let's make draconian reforms to our prison system

Those milquetoast mensheviks are at it again.  This time they want to eliminate even the minor punishment available to prison staff to handle unruly inmates, namely solitary confinement.  But instead of looking for ways to improve the lives of murders and violent thugs, perhaps we should go in a different direction.

There are many in the libertarian movement who join in the social democratic urge to coddle criminals.  Perhaps they buy into this idiot notion that somehow the real blame for criminal activity lies not in the conscious actions of individuals but with society.  Crime is a consequence of poverty or not being hugged enough as a child or racist institutions or whatever.  Poppycock!  Violent criminals are simply people who have chosen force over voluntary interactions and instead of handling them with kid gloves they should be dealt with harshly, with an eye towards restitution for the victims of their actions.

Section 718 of the Canadian Code lays out the varied purposes of sentencing, namely denunciation, deterrence, separating offenders from society, rehabilitation, reparations and to promote a sense of responsibility in offenders.  These goals are unnecessarily broad; instead we should focus on restitution for victims as the goal of our legal system.  Those who can pay sufficient restitution as to appease the victim or their family and as for those who cannot?  Enter the gulag.

Soviet dissidents, some guilty of such inauspicious offenses as prayer in their own homes, were sent to brutal work camps for 10 or 25 year sentences.  There they were given minimal rations and medical attention and subjected to long, brutal labour in the harsh cold.  Of course our gulags should not be filled with people who criticize the government or dare to believe in God but instead with violent criminals, child molesters, rapists and other such scum.  They should be sent to the arctic north to labour under brutal conditions with the proceeds of their internment to be shared between the corporations which oversee this project and the victims of their crimes.  Let us carve out a new future in the north of the backs of those who victimize others.  Instead of comfortable cells with radios, televisions, even video games and computers let them languish in frigid conditions, with minimal rations and nothing but long, brutal days of hard labour to occupy their time.  Let's eliminate the vast stretches of the criminal code which criminalize vice or peaceful market activities but let's give teeth to our legal system so that anyone who thinks about hurting innocent people has a second thought about their activity.

And while we're at it, let's bring back the death penalty.