qwerty
Privatizing Prisons
Posted on: 06/26/2012 07:08
I was browsing through the Guardian and found this headline:
Private prison companies look to Canada as industry faces lawsuits in US
US states are beginning to rely less on privately run prisons, but Canada may be a land of opportunity for the two biggest firms
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/19/private-prison-companies-canada-lawsuits?INTCMP=SRCH
It is an excellent well researched article the like of which we do not encounter often in our own papers. (the Kingston Whig Standard deserves credit for digging into this though.)
It seems that US prison corporations are licking their lips over the "potential" here since the Conservative government was elected. Canada is up until now an untapped market and prison corporations are lobbying intensely. Kingston's largest prison has been slated to close and there has been no announcement of how it will be replaced.
How do you feel about privatization of prisons? Will the profit motive drive inhumane attitudes and treatment? Will it provide the impetus for police to increase supply (of clients) and profits? Can Canada live with the social, moral, and cultural ramifications? Is there a financial advantage?
There is a strong indication that we are going to be finding out. Heck! Maybe as soon as the next omnibus bill. Maybe Harper will soon be advertising this move under the heading ... "Jobs, jobs, jobs"
Whaddya think?
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ninjafaery
Posted on: 06/26/2012 07:35
Welcome to China!
Not only is the plan to privatize prisons, our "economic miracle" that will be pulled from the air by the reformers, will be possible by building "factory prisons" -- making electrical components & such using practically free labour. Thanks to mandatory minimum sentencing, pot-growers will work shoulder to shoulder with the pedophiles. Any useful programmes to provide counsel, learning or recreation are being axed.
Got no issues with work for prisoners, but I heard that these private prisons need to be run at high capacity, so gotta find those bodies. More plastic crap for all. Prison guards will be working cheap too.
Perfect storm.
These guys have apparently lobbied the Conservatives for some time.
www.geogroup.com
MikePaterson
Posted on: 06/26/2012 07:47
The problem with factory prisons that, on present figures, one third of such a work force would be suffering a mental illness. This might be reflected in the quality of their work.
On the other hand, of course, anyone driven to crime by abject poverty because they are "unemployable" (it stands to reason that corporates can't sustain constant profit growth AND pay wages) wil be provided with meaningful work.
Or we could see this as a startlingly sick approach to "economic reform".
ninjafaery
Posted on: 06/26/2012 08:01
Yes - since our government fears transparency as much as democracy, one can only guess the agenda (would that not make an excellent game! "Guess The Agenda").
My guess is that frankenprisons will also warehouse the mentally ill to save more money for those F35s needed for our economy-building war with Iran (watch for it guys).
High percentage of inmates have mental illness. Wimps.
God it's awkward to be a Cassandra & watch it all play out...
DKS
Posted on: 06/26/2012 08:05
Already tried in Ontario a decade ago and it was a specacular failure.
EasternOrthodox
Posted on: 06/26/2012 12:03
I know little about it but I note this article from a few days ago, about private half-way houses. It is working very poorly, the prisoners are just wandering off in some cases.
.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/nyregion/in-new-jersey-halfway-houses-...
Judd
Posted on: 06/26/2012 13:28
I was a personal friend of Mike Farnan when he was a provincial Cabinet minister in charge of prisons and Law Enforcement.
He once did a secret to the U.S. to check out privately run and boot camp jails. He came back categorically rejecting both as highly unacceptable. The secrecy allowed him to make an unbiased assessment without the pressures of media generated hysteria.
I trust his judgement.
graeme
Posted on: 06/26/2012 14:13
There was also the US scandal about private prison owners paying judges to give longer sentences.
But private prisons and private police forces are growing rapidly in Britiain. It's alarming to see how rapidly Britain has gone backwards.
Judd
Posted on: 06/26/2012 17:58
The promoters of Economic Feudalism are ge
tting more and more powerful. Facts only get in the way of their dogmatic right wing agemda.
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 06/26/2012 20:07
what I want to know is what the heck are y'all doing out of your cells? don't you know we're fighting a war here? :3
Northwind
Posted on: 06/26/2012 20:27
I think privatizing prisons is a very bad idea! But then, I don't agree with most of our government's views on "crime" control and management.
It is my understanding that they will be expanding other prisons, maybe Collins Bay. This way they do not have to go through any consultation with the community. Sounds like something our "transparent" government would want to do....