Newspaper web polls are usually terribly biased because of a) the natural leanings of the readership a particular paper, and b) the accompanying story. Yes, this poll is biased too, but that's quite the majority opinion there. I happen to agree with them.
I believe that a 10 year scentence should mean that you're going to serve 10 years. Early parole should be granted if you have made efforts to rehabilitate, but in no way should it be automatic, and this statutory release crap has got to stop for repeat offenders.
The purpose of conditional release is to contribute to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society by means of decisions on the timing and conditions of release that will best facilitate the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into the community as law-abiding citizens. -link-
I am not opposed to rehabilitation, but you know what? If somebody has been convicted of criminal offences 79 times, they are not likely to auto-rehabilitate when they step through the prison doors. People like this ARE going to reoffend, which obviously is not in the best interest of a "just, peaceful and safe society"; therefore they should be kept in prison as long as possible to minimize their opportunity to do so. Double credit for time-served has got to stop too, especially with the slow pace of our justice system. Between that and early release, a career criminal may end up spending a small fraction of his scentence behind bars.
We should do what we can to rehabilitate offenders, and turn around the lives of people who are on their first or second offence and made mistakes along the way. But there comes a point when it's clear that somebody just doesn't respect the justice system anymore, and has no will to change their behaviour. Build more jails if you have to, but keep these guys behind bars.
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