Crime doesn't pay

"Certified financial analyst Farhad Ahmadi, 26, said he hasn’t found work 18 months after graduating from UBC, due to an eight-year-old criminal record for drug possession."

Vancouver's Georgia Straight just profiled the issue of people with criminal records looking for employment. The theme of the article was that people shouldn't be penalized for the rest of their lives for crimes that are irrelevant to their field of work.

Leaving aside the (dubious) notion that drug offenses in particular are irrelevant to one's ability to hold down a white-collar job, the idea that criminals pay their debt to society in full when they go to prison is downright misguided.

The systematic use of early parole in the Canadian justice system diminishes the deterrent to crime. Criminals are let loose on the streets after shorter-than-deserved jail terms not because they've become model citizens but because past governments haven't been willing to spend taxes on prisons to house them. (The Conservatives have pledged to build more prisons and insist on more minimum sentences. Good luck.) This means that even by a bureaucratic standard, criminals aren't really punished for their crimes.

Our laws can only be enforced when buttressed with social sanction. We don't tell our children to be good citizens to avoid jail. We do it so they can have a chance for a bright future with a clean reputation, healthy relationships and meaningful work.

I'm sorry, Mr. Ahmadi, and others in a similar situation, that you've become a cautionary tale. I wish you the best of luck in finding an employer who will overlook that you were caught with cocaine in your car eight years ago.

I guess the message here is, if you can't do the time - for the rest of your life - don't do the crime.

Tags: Georgia Straight, criminal record, pay debt to society