It is encouraging that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day is considering closing tattoo parlours in federal prisons. The pilot project was established a year ago by the previous Liberal government so inmates could receive "safe" tattoos.

The theory goes something like this: tattooing is illegal in prison; nearly half of offenders get tattooed while serving jail time; dirty needles contribute to the spread of AIDS and hepatitis C; clean tattooing might reduce this health hazard. Under the pilot program, which has a $700,000 budget, prisoners in six penitentiaries can obtain tattoos for $5 to $15 each. Should the program expand to all federal jails the cost to taxpayers will only increase. But it is not the meager budgetary saving that makes Minister Day's review welcome news.

The Conservative government is perhaps ready to skewer another sacred cow, namely the wooly ideology popular among many social policy administrators that tends to minimize the responsibility of individuals for their own actions. This is a viewpoint out of step with most Canadians and - more importantly - one that fails prisoners as well as society at large. Officials responsible for the penal system have coddled inmates with spa days, golf outings, tattoo facilities and early parole, believing such methods are the best way to reintegrate felons into society.

It is time for some fresh thinking. A good start is considering the larger social consequences of using tax dollars to encourage criminals to tattoo themselves. Rather than sanction such behaviour, the removal of tattoos would be a more appropriate prerequisite for reintegration into society.

Aside from the obvious security dangers of providing inmates with tattoo equipment, the program's health benefits are overstated. According to John Williams of the Union of Canadian Corrections Officers, "It won't ever stop illegal tattooing. That's just part of the culture of living in prison." The consequences of being tattooed have been downplayed by the Correctional Service of Canada, if not overlooked altogether. Part of the agency's mandate is to prepare prisoners for life after prison. Promotion of tattoos does not do this.

It is folly for penal authorities to ignore society's stigmas on the naïve assumption that people should not make such judgments. Visible anti-social tattoos make finding employment more difficult, which makes reintegration that much more challenging. In recent years, tattooing has become more widespread. And an inmate program to remove them should not include the Mickey Mouse on an inmate's back, a cross found on an upper arm or even I Love Mom emblazoned on one's chest. Rather it is the person with a tattooed face or with an expletive inked on knuckles, for example. This is about removing unsightly tattoos - those that are gang-related or anti-social slogans like Kill the Pigs and images such as a Nazi swastika.

Author and psychiatric doctor Anthony Daniels has written (under his pen name Theodore Dalrymple), "The statistical association between tattooing and criminality is far stronger than that between criminality and any other factor, smoking perhaps excepted. While it is not true that all tattooed people are criminals, of course, it is almost true that all criminals are tattooed."

Mr. Day recently demonstrated he is prepared to buck the thinking of the anti-gun ideologies by tabling legislation to repeal Ottawa's billion-dollar gun registry. That vote is expected when Parliament returns this fall. The Conservative government favours shutting down the long-gun registry and reallocating its annual budget on front-line policing to combat gun crime. Similarly, it would be a better stewardship of tax dollars to help convicts adjust to life outside of prison by removing tattoos. (A broader reform of the penal system is also necessary.)

Again, according to Dr. Daniels, "Men grow out of their anti-social propensities, but may be left with the visible stigmata of them. To remove their tattoos is to offer them hope and give them encouragement." Inmates that remove objectionable tattoos are, in effect, taking a step to change.