So here is that essay. I must admit I feel a little shy to post this for you guys because I always feel self-conscious letting people read my writing, particularly when I’m attempting to be creative. But I hope you enjoy it!

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A PROPOSAL TO PREVENT THE INMATES IN FEDERAL PRISONS FROM BECOMING A FINANCIAL BURDEN TO SOCIETY AND TO HELP THEM BECOME A VALUABLE RESOURCE FOR CANADIAN CITIZENS.

Historically, it has been a matter of great concern to the citizens of this fair country that we must frequently be confronted by those members of our society who choose to disregard the laws set in place by our fine government. These individuals, whether prompted by poor upbringing, greed or lack of education, violate the property and persons of those around them and, as a result, our laws demand that a person be penalized for such acts. A commonly accepted method of discipline is incarceration. The duration of a prison sentence for serious offenses is often the remainder of an offender’s natural life.

Since the abolition of the death penalty in 1976 (Correctional Service, Canada), Canadians have taken pride in our socially progressive attitude towards the rights of prison inmates, and our desire to rehabilitate prisoners rather than simply imprison them. It is commendable that we seek the restoration of our citizens to a healthy mental state and to reintegrate them into our communities. However, it is undeniable that there are many prisoners who are incapable of or resist rehabilitation and are likely to re-offend if they are permitted to rejoin society. For this reason we have a population of men and women who will live in an institution that is paid for by the Canadian government and tax paying citizens.

The dawn of the Internet has created more opportunities for unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of unsuspecting people and even commit acts of violence against children in the growing industry of child pornography. These “newer” crimes necessitate more financial resources for the prosecution and incarceration of offenders. This has resulted in crowded prisons. A 1997 study states that Canada had one hundred nine prisoners for every one hundred spaces and two thousand six hundred prisoners serving life sentences (The Working Group on Human Rights) and this was several years after the prison population reached its peak in the early to mid nineteen-nineties (Correctional Service, Canada). Our facilities simply do not have the room to house this many prisoners.

This becomes a moral dilemma for many, including myself, as we see people in this country go hungry and die of illness and disease while our tax dollars are spent clothing, housing and feeding those who have committed the most vile offenses imaginable and have shown a complete lack of conscience and basic human decency. How can we justify this perversion of the values our nation holds dear?

As I have wrestled with these issues I have wondered if there is no solution that would satisfy the demands of justice for those who commit criminal offenses and still make use of my tax dollars in a way that would contribute to the well being of my fellow citizens? Because I do believe that a solution that goes beyond solving one problem and benefits society in broader ways and relieves human suffering is a good solution, indeed.

I would, therefore, like to propose my own suggestion, of which I believe the benefits will be undeniable and the implementation reasonable to all who consider it.

Because prisoners are kept in reasonably good health, being well fed and not lacking medical care, these inmates are excellent candidates for organ donation. I have it on the good authority of an acquaintance of mine who has traveled extensively through African and South American countries that this can be a very successful and resourceful practise.

There are many people in Canada who are suffering from debilitating and chronic illnesses and die each year while waiting to be the recipient of an organ transplant while there is a severe shortage of organ donors (Health Canada). One body can supply a large number of organs and tissue including the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, small bowel, stomach, bone, corneas, heart valves and skin (Trillium Gift of Life Network) which could go to variety of recipients to improve their quality of life and even save lives.

Clearly there would be some practical measures that must be set up in order to ensure the good health of the inmates before donation could take place. Not every person who is incarcerated for a life sentence is in the very best health and so an adequate time limit, perhaps up to a year, would need to be instituted to give the candidate sufficient opportunity to improve his or her health through proper nutrition and exercise and the flushing of drugs and other chemicals from the body.

An important advantage to this program of donation is the element of planning. Many organs are lost to donation programs each year because organs are not eligible for donation if the donor dies outside of a hospital (Canadian Association of Transplantation). This method of donation would allow doctors to have a database of donors who will be ready for donation in the coming year and to match them up with the best recipient and to have the recipient ready for transplant at the time of donation.

The economic result of this proposal would benefit Canadians in two ways. First, the cost of funding a lifetime in prison would be dramatically reduced. The cost would be limited to a much shorter period of time for those receiving life sentences, just long enough for their health status to be brought up to the appropriate standard for organ donation. Secondly, the health care system would reduce costs by performing organ transplants which are much more cost effective in the long term. For example, maintaining a patient with malfunctioning kidneys on dialysis for five years would cost approximately two hundred fifty thousand dollars while the total cost for a patient who receives a kidney transplant after five years is fifty thousand dollars (Health Canada). These massive savings could result in improvements in health care, medical research, social assistance programs, and even rehabilitation for prison inmates who do not receive life sentences for their crimes.

There are certainly a number of ways the government could use this money to improve our society. I maintain that it is a much wiser use of our money to benefit our country by relieving the suffering of those in desperate health and financial situations, than to provide a comfortable life for criminals. The likely outcome of using this surplus money to improve social assistance programs for the underprivileged would be a reduction in crime and, therefore, the number of people who would be imprisoned, because it is commonly understood that poverty is very frequently a contributing factor for those who become criminal offenders.

This solution also prevents the problem of high-risk offenders being released into our communities on parole, even when it is known that they are likely to continue in their previous patterns of behaviour. Instead of causing more damage to our families and children by their destructive choices, these prisoners would become great humanitarians and an extremely valued resource in our society. It would allow them to give meaning and honour to their lives, despite the poor choices that resulted in their imprisonment. I believe it would actually give a measure of dignity to those inmates who regret their actions but fear their eventual parole because they recognize their inability to resist the compulsion to commit certain acts, such as child molestation. The solution I have devised not only improves the safety of our society by keeping dangerous criminals away from those they could harm, but it gives a greater purpose to their lives and creates social and economic benefits for the population.

I can think of no good reason that any person would reject this proposal, except, if the concern might be raised that there are those few individuals who have been imprisoned at various points in history who were later absolved of their crime through improvements in technology or the introduction of new information to their case. Of course this is yet another reason that prisoners would not be offered for donation immediately but would have a required waiting period after all appeals and any judicial processes are concluded. It is also excellent motivation to designate some of the surplus money created through this program for improving the tools and technology that are used in criminal investigation and the education of those who use them. This would eliminate the need for concern and increase the public’s confidence in our judicial system.

There are always those who are opposed to new and different ideas that have not been tested and refined by history. But each important and precious ideal that we hold today was new and different at one point. I have spent many hours struggling through this problem and have come to the conclusion that there seems to be no one who is offering adequate solutions to this problem. I hear only loud cries for bigger prisons or for the earlier release of so-called “low-risk” prisoners to make room for more inmates. These men and women who complain so passionately about the problems in our penal system have only come up with ideas that aggravate the problems (such as releasing more offenders to serve sentences through community service) rather than improve our society. I boldly declare that this proposal will not only benefit Canada, but will increase our notoriety as a nation that has one of the best health care systems available, takes better care of our underprivileged citizens, has low crime rates, spends our money wisely and leads the world in humanitarian efforts and medical research.

Of course, I wish to remain humble in my assertions by saying that if there are wise men and women who can improve upon my idea or present a better solution, let them step forward, in the name of human decency, and speak. I have nothing personally invested in this suggestion, having no need myself for an organ transplant and having no family members in a similar predicament. It is simply my desire to provide relief for the suffering of my fellow Canadians in the most reasonable way possible and to prevent the problem of crowding in our prisons from further eroding the resources of our society through their deviant behaviour. I hope to see the citizens of this nation thrive as we seek to create a system that will be an example to the world.