How about Russell Williams, Omar Khadr, Mohammad Shafia?
As part of budget cuts they will all be looking for new cells in light of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews Thursday closure announcement of 177-year-old Kingston Penitentiary and 50-year-old Leclerc Prison in Laval, Que.
Could this mean private prisons for Canada?
Either way, who is going to get their hands on the historic Kingston Pen’s waterfront property — home to the pre-Confederation architectural gem?
It would make a nice bed and breakfast, casino hotel or condo or how about one of those soon-to-be popping up legalized brothels?
Within two years it will no longer be Canada’s most notorious lock-up address. How the service it provides will be replaced, and where, are unknowns.
Nobody in government Thursday was openly talking privatization or of dealings with American-based for profit prisons.
But no one was explaining how you can close down two long serving Canadian prisons and have no effect on the already overcrowded systems either.
While Toews said an almost 180-year-old prison is “not appropriate” to “effectively manage maximum security male offenders” he didn’t say what institution within Correctional Services Canada would be modern enough?
“Simply put, we have better options,” Toews told reporters.
Could privatized prisons be one of those options?
Fair questions since the Conservatives on election campaign trials have talked of spending billions on building more prisons. But it’s even more fair when you consider that registered as a lobbyist in Ottawa on crime bill issues is none other than The GEO Group Inc., a $1.3-billion dollar American private for profit prison company that trades on the New York stock exchange.
Registered with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada as registrant 779026-278825-2 is the THE GEO Group Inc, One Park Place Suite 700, Boca Raton, FL GEO is also listed as the client of The Parliamentary Group, a registered lobbying organization which lists former Reform Party MP Deb Grey as a partner. Grey was the Reform’s first election member of parliament whose legislative assistant is now Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Meanwhile perhaps it is time for prisons to be privatized and contracted out?
If the warehousing of violent criminals can be done for less, and that saved money to invest into the law abiding, is it such a bad idea?
One group on line thinks it is — urging Canadians to sign their “Say NO to private (for profit) prisons” petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/say-no-to-private-for-profit-prisons.
And certainly for Kingston and Laval it could be an economic disaster if privatization means a new super prison complex — and all the jobs that go with that — end up in some western wheat field.
If this is the plan Toews was not tipping his hand. In fact Kingston Mayor Mark Gerretsen told reporters CSC is “looking to relocate” jobs within the Kingston area’s other prisons and that his hope was “no employee would be affected.”
But things can change in the world of the security industrial complex like we saw with the F-35 fighter jet ballooning from $15-million a copy to as much as $75-million.
No matter how it’s spun now, there will be some nervous times for unionized corrections’ workers and those in Kingston and Laval who derive a living in support of it.
One thing for sure is nothing lasts forever as Kingston already knows, having lost the women’s pen and the prison farm. In Canada, military bases and search and rescue centres have been closed and private sector companies have picked up and moved to foreign countries.
Toews publicly seems to understand about the jobs in places like Kingston and Laval but the reality appears to be that something has to give. When there is an elimination of discount justice, meaning more time for criminals to serve in prison, it certainly doesn’t add up if there are suddenly hundreds of less prison cells.
So the question remains on where the likes killers Bernardo and Williams will end up living out their life sentences.
And if there could one day be a bidding war from the corporate world wanting to make a profit on incarcerating them?
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: Joe Warmington
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