Judges know that they are impotent. In one famous case decided a few years ago entitled R. v. Wismayer, the Court of Appeal for Ontario for example stated that the deterrent nature of the prison criminal sanction is at best speculative and parliament should look elsewhere for solutions to criminality that calls for general deterrence. In another case involving drug mules who happened to be single black mothers, a Judge of the Superior Court of Justice in Brampton located the problems of the criminality of these mules in material conditions of existence, i.e societal conditions of these women. see R. v. Mason) He imposed an appropriate sentence. The Court of Appeal for Ontario slammed back this judge for his judgment and  the Court of Appeal stated in no uncertain terms that it is not the criminal justice system's function to solve society's problems. It is for parliament to do so. Wendy Dennis wrote a book entitled, THE DIVORCE FROM HELL: HOW THE JUSTICE SYSTEM FAILED A FAMILY(1998). Reading the book discloses that the family in the book expected too much from the justice system. The solution to their problems resided in that same family and in societal institutions other than the justice system.  Alex Macdonald in his book, OUTRAGE: CANADA'S JUSTICE SYSTEM ON TRIAL (1999) overrates the ability of the justice system to solve society's problems. Once the politicians brought in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the criminals and their lawyers were bound to use it. The Charter was not brought about by the judges or the criminals. You can not turn around and accuse the people for using an instrument that was placed for their use without there having requested it. The cons are not stupid, just read Michael Harris's book, CON GAME: THE TRUTH ABOUT CANADA'S PRISONS(2001). Harris's book will also educate you on the Parole system. It was not designed by the inmates or lawyers. it was designed by the politicians in parliament. After serving one third of a sentence, an inmate is qualified to come out on parole if he/she meets the stringent criteria. And contrary to popular mythology, the parole board and criminal justice judges are not soft on criminals at all. The complexities of the parole system are explored in an excellent book, the only one of its kind by a journalist and former parole Board member, Lisa Hobbs Birnie, entitled, A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: INSIDE CANADA'S PAROLE BOARD(1990). Former criminal lawyer and fraud convict Julius Melnitzer also wrote a helpful book on prisons and the parole system entitled MAXIMUM, MINIMUM AND MEDIUM (1997). Fortunately there are some sober analysis of the capacity  and incapacity of the criminal justice system to solve society's problems. The best are by criminal lawyers and  Law Professors David Paciocco, GETTING WAY WITH MURDER: THE CANADIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (1999)  and Alan Young's JUSTICE DEFILED: PERVERTS, POTHEADS, SERIAL KILLERS AND LAWYERS(2003). In the current debate on guns and violence in Canada and in the context of election politics, it is absolutely necessary to resist the temptation for knee-jerk solutions to complex societal problems for short term political gains that will in the long run have no impact on the causes of or solutions to crime.  I recommend the above-noted books as background reading before embarking on suggesting solutions to systemic criminality. The United States of America is even worse in its criticism of its justice system for failure to solve society's problems. Canada should learn how not to go the American way because a few journalists always point out how we must adopt the American way of solving this or that problem. If you read Max Boot's book, OUT OF ORDER:  ARROGANCE, CORRUPTION, AND INCOMPETENCE  ON THE BENCH (1998);  Paul Campos' JURISMANIA: THE MADNESS OF AMERICAN LAW; Judge Burton Katz's JUSTICE OVERRULED: UNMASKING THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
(1997); Judge Harold Rothwax's GUILTY:THE COLLAPSE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, and Nancy Grace's OBJECTION: HOW HIGH-PRICED DEFENCE ATTORNEYS, CELEBRITY DEFENDANTS, AND A 24/7 MEDIA HAVE HIJACKED OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM(2005), for example you would think that everything in America and or Canada revolves around the criminal justice system and that society has gotten so rotten that it has all collapsed. Nothing is further from the truth. In fact, it is the other way round, it is the political system that is rotten and is infecting everything else and those who run it that benefit and drive the criminal justice system, there and by extension, in Canada. That is the  analysis offered by Catherine Crier in her latest book, CONTEMPT: HOW THE RIGHT IS WRONGING AMERICAN JUSTICE (2005). Canada has no equivalent book to Crier's. The message is: Look to the politics of the country and not to its criminal justice system for solutions to society's problems. The blame on the criminal justice system by the politicians is political abdication of responsibility. You do not want to be part of that political conspiracy.

Munyonzwe Hamalengwa is a Toronto lawyer whose Masters of Law (LLM) Thesis in Criminal Law was entitled DANGER TO THE PUBLIC UNDER THE CRIMINAL CODE AND THE  IMMIGRATION ACT  OF CANADA (2001).