#crime and punishment in canada

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Content warning. Reader discretion is advised. A transgender teacher who works in Pitt Meadows, B.C., is going after one of their online attackers. Wilson Wilson has launched a human rights complaint against what they call a concerted attempt to get them out of the classroom. It’s believed to be the first action of its kind in the province. “A variety of slurs, accusations, and it’s all (related to the fact) that I’m a teacher,” said Wilson, who teaches art at a high school in the Lower Mainland community. [...]

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[anarchy-city]

Scene girl of Rodion Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, drawn in MSPaint with effects from PicMix

[eveebev]

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"BOAT ALLEGED TO HAVE TAKEN WINE IS SEIZED," Hamilton Spectator. December 4, 1933. Page 7. --- Said to Have Carried Liquor From Hamilton ---- And Deposited It Near Rochester City --- Impounded By R.C.M.P. at Port Hope ---- A new development in the wine transaction between the H. Robinson corporation and an American bootleg ring came to light over the week-end when Sergeant Frank Samson took two men to Port Hope and seized the Harry H., a 125-foot craft that is alleged by the police to have carried the shipment of wine from Hamilton to a point near Rochester in the latter part of October.

Mounted Police officers stated that they had information in their possession that the craft in question had made the trip from Hamilton to a point near Rochester, where the purchasers of the wine had received it. Late Saturday Constables Crawford and McDuff, from the Toronto R.C.M.P. barracks, were placed on the boat after it was officially impounded by the government.

The boat has been lying in the west harbour at Port Hope for several months, ever since the law was passed prohibiting the export of liquor, but longshoremen at Port Hope said the ship was absent from its berth for three days at the time the police claim it made the trip. At this time the waterfront men said it sailed light and came back. -light and they believe the boat made the trip first to Hamilton and then to the American shore before returning.

Former Sub-Chaser The ship is of sturdy build and was used as a sub-chaser in the Black Sea during the war and is capable of doing about 40 miles an hour. It could make the trip from - its home berth to Rochester in about an hour, the lake sailors stated. It was registered at Toronto and the crew never stayed in Port Hope, residents of that town said. Whenever the ship made a trip the crew was brought down from Toronto.

At present Milton B. Staud is being held at Rochester charged by United States authorities with being in possession of merchandise that entered the country without the taxes being paid, but he will be turned over to the Mounted Police officers after they apply for extradition.

[pyladessdrunk]

Succumbing to illness (Stress sick) while stewing over the guilt of my sins (math test I didn't study for), yearning for repentance while knowing deep down it was my duty to do this; that no one will suffer from my actions, rather, prosper together because of it (didn't study because I was having good snacks with my friend). Should the public find out what I've done (my parents), surely they'll understand how juvenile my sins were rather than the presumed monstrosities.

[beu-ytr]

Resenha de "Crime e Castigo" de Fíodor Dostoiévski

*com alguns spoilers

Apesar de algumas passagens serem particulamente muito interessantes, não posso mentir e dizer que é um livro fácil ou entretível (essa palavra existe?)

A verdade é que estou feliz por ter iniciado minha jornada com Dostoiévski, mesmo quando eu não estava entendendo n a d a do que eu tava lendo eu me diverti demais

isso porque eu tava muito empolgada sabe, eu tava tipo "ok não tô curtindo por agora mas eu tenho certeza que vai melhorar depois☺"

Vi algumas resenhas no Skoob, e entendi perfeitamente o porquê de algumas pessoas não gostarem desse livro

A narrativa realmente é maçante, os personagens são aleatórios e a maioria é descartável e/ou desconexos com a proposta da história

o protagonista é desprovido de inteligência cognitiva, emocional e social, desprovido de sanidade mental e o pior de tudo: carisma

Pra mim o que faltou nesse livro foi carisma, foi o charme entendeu? Acho que se o livro fosse uma sátira, ele seria bem mais genial e muito mais interessante

Porque o protagonista é simplesmente uma grande piada. Não entra na minha cabeça como um ser humano poderia ser tão burro ao ponto de assassinar uma mulher pelo dinheiro dela, e depois não roubar nada dela (??????)

Eu também não entendi muito o intuito desse livro em geral sabe, eu acho que Dostoiésvski perdeu uma grande oportunidade com esse aqui. Pode ser um clássico e tal, mas ao mesmo tempo é um livro bem fraquinho

Como eu já falei aqui, às vezes as pessoas gostam de criar significados profundíssimos sobre coisas que na verdade são muito simples. E acho que isso acontece até demais aqui

Outro ponto que gostaria de ressaltar é que o maior dilema que eu tive lendo esse livro foi os nomes. Os nomes estranhíssimos que mudavam o tempo todo (chamaram o personagem principal de mais de 2 nomes diferentes e eu só fui me tocar que era ele, quando eu voltei para o préfácio) e a enorme quantidade de personagens me deixaram maluca

Eu não sabia mais quem era relevante e quem não era, foi uma loucura total e eu tenho certeza que uma parte da história passou direto pela minha cabeça só porque eu não consegui raciocinar os nomes de certos personagens e todo o papel deles na narrativa

Eu tive que parar de ler um pouquinho pra fazer um mapinha com todos os nomes e mesmo assim eu não entendi direito porque foi muita gente

Por fim o arco do romance, eu simplesmente odiei. Achei que não combinou e sinceramente foi bastante forçadinho porque dois malucos com um psicológico todo acabado não seriam um bom casal na minha humilde opinião. Qual a necessidade, eu pergunto

Não sei, você responde. Mas a verdade é que eu só terminei esse livro pesadão porque eu tinha muita força de vontade senão eu teria abandonado certeza

De toda forma, foi uma experiencia agridoce. Obrigado pela atenção, até a próxima

[beauty-is-terrror]

Reading goals for the rest of the year:

Donna Tartt's novels in publication order (TSH, TLF and TG)

Hannah Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment

[ta9rboost]

“I have a new plan : to go mad”

— Dostoyevsky, letters of Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Artwork: Jason Walker

[miami1999]

NOT MINE!!

[autumn-tide]

“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.”

― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

[aliceswriting1]

Crime and Punishment: A Classic Masterpiece

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a novel that has stood the test of time, and it is still relevant today. Published in 1866, the novel has since become a classic masterpiece and is considered one of the most influential works of literature in the 19th century. The novel is set in St. Petersburg, Russia, and follows the story of Rodion Raskolnikov, a young man who commits a crime and then struggles with his guilt and the consequences of his actions. The novel is a complex character study of Raskolnikov's mental state, and his inner turmoil is brilliantly portrayed....

Check out my blog in order to read the rest.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A new survey conducted by Research Co. found that the majority of Canadians support tying speeding tickets to income, otherwise known as “progressive punishment.”

According to the survey published on Friday, 65 per cent of Canadians surveyed endorse implementing progressive punishment for speeding tickets in their city. In addition24 per cent of respondents opposed the concept while 11 per cent are undecided.

Progressive punishment system has been implemented in some European countries such as Finland and Switzerland. Authorities in Finland set the fines on the basis of disposable income of the offending driver and how much speed the offending driver went over the posted limit. [...]

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[blabbershere]

[frabooks]

Delitto e castigo - Frasi e pezzi

Durante le letture, mi capita di segnarmi pagine o frasi. Mi piace trascriverle e tenerle da parte, come un archivio prezioso di frasi che, esclusivamente per me, significano qualcosa.

In questo post ci sono le frasi di Delitto e castigo.

“A tutto finisce per abituarsi, questa carogna che è l’uomo!”

“Il suo delitto, per lui consisteva unicamente nel fatto di non aver saputo reggerne il peso, e quindi di essersi costituito e di aver confessato.”

“Che strano! Che cos’è che fa più paura alla gente? Una nuova iniziativa, una parola nuova…”

“Aveva sposato il primo marito, un ufficiale di fanteria, per amore, e con lui era fuggita dalla casa paterna. Amava il marito immensamente, ma lui si era dato al gioco, era finito sotto processo, e ne era morto. Alla fine lui la picchiava; e anche se lei non lasciava correre, cosa che so per certo e in base ai documenti, lo ricorda ancora con le lacrime agli occhi e me lo rinfaccia, e io sono contento, contento, giacché almeno nei sogni si vede felice”

“Ascolta ancora. Dall'altra parte, forze giovani, fresche, che vanno perdute inutilmente senza sostegno, e a migliaia, e ovunque! Cento, mille buone azioni e imprese, che si possono organizzare e aggiustare con i soldi della vecchia, destinati al monastero! Centinaia, forse migliaia di esistenze indirizzate sulla giusta strada; decine di famiglie salvate dalla miseria, dalla degradazione, dalla rovina, dal vizio, dagli ospedali per le malattie veneree: e tutto questo con i suoi soldi. Uccidila e prendi i suoi soldi per consacrarti poi con il loro aiuto al servizio di tutta l'umanita e della causa comune; che ne pensi: un unico, minuscolo delitto non sarà forse espiato da migliaia di buone azioni? Per una sola vita, migliaia di vite salvate dalla putrefazione e dalla corruzione. Una sola morte e cento vite in cambio: dopotutto é aritmetica! E poi che cosa significa, sulla bilancia generale, la vita di questa vecchiaccia tisica, stupida e malvagia? Non pit della vita di un pidocchio, di uno scarafaggio, anzi non vale neppure quella, perché la vecchiaccia é dannosa. Rovina la vita altrui: giorni fa a Lizaveta ha morso un dito per la rabbia; per poco non gliel’hanno dovuto tagliare!“

“È interessante, a questo proposito, considerare il carattere di tutte le decisioni <definitive> già prese da Raskolnikov. Avevano una strana proprietà: non appena diventavano definitive, subito gli sembravano assurde e mostruose.”

“Basta conservare il dominio completo della volontà e della ragione e, a suo tempo, saranno tutte superate, via via che mi si porrà davanti ogni singolo particolare dell’impresa…”

“«Basta! - disse con decisione e solennità, — via i miraggi, via le paure fittizie, via i fantasmi!... C’è la vita! Non ho forse vissuto, poco fa? La mia vita non è morta insieme a quella vecchia bacuccal A lei il regno dei cieli e... basta, mia cara, è ora di riposare in pace! Ora viene il regno della ragione e della luce e... e della volontà, e della forza... e ora vedremo! Ora ci misureremo! — aggiunse con arroganza, quasi rivolgendosi a qualche forza oscura e sfidandola. - E pensare che avevo già acconsentito a vivere in mezzo metro di spazio!»”

“Cosa credete?” gridava Razumichin ancora più forte. “Credete che io me la prenda perché le sparano così grosse? Nemmeno per sogno! Mi piace, quando si dicon corbellerie! Dire corbellerie è l’unico privilegio umano nei confronti di tutti gli altri esseri viventi. A furia di dirne, si arriva alla verità. Si è uomini appunto perché si dicono corbellerie; non si è mai raggiunta nessuna verità senza aver prima sbagliato quattordici volte, e forse anche centroquattordici; a suo modo, è una cosa onorevole.“

“Non è davanti a te che mi sono inginocchiato, ma a tutta la sofferenza umana”.

“La natura è uno specchio, uno specchio, e dei più trasparenti! Guardati dentro e ammirati, ecco come stanno le cose!”

“Ma io mi sono incattivito e non ho voluto. Proprio incattivito (è una bella parola!) Allora, come un ragno, mi sono rintanato nel mio buco. Tu ci sei stata nella mia cuccia per cani, hai visto... E sai, Sonja, che i soffitti bassi e le stanze anguste opprimono I'anima e la mente? Oh, come odiavo quella cuccia! Eppure non volevo uscirne. Apposta non volevo! Per giornate intere non uscivo, e non volevo lavorare, e non volevo neanche mangiare, me ne stavo sdraiato e basta. Se Nastas “ja mi portava qualcosa, mangiavo, se non me lo portava, la giornata passava così; apposta non chiedevo niente, per rabbia! Di notte non avevo luce, stavo disteso al buio, ma non volevo guadagnare i soldi per le candele. Dovevo studiare, ma ho venduto i libri; e sul mio tavolo, sugli appunti e sui quaderni, anche adesso c’¢ un dito di polvere. Preferivo stare sdraiato a pensare. E pensavo sempre... E facevo sempre certi sogni, sogni strani, diversi, non staro a dirti quali! E allora ho cominciato anche a immaginare che… No, non è così! Di nuovo racconto male! Vedi, allora continuavo a domandarmi: perché sono cosi stupido? Perché, se gli altri sono stupidi e io so per certo che lo sono, non voglio essere più intelligente? Poi ho scoperto, Sonja, che ad aspettare che tutti diventino intelligenti, ci vorrebbe troppo tempo... Poi ho anche scoperto che questo non sarà mai, che gli uomini non cambieranno e che nessuno può trasformarli, e che sarebbe tutta fatica sprecata! Si, è cosi!”

“Però io dico: se si riesce a convincere logicamente una persona che, in fondo, non ha nessun motivo di piangere, quella smetterà di piangere. È evidente. O forse, secondo voi, non dovrebbe smettere?” “Se fossi così, vivere sarebbe molto più facile,” rispose Raskolnikov.

“... che se per caso potessi esserti utile in qualche modo o se ti servisse… tutta la mia vita, o qualunque cosa… non hai che da chiamarmi, ed io verrò. Addio!”

“Lo so che non ci credete, ma non dovete cavillare troppo; abbandonatevi alla vita, senza ragionare; non preoccupatevi; vi porterà certamente sulla riva e vi rimetterà in piedi.”

“Raskolnikov rimase in ospedale per tutta la fine della quaresima e la Settimana Santa. Ormai convalescente, ricordava i sogni che aveva fatto quando aveva la febbre e delirava. Aveva sognato, durante la malattia, che tutto il mondo era condannato a esser vittima di un’epidemia letale spaventosa, inaudita e mai  vista, che avanzava verso Europa dalle profondità dell’Asia. Tutti dovevano morire, tranne alcuni, pochissimi eletti. Erano comparse delle specie di nuove trichine, esseri microscopici che si insediavano nei corpi degli uomini. Ma questi esseri erano spiriti, dotati d’intelletto e volontà. Chi li aveva accolti in sé diventava subito indemoniato e folle. Ma mai, mai uomini si erano creduti così intelligenti e incrollabili nella verità, come si credevano quegli infettati. Mai avevano considerato più incrollabili le loro sentenze, le loro deduzioni scientifiche, le loro convinzioni morali e le loro fedi. Interi villaggi, intere città e popoli erano contagiati e impazzivano. Tutti erano inquieti, gli uomini non si capivano fra loro, ciascuno si credeva I'unico depositario della verità, e si angosciava, guardando gli altri, si batteva il petto, piangeva e si torceva le mani. Non sapevano chi e come giudicare, non riuscivano a mettersi d’accordo su cosa considerare male e cosa bene. Non sapevano chi condannare, chi assolvere. Gli uomini si ammazzavano a vicenda con rabbia insensata. Si radunavano a eserciti interi uno contro l'altro, ma gli eserciti, già in marcia, a un tratto cominciavano a distruggersi da sé, i ranghi si scioglievano, i soldati si scagliavano uno contro l'altro, si pugnalavano e si sgozzavano, si mordevano e divoravano a vicenda. Nelle città per tutto il giorno le campane suonavano a martello: chiamavano tutti a raccolta, ma nessuno sapeva chi chiamava e perché, e tutti erano allarmati. Abbandonarono i mestieri pitt comuni, perché ciascuno proponeva le sue idee, le sue modifiche, e non riuscivano a mettersi d’accordo; i lavori agricoli si fermarono. Qua e 1a gli uomini si radunavano a gruppi, concordavano un’azione comune, giuravano di non separarsi: ma subito dopo iniziavano qualcosa di completamente diverso da cid che avevano appena deciso, prendevano ad accusarsi l'un l'altro, si azzuffavano e si massacravano. Incominciarono gli incendi, incominciò la carestia. Tutto e tutti perivano. La piaga si diffondeva e avanzava sempre di più. In tutto il mondo potevano salvarsi solo alcuni uomini: erano i puri e gli eletti, predestinati a dare inizio a una nuova stirpe di uomini e a una nuova vita, a rinnovare e purificare la terra, ma nessuno aveva mai visto questi uomini, nessuno aveva mai sentito le loro parole e le loro voci.”

“Quella sera, tuttavia, non gli era possibile pensare a lungo ad una sola cosa, né concentrarsi in un solo pensiero; non riusciva a ragionare su nessun problema: poteva soltanto sentire…”

“Ma qui, ormai, comincia una nuova storia, la storia della rinascita di un uomo, della sua graduale trasformazione, del suo lento passaggio da un mondo a un altro mondo, del suo incontro con una realtà nuova e fino a quel momento completamente ignorata. Potrebbe essere l’argomento di un nuovo racconto; ma il nostro, intanto, è finito”.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

""Because A Man's In Jail Doesn't Mean He's An Animal"," Weekend Magazine. August 4, 1973. Page 3, 4, 6. ---- Inmates, say prisoners and some penal officials, have rights too ---- Story and photos by Bill Trent, Weekend Magazine --- IN NEW BRUNSWICK'S maximum security Dorchester Penitentiary, the story will be told and retold every time a new batch of inmates checks in.

It's the story of a man I'll call Joe because that isn't his name. He is a black man. The penal people think of him as an agitator. In a general way, you might call him an activist.

Joe's story began the day a guard told him to move along a corridor. Joe stood his ground, looked coldly at the officer and said, "You want me to move, you're going to have to move me."

The guards didn't argue. They moved him. Joe then protested he was the victim of physical abuse.

That might have been the end of the story. Except that there were a dozen blacks in Dorchester at the time. They made it clear they wanted no part of any disobedience program. Joe, they said, was on his own. He didn't represent them.

The blacks, however, were afraid of retaliation by white inmates. They were moved into protective segregation. The day that happened, Joe sent up a new cry racial discrimination.

Joe had obviously counted on the support of the other black men. When it failed to materialize, the plot fell through.

Had there been a plan to stir up a black rebellion? Probably no one will ever know. What the authorities do know is that prior to the incident in the corridor, a group of the prison's strong-arm men had tried to take control of things.

Dorchester's muscle men made their move in a pseudo-legal way: they got themselves elected to the inmate committee, a group that acts as spokesman for prisoners with the administration.

Most penitentiary inmates want to serve out their time as easily and comfortably as they can. They don't want trouble. So it seems likely that if they voted for the troublemakers on the committee, it was under threat of violence.

Officials soon disbanded the committee and a new one was elected. Today there is peace in Dorchester Penitentiary.

Prison flare-ups are not new. They have happened down through penal history. What sets the case of Joe apart is the suspicion that it was instigated by a formal committee using the highly topical subject of human rights as a weapon.

The whole business of rights for prisoners is a thorny one. Many old- timer custodial people are downright concerned and some of them will tell you outright that the inmates are running the prisons.

One man puts it this way: "There is a feeling among many custodial people that if the inmates don't get what they want, they'll revolt."

"Who ever heard of rights for prisoners?" another asks. "Criminals used to forfeit their rights when they went behind bars."

For some penal people who grew up in an age when a convicted man was locked in a cell, given a Bible and promptly forgotten, the new philosophy is hard to swallow.

The fact is that prisoners' rights, a red-hot topic in the United States for some time, are now a matter of serious concern in Canada as well.

Also of concern is the fact that groups of inmates and ex-inmates are already trying trying to lay the groundwork for a national association to them represent them.

///

Paul A. Faguy, a Quebec-born, agile-minded, athletic man of 54 with a distinguished wartime record with the air force and an equally good peace-time record with the federal government, is not a man to be pushed around. As Canada's commissioner of penitentiaries, he is boss man to close. to 9,000 inmates.

Faguy says the inmate committees were set up as a kind of communications line between prisoners and staff. The administration, he points out, wants positive suggestions from the inmates about such things as their work and rehabilitation programs on the inside. If the inmate has something on his mind, he now has a committee of his own fellows with which to consult.

It's too early to assess long-term results but at least one committee proved its worth early this year in Ontario's medium security Warkworth Institution. The inmates went on a sit-down strike and members of the committee went among them to talk things over. The committeemen told the inmates they were foolish and the strikers went back to normal routine.

"We want committees elected by the inmates themselves," says Faguy "In this way, we think we can instill a sense of responsibility. We want the inmates to work with management. But we make it clear that we are in control. We are always in control. The inmates are never in a decision-making situation.

Faguy has a no-nonsense approach to the question of inmate rights and when he speaks. to a a group gr of prisoners he leaves no doubt in their minds about where he stands.

"I'll give you rights," he told one group recently. "But you will have to assume responsibility for those rights. You want to be treated like human. beings? Then you'll have to treat other inmates and members of the staff like human beings. Rights and responsibility go hand in hand."

In Vancouver, Mervyn Davis, executive director of the John Howard Society of British Columbia, expresses similar views.

"If prisoners want rights, they have to show they are responsible people," he says. "It's all right for an inmate to beef but maybe, if he knows a guy is going over the wall, he should try to talk him out of it. Maybe he should tell the prospective escapee, 'Don't screw the administration because then you'll be screwing me."

In Ottawa, William T. McGrath, executive director of the Canadian Criminology and Corrections Association, says he is in favor of inmate rights but he adds that they need to be laid down very carefully.

"Let's define what we mean by rights," he urges. "I don't like arbitrary power of any kind on anybody's part. On the other hand, how can you run a prison if everything you do is going to be challenged?"

///

The Inside News is fresh off the mimeograph machine and the inmates of Drumheller Institution, Alberta's medium security penitentiary, stop to ponder an editorial viewpoint on pris on escapes

The editors are concerned with the great rash of them, mostly in Quebec, because they have resulted in parole procedures being tightened, the temporary leave of absence program being curtailed, and more stringent security measures being instituted.

It's a matter of vicarious responsibility, they say, a situation in which a large group of inmates living by the rules find themselves penalized for the misdemeanors of a few.

Convicted Quebec wife-strangler Yves Geoffroy, given a 50-hour pass at Christmas, 1971, to marry his mistress, Carmen Parent, gets special mention:

"After his marriage, he takes off for an unauthorized honeymoon in Spain. (Well, where would you go for a honeymoon, Bunky?) Who should be punished for this fiasco? The authorities who approved the caper? Wrong. Bunky. Obviously the people responsible are all the other lifers across Canada."

The May 13, 1973, escape of five men from the Correctional Development Centre in Laval, Que, also is singled out:

"You see, Bunky, you are responsible for those escapes in Quebec. You say, 'What about those guard towers that were left unmanned during the lunch hour, permitting the escapes?" Don't get smart, Bunky."

Drumheller's four-man inmate committee is concerned and its members tell me so. I sit with them this day at a conference table and talk it over. There is no officer around to supervise things. Flanking me are Wayne, a 29-year-old

kidnapper, Robert, 32, who is serving term for theft, and Cliff, 23, who is in for armed robbery. Beyond them is the committee chairman, a quiet, soft- spoken, 45-year-old former electronics technician named Bill. He has been doing time on and off since 1946. Currently he is doing a stretch for break and entry.

Wayne and Robert tell me about the small but important improvements to prison life. The amount of money an inmate can spend on a hobby has been increased from $75 a month to $150.

Durand, an old-timer when it comes to prison sentences, says: "What we have to do is put on a real public relations campaign. Less than one percent of the temporary absences granted inmates during the past year have produced any problems. Unfortunately, the public sees our failures, not our successes."

Drumheller is one of the institutions trying out what the Penitentiary Service calls the living unit concept. It is not one sprawling prison. It is divided into four separate buildings, each of which is a living unit for about 100 men.

The basic principle of the living unit is that social skills and rehabilitation. go hand in hand. No matter what good work habits or technical skills have been learned, they are negative if adequate self-control and the ability to get along with other people is absent. The living unit concept provides for increased contact between staff and. inmates. Staff members posted to a unit stay with that unit. Group meetings are held frequently to discuss what is happening and why. If there is a problem, the group must define it and then try to find a solution for it. The group learns why it is often necessary to make a compromise between ideal and realistic solutions.

"What is most important," says Dr. Jean Garneau, acting director of living unit development, "is that the staff is perceived as ready to help, rather than repress, and the hostility felt toward them by inmates diminishes."

He adds, "The control of inmates becomes based on the relationship which exists between staff and inmates, rather than walls and weapons. Once acquired, the advantage of this type of internal control is that it remains with the individual when he leaves the institution."

Drumheller is one of those centres officials point to with pride. Warden Pierre Jutras and his deputy, Stanley Scrutton, run a tight, efficient operation. So far, there has been no trouble. I had proof of that as I chatted with an inmate, a man serving life for murder.

"There's no tension here," he said.

"A guy doesn't have to worry what another inmate might do to him here." John Stewart, head of Drumheller's living unit program, agrees. "I'm all for the inmate committee," he says. "Through it, the men can air their beefs. They can tell us what they don't like about the food and they can ask us outright why they may not qualify for a leave."

At one point, Stewart took me for a drive. We followed the highway around the rim of Alberta's famous Badlands and turned onto a side road at a sign advertising a golf driving range. We pulled up at the clubhouse and Stewart introduced me to the two men in charge, both of them Drumheller inmates. Their range is a commercial business which attracts many people. The money they make goes into an inmate fund.

"The committee has brought about a vast improvement in communications," Stewart said.

One of the inmates handed him club and the other teed up the ball. Stewart eyed the ball, raised his club and let go. There was a resounding whack and the inmate pros applauded. On the way back to the car, he said, "They put up the building themselves. Run the business themselves, too. We've come a long way, haven't we?"

I nodded. We had indeed.

Arthur Montague pretty well fits the accepted student profile. He invariably shows up on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon wearing a turtle-neck sweater under a corduroy jacket. His hair is long and his facial expression almost painfully serious. The books under his arm are about Far Eastern history.

But Arthur Montague, 29, Toronto-born, now Saskatoon-based, is really not the average Canadian student at all. He once knocked over a drugstore in Los Angeles and was deported. In British Columbia, he served time for writing false cheques, possession of stolen goods and owning a sawed-off rifle. He was paroled, picked up again for writing false cheques in Saskatoon. and went back to prison. He is now on parole again.

Montague is editor of a monthly publication called Transition, written and edited by inmates and ex-inmates of federal penitentiaries in Prince Albert, Sask., Stony Mountain, Man., and Drumheller, Alta. The publication guarantees anonymity to any writer who requests it and boasts that it has complete editorial freedom.

Convicted felon, ex-con, student. editor, Montague is one of the voices of what may be loosely described as a kind of penal underground, a disjointed, non-cohesive movement that surfaces periodically in different parts of the country, to espouse the cause of rights for prisoners

Every prison in the country has at least one inmate who delves into law to help his cellmates. Montague was such a person.

Today, on the outside, he claims he is still uptight about the situation of inmates.

"I think the system is inherently unjust to a great many," he says, Montague thinks that an inmate who is charged by a staff member and goes before a disciplinary board should be entitled to legal counsel and have the right to present witnesses.

He thinks, too, that an applicant for parole should have the right to examine the contents of reports made about him and be able to cross-examine persons presenting them.

Montague says there is a need for a national association of inmates and ex-offenders, though he doubts that it would work effectively. He says it could be useful in lobbying for changes in the system of justice. One of its foremost obligations, however, would be to take up the cases of inmates who consider they have been treated unjustly in one way or another.

Montague's Transition talks openly of such an association under the heading of Prisoners' Rights and National Convict Unity. It says prisoners' rights have become a fiery issue in the United States with respect to treatment of minority ethnic and racial groups such as the blacks and the chicanos. Since the Attica and San Quentin uprisings, the concern for rights involves all inmates, whatever their racial background.

Transition says in Canada the lead in the fight for prisoners' rights has been taken by the Indians and Métis, White inmates have been generally passive so far. However, in some penitentiaries they are beginning to resent what the others have achieved for themselves through organizing.

Transition adds this sobering note: "If the US pattern of organization is accepted, this resentment can be regarded as the first step by white Canadian inmates because this was what happened in the US when the blacks began to move."

Montague smiles when he reports that some of the money that keeps Transition going comes from working thieves. It amuses him to think that robbers have now entered the corrections field.

He has no smile when he talks of the great public backlash he says is occurring in the wake of recent prison reforms. The prisons are crowded and the climate explosive. Montague's prediction:

"I see major riots occurring in at least two penitentiaries before Christmas."

I sit at a kitchen table in an old house on Grant Street in the east end of Vancouver and I realize that Arthur Montague's thoughts are shared.

The man I'm talking to is William Pick, 39. He is late of the British Columbia Penitentiary and is now executive director of a halfway organization called the Joshua Town House Society.

"Inmate committees are all right but they're going to have to be able to deal with all the problems," he says. "For example, the committee should be represented on the prison disciplinary boards. It should also sit in on parole hearings."

We are joined by a 41-year-old man named Grant who agrees that committees are worthwhile. "I got 10 days in the damper [in segregation] at Matsqui Detention Centre because I got stoned," he says. "The committee at Agassiz Correctional Work Camp (where he had been posted previously) interceded for me."

As we talk, several men come into the room. They listen for a few minutes, then leave. They are recently out of prison and calling Joshua House home until they get on their feet.

"I've had 27 guys on temporary leaves and not one of them ever screwed up on me." Pick says. "Let's face it, guys come out for three reasons: to have a couple of beers, get laid and look for work. But a few do screw up and these are the cases that make the headlines."

Pick's Joshua House is one of several self-help centres, places where ex-inmates help ex-inmates. There are seldom any serious problems. Communications are good because, as Pick says, everyone speaks the same language.

"What we have to do is humanize the prisons," Pick says. Grant looks at him and nods. "Just because a man's in jail doesn't mean he has to be considered an animal. Prisoners are entitled to their rights the same as other citizens."

Photos:

Page 3: At Drumheller Institution, Alta., John Stewart heads a "living unit" program, increasing the contact between staff and inmates,

Page 4: Arthur Montague, 29, ex-convict, student and editor, predicts "major riots in at least two penitentiaries before Christmas."

Page 6: William Pick is executive director of the Joshua Town House Society, a self-help centre for ex-convicts.

[pyladessdrunk]

I choose to imagine Raskolnikov, in his rot and misery, sat in a bar drinking a comically large strawberry milkshake