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For Immediate Release:
Want to reduce crime? Get tough on poverty, not the poor
The John Howard Society is calling on all parties in the provincial election to focus on addressing poverty and addictions in order to reduce crime. “Its popular to throw out all kinds of ‘solutions’ – from more police to increased use of jails and prisons, but any solution that doesn’t address poverty and addictions is no solution at all,” observed John Hutton, Executive Director. “Workable solutions have to be based on reality and fixing root causes.”
The connection between poverty, addictions and crime is quite clear when one looks at recent murders. Winnipeg has had 29 murders so far this year. According to Floyd Wiebe, Executive Director of Gang Awareness for Parents – a program that seeks to keep young people out of gangs, “only 2 of the 29 murders appear to be related to the sale of drugs, but 18 murders appear to have been committed by those under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and 19 murders were committed in the north-end/inner-city, where the poverty rates are the highest”.
According to Hutton,“crime is not a new problem and it doesn’t need a new solution: improving educational and employment opportunities for low-income Manitobans, continuing to fund drop-in and recreational programs for at-risk youth, and funding treatment for addictions and alcohol abuse are existing approaches that work and which need to be expanded. And this can be done for far less money than the cost of building new jails and endlessly hiring additional police constables”, Hutton concluded.
For further information, please contact
John Hutton, MSW,
Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Manitoba
(204) 775-1514, ext. 315 or (204) 612-4570
