COLUMN: Think Again – Violent criminals belong in jail

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/02/2025 (251 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Feb. 13, Hamilton police issued a warning about 22-year-old Leikeze Cheruiyot. Cheruiyot is accused of two violent sex assaults. In the first incident, he allegedly dragged a woman off a walking trail and then assaulted her. In the second, he allegedly broke into the home of a 74-year-old woman and assaulted her for an hour before leaving.

Clearly, police believe that Cheruiyot is a danger to the public. Because we know so much about Cheruiyot, one might wonder why police are having such a difficult time catching this guy.

However, the police did catch him; they just couldn’t keep him. That’s because Cheruiyot is out on bail until his trial begins. In other words, there is nothing stopping Cheruiyot from assaulting more women between now and his trial date.

Now, anyone with an ounce of common sense is likely shaking their head at the absurdity of this situation. It boggles the mind that someone accused of such serious offences could be released to the public. This is the mockery that the federal Liberal government has made of our justice system.

To make matters worse, even if Cheruiyot is eventually convicted of these crimes, there’s no guarantee he will serve a lengthy prison sentence. That’s because the Liberal government removed the mandatory minimum sentences from many criminal offences and has signaled that it wants prison sentences kept as short as possible.

A common argument for this soft-on-crime approach is that lengthy prison sentences simply lead to more hardened criminals. Advocates of this approach argue that sending young offenders to prison is particularly harmful, since it makes it more likely that they will reoffend in the future.

Fortunately, a new long-term study from Simon Fraser University (SFU) blows a hole in this common argument. This SFU study looked at incarcerated youth in British Columbia and found that youths who spent longer period of times in custody were less likely to reoffend following release from prison than those who served shorter sentences.

The authors of the study noted that most other studies focus of this nature on the United States, a country with a very different prison system. Previously, researchers relied on American data to make recommendations for the Canadian justice system. However, this study shows that when looking at Canadian data, longer incarceration periods benefit both the offender and society.

Of course, the authors are careful to suggest that their findings shouldn’t be taken as a blanket endorsement of incarceration. However, it’s interesting that the main reason for this caution is because researchers couldn’t determine whether the lower rates of reoffending were primarily due to the rehabilitative services in prison or whether it was mainly because incarceration acted as a deterrent.

But it really shouldn’t matter. If longer prison sentences lead to fewer crimes taking place, I don’t care whether it’s because the offenders received good rehabilitative services or whether they are simply afraid of going to jail again. In the end, they are committing fewer crimes—and that is something we should all be happy about.

The next federal election is likely only weeks away. During that campaign, we will be faced with a stark choice between the tough-on-crime Conservatives, and the soft-on-crime Liberal/NDP coalition. If you think that violent criminals belong in jail, vote Conservatives. If you think these criminals should be on the street, then vote Liberal/NDP. The choice really is that simple.

I’m tired of the Liberal government’s hug-a-thug mentality. When faced with a choice between the mobility rights of criminals and the security rights of law-abiding citizens, I will choose the law-abiding citizens every time.

Violent criminals belong in jail—not on our streets.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.