Looking at the beautiful photograph of the twelve apostles,
you can almost hear the waves crashing against the shore. After all Australia
is a beautiful place, filled with beautiful things and beautiful people… right?
WRONG!
Lately
many people have been getting away with horrendous crimes or going to jail and
being let out only a few years later to go back and commit the same crimes yet
again. Innocent people’s lives are being lost and being taken by people who
don’t deserve life themselves. So where did we all go wrong? How com these
terrible people are getting away with these shocking things? The parole board has become too slack that is Australia's problem, we are letting dangerous criminals out of jail, much to early, believing they have changed, when really they are just eager to commit the same crime or maybe one much worse.
Now i'm a firm believer in learning from your past mistakes, or maybe even from other people's. I think that history is there to shape all of us, to help us make the right decisions in life. Clearly no one is looking to history for help on this problem though and maybe that's our mistake. Perhaps we need to go backwards to make incredible changes in the future. Back in 1967 Ronald Ryan was the last man in Australia to be given the death penalty, for his crime of shooting and killing a police officer on his escape from jail. He was the last of 114 people given this sentence for their crimes during the 20th century. Many people misunderstand the death penalty as I did myself until I had to do a little bit of research in order to be informed before I went on a rant in my blog post. But 114 people executed in a century doesn't actually seem to be that many people. Of course its a large number of people who were killed, but i'm sure the numbers of the victims of these murderers were well over the 114 mark. Clearly only the most guilty of murderers were given the death penalty it wasn't just handed out to anyone. Do we need to bring this back? Would this help to protect us?
How many of you guys have been watching the news lately? Have you all heard about the parole board scandal? For those who don't know let me fill you in... The Parole board of Victoria have been letting dangerous and violent criminals out on parole when they are clearly not even deserved a spot back into society. I don't understand how there would even be a choice about letting a murderer back out into society or letting them rot in jail. I know what I choose and I would choose without hesitation. I highly doubt murderers sitting in jail if given the chance to kill, wouldn't kill again. Because after all, jail isn't that bad, they are provided with food and a bed to sleep in; some of these criminals may not have even had those simple things in their lives previous to jail. There was a poem in the book 'Sometimes Gladness' by Bruce Dawe that my English class read recently and I think it sums up the prison system entirely; however it is the last line that really pulls my attention... 'and Z, poor Z, will think the walls must end where they begin and that a man, outside, will be the same as he went in'. Criminals in prison do not change, its much like the saying you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.
Does everyone know this face? If you don't, chances are you have been living under a rock. That or, you have terrible TV service. This is the beautiful face of Jill Meagher, a young woman whose life was tragically taken by Adrian Bayley, who was a criminal who was let out of jail early on parole. He had already been in prison twice before for multiple rape offences however he had been let out early on parole. Whoever was a part of that parole board that day, helped a man to take a life. A life that was full of potential. The family of Jill Meagher have gone through terrible and unimaginable heartache. However, her husband Tom Meagher is determined to make a change to the parole system because it is clearly not working.
Jill Meagher wasn't the only young life to be taken from dangerous criminals out early due to parole. There have been 12 other lives taken in recent years. So why are the Australian publics lives being put at risk? How could these disgusting criminals be let out and be putting us at risk? Something needs to be done, with all of these things that have occurred, we must learn something from them. Otherwise these lives that were lost, were taken for nothing. A change must be brought about. It doesn't have to be as drastic as a death penalty maybe the maximum sentence must always be given with no parole or bail allowed. I don't know how the legal system works I am not a lawyer. But I am extremely interested in this topic and I think the general public should also know the facts. We all have family and friends that we want to protect and we should all be given a chance to protect them. The more people that understand and know about what is happening, the more chance there is that something will change. So I beg of you all, my faithful readers, go home and have a look around at your family. Imagine what it could be like if one of their lives was taken away by someone who didn't deserve life themselves; think about how you would force action to be taken. So why should we have to wait until one of our loved ones is lost to be able to see about this change. Take that same dedication and force someone to listen to you. That is the only way we will fix this mess Australia is in.
Thankyou for taking the time to read my post, yet again. Until next time..
Emily.
