of the street. It is not next door to a school shop frequented by youngsters and it is not just along the road from a large liquor store and a dance and fitness studio where youngsters are arriving and leaving in their performance attire.
Surely it is at the back of an industrial area somewhere, where these fellows loitering around do not create an eyesore or a threat to the security of local businesses.
Again I stress, these people are not clients as the Department of Corrections likes to call them, anymore than prisoners are guests. For whatever reason, whether it is a failure of society or not these people are criminals and they should not be encouraged into inappropriate areas.
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