One of the easiest things for a politician on the make to do is cry out for longer and tougher penalties for crimes. And because of the system we have, there is always lots of anecdotal evidence to support such a stand.

There is an essential underlying truth that these politicians and those who agree with them either don't understand or, perhaps more likely, don't want to understand. It is this - every one gets out sooner or later. All longer sentences really accomplish is much greater congestion in our prisons. If we all agree that with the possible exception of Clifford Robert Olson, all prisoners will ultimately be free we must look at what is the public interest when it comes to incarcerating criminals?

The principal issue is doing everything we can to ensure that criminals don't re-offend. Child molesters, for the most part, cannot be cured and we must find a way to deal with them but that's for another day. So bearing in mind that the majority of criminals don't belong to the criminal classes - they've always been pretty good at avoiding jail - what do we do with them once they're behind bars.

We can get tough. We can, if we wish, force them to do hard labour as we did not so long ago. We can toughen up parole or perhaps even eliminate it. But having done that, then where are we? What sort of person comes back onto the street? Some of them will, no doubt, have learned a hard lesson, namely that whatever happens they don't want to go back to jail. Many more will be embittered and even more anti-social than when they went it, But all of them will be ill prepared to re-enter a society they left so long ago.

The Justice system which, because it is run by humans, makes mistakes is generally on the right track. It has decided that white collar crime, while deserving of severe punishment, is not an appropriate place for the long jail sentence. We must remember - and we so often forget - that the shame and humiliation faced by the white collar thief is a very substantial punishment. Much more should be done in this area towards compensation by the criminal of his victims. But all jail sentences do is to create more overcrowding. There are always huge mistakes in a justice system. What we Canadians must learn to do is judge our system not by its occasional shortcomings but by its successes - successes in an area that by its very nature will produce lots of failures and disappointments