No fuzzy feelings
KUDOS to Alan Leitch for putting juvenile crime into a world of reality, not a world of fuzzy feelings! Detention for offenders is firstly for the protection of society, if rehabilitation can be achieved, good.
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But, bare in mind rehabilitation can only be achieved if the offender has a genuine desire to be rehabilitated!
Ian O'Neill, Westbury
Rehabilitation must be the primary goal
FOR 200,000 years, human societies responded to criminal behaviour with emotion-based reflexive punishments, much as chimps and wolves still do. People who transgressed were speared or pilloried or exiled when victims or society in general grew angry with them.
This crudely but somewhat effectively performed the legitimate functions of a criminal justice system: Protection of the populace, deterrence of those behaviours, and rehabilitation of the offender.
Now that we have large societies with trained, objective, professional police, jurists, and correctional officers, we need no longer rely on instinctive angry revenge responses to crime. We can be rational in weighing up how best to serve those three functions in each individual case.
Alan Leitch's anger with juvenile criminals (The Examiner, June 27) causes him to make three false claims. Firstly, there is a "shocking increase in youth crime nationally". Not true.
Secondly, that young criminals are committing more crimes because they know they'll be lightly punished. Recent police statements have contradicted this.
And thirdly, that the "only way" to solve youth crime is to be more severe in sentencing and custody. There is no evidence that gaoling more youth reduces juvenile crime. All it does is to satisfy the public's angry desire for revenge, and train more criminals.
A rational criminal justice system should be more than just a vengeance mechanism for the disgruntled. With one so young, still malleable, and with 70 or so years yet to live among us, rehabilitation must be the primary goal, not revenge punishment.
Gary Bakker, Upper Rosevears
Assange is free
AS JULIAN Assange flies to freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, has for now, been preserved.
Support from politicians, (for example Andrew Wilkie and NSW Senator David Shoebridge) to Human Rights Counsel, (for example Greg Barns, Jennifer Robinson and Geoffrey Robertson), plus advocacy from the Australian government have all collectively contributed to Assange's release
His wife Stella, who on Julian's last birthday asked supporters of the 'Free Assange' campaign to email him birthday greetings, and thanked participants for their contribution to his welfare afterwards.
His father John Shipton, a thoroughly decent man with a soft, kind voice, never abandoned hope for his son's release
The biggest beneficiaries of Julian Assange's release will be his children, who have never experienced their father outside of a prison environment.
Congratulations to all involved.
Kenneth Gregson, Swansea
Vaping madness
IT'S unbelievable that in this enlightened day and age humans continue to smoke, vape and take non-prescription and untested drugs, all detrimental to their physical or mental health in some way.
If only these folk could direct their addictions to more productive activities or endeavours, society may be immensely improved or am I fantasising or hallucinating!?
Bob Taylor, Trevallyn
Workers searching for the leaks to go to Specsavers
THE amount of water lost in one day by TasWater is equivalent to 28 Olympic sized swimming pools, according to the local paper. One wonders if they found them would it make our water rates any cheaper? It might be a good idea for the workers searching for the leaks to go to Specsavers.
Allan Salter, Ravenswood
Logic
WHETHER you're for or against nuclear energy, why does the government say 8 billion dollars each for a nuclear plant is too expensive to keep everybody heated but can spend 388 billion on submarines? Where is the logic?
Dane Murphy, Launceston
A mixed retail ray of sunshine
AS REPORTED in The Examiner (June 23), finely a ray of sunshine along the hallowed corridors of mixed retailing in central Launceston. Congratulations to Ivory Orthodontics for planning a world class fit-out and the restoration of a much loved Launceston heritage landmark on the corner of George and Brisbane Streets.
Let's hope the future sees many other landlords now take up the challenge and contribute to our one-of-a-kind beautiful historical city, which incidentally many have to be reminded is what the majority of cashed up tourists come here for!
Bruce Webb, Launceston
