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| Taxpayers Paying to Remove Swastika Tattoo |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 06/18/2003 |
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A Canadian prison inmate who has renounced his white-supremacist views will have a swastika tattoo removed from his abdomen at a cost of $4,088 to taxpayers. The Globe and Mail newspaper reported recently that the Correctional Services department would pick up the cost of surgery to remove a large Nazi swastika from Darren Lee Letourneau, an inmate at the medium security Mountain Institution in Agassiz, British Columbia. A spokesman for the prison service would not confirm the inmate's identity. Mountain Institution's warden, Alex Lubimov, told the Globe and Mail that removing the Nazi symbol would help Letourneau, who is serving a 10-year sentence for theft and weapons offenses, during his re-integration into society. 'In this case, an offender decided he didn't believe in what the racist symbol stood for any more,' Correctional Services spokesman Dennis Finlay told Reuters. 'We believe he is making a sincere effort to change.' Letourneau has apparently disowned his previous racist beliefs and has told prison officials he plans to speak out against racism when he gets out of jail. He is unable to pay for the operation himself. The tattoo will be removed through a series of laser surgeries over several months, the Globe reported. Having the federal prison system pay to have the swastika removed is a good thing, said Rubin Friedman, a spokesman with the Canadian Jewish Congress. 'We're pleased that the government is able to help him do this, but, in the long run, we'd be better off spending the money on education,' Friedman told Reuters. |
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