Letter to the Editor – Gabriel Riviere-Reid – What is the real purpose of Jail? – Cornwall Ontario – August 8, 2010

23 year old Ashley Kirilow will spend 2 days in jail awaiting a court hearing after turning herself in for fraud involving her pretending to have cancer and raising $5,000.

This seems odd to me.

Is she likely to recommit a crime after reporting herself to the police? I suppose she could have a change of heart and skip her hearing, but for what purpose?

She would just be digging her hole deeper. So again, why is she in prison? I know pedophiles who have never seen the inside of a cell.

I’m very interested to find out her sentence and whether it involves any further jailtime.

Because keeping her behind bars is only going to allow her to associate with criminals, putting her deeper into a life of crime.

I’m writing this because I’ve said for years now that our justice system needs to change. Punishment is all fine and dandy…but if it doesn’t prevent future crime, what’s the point? Our law-makers and judges need to get creative when writing laws or sentencing crime.

What would my sentence for a girl like Ms Kirilow look like? Well obviously I would order the funds she frauded away returned…with interest. And how about a year of community service, working with real cancer patients so she can see how serious it really is.

Thinking like this can be applied to many non-violent crimes. Jails should be to protect us from dangers to society, murders and rapists and the like, not to punish misguided petty criminals.

Gabriel Riviere-Reid – Cornwall Ontario

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2 Comments

  1. Nah, throw them in jail. Cancer patients have enough to worry about then if ‘the help’ is going to steal their wallet.

  2. Jails are awesome! They protect us from bad people, and give many jobs to secutiry guards. More jails is the answer. And more crimes punishable by jailtime. Eliminate all fines…just go to jail. Someday, if we are lucky, we will ALL be in jail. Only then will we be safe.

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