[comrade]

Here's a chapter that didn't make it into Joseph Heath's book Filthy Lucre. Just something I've read that may or may not apply to this case. I don't know much about this tragedy anymore.

http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~jheath/Oldch3.pdf

But while many liberals take things a bit too far, there is one important problem with the
conservative line. Punishment is not nearly as effective as most people are naturally disposed to
believe. This is why people who are actually in the punishment business are often quite sympathetic to
the liberal view – because they get to see, up close and personal, the futility of relying entirely upon
punishment as a way of getting things done. Consider, for example, the so-called “faint hope” clause in
Canada, which allows even mass murderers sentenced to life in prison a periodic opportunity to apply
for parole. This generates paroxysms of anger every few years, when convicted child-killer Clifford
Olson is granted a parole hearing. Even though he is always denied release, the mere fact that he is
being considered is enough to leave the conservative wing fuming. Yet support for the faint-hope clause
is strongest, not amongst bleeding-heart liberal sociologists who think that criminals are merely
misunderstood, but with Corrections Canada, or more specifically, among prison wardens and guards.
The problem is that without something positive to offer inmates – without a carrot to dangle in front of
them – it is simply impossible to keep some of them under control. In many cases, no amount of
coercion can replace what that one tiny, improbable ray of hope is able to achieve.