Editor:
In his Jan. 29 article, “Early years really count,” Paul Martiquet wrote: “The first six years of a child’s life are uniquely important to their entire future.”
While teaching inmates in the 100-year-old federal BC Penitentiary, it became clear to me that there is a relationship between poverty, mental illness, illiteracy and crime.
One day some inmates asked me, “Why do governments spend taxpayers’ dollars locking us in expensive prisons when the governments could be spending money caring for us when we are little kids, needing help in our early years?”
Wise crime prevention programs for children in their vital developmental age and the abolition of child poverty and homelessness will prevent harmful criminal behaviour, making Canada a better country for every person.
Arnet Tuffs, West Sechelt
