Phil in Paris
01-19-2005, 08:19 AM
Talk of creating a privately run prison on the South Shore has sparked spirited debate over whether the private sector has any place in corrections
BRENDA BRANSWELL
The Gazette
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
The phrase is a mouthful and the acronym is odd.
Public private partnership - or PPP in Quebec government-speak - may not be arresting language. But talk of such a venture for a proposed new prison on the South Shore is sparking controversy.
Scores of prison guards are expected to descend upon Sorel today where critics will speak out against the plan.
Several opponents don't think a new prison is needed. And they don't want it in private hands.
"When we look at what happened to our neighbours in Ontario, it's a disaster," said Daniel Legault, a consultant with the provincial prison guards union.
The object of his criticism is Canada's only privately run prison in Penetanguishene, Ont. It is one of several jails with private-sector involvement that Quebec bureaucrats recently visited on a fact-finding mission.
"From our perspective it's been an experiment that has not worked," said Barry Scanlon, chair of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union's corrections division. "It's basically an American design taken out of California, which minimizes staff," Scanlon said.
Not surprisingly, his dim view of the "super jail" is not shared by Management and Training Corporation, which runs the Central North Correctional Centre. It insists the jail is successful. "We do operate the facility within the guidelines that are spelled out by the (Ontario) government," said Carl Stuart, MTC's communications director.
Quebec bureaucrats also checked out prisons in England and France that operate under a public-private model.
The government is considering building a 400- to 500-cell prison accessible to Longueuil - a judicial district that has the third highest volume of cases in Quebec but no detention centre, said Daniel Thibault, press secretary to Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon.
"We're in the analysis stage," Thibault said, noting nothing has been ruled out. "What we hope is to increase our prison capacity and obviously if the costs can be reasonable, it will also weigh in the balance." Ensuring public security remains the over-riding concern, he said.
During the past few months, the prison population in Quebec jails has reached 4,000 and higher for a capacity of 3,786 spots, Thibault said. The population has increased by 20 per cent over the past five years because of the fight against organized crime and tighter criteria for temporary absences and parole, he said.
Critics of the idea like criminologist Johanne Vallee noted that the incidence of crime is on the decline. She contends the overcrowding is temporary and suggests space could be rented in federal penitentiaries.
A committee of experts set up by the Association des services de rehabilitation sociale du Quebec does not oppose the privatization of some services, as is done in federal prisons.
"But we are really against the participation of the private sector in what we call the management of the sentence," said Vallee, the association's executive-director, citing how the time is served and inmate security.
The committee met with provincial corrections officials in October. Vallee said the officials mentioned three prison models under study. They range from having the private sector build and maintain a new jail to a much more sweeping privatization of services including security.
Vallee said the private sector is concerned with the present, but government must answer questions in the longer term, like recidivism rates. "That's why we say the private sector doesn't have its place there."
She also laments that because of budget cuts, there are few programs to help inmates within provincial jails. "It's easy to say the private will do better because there is hardly anything being done in prison establishments in Quebec because of budget cuts."
Chagnon is expected to receive the feasibility study in March. Parti Quebecois MNA Jean-Pierre Charbonneau contends there are two decisions to make: is a new prison needed in the Monteregie? And if so, should it be managed and operated by the private sector?
Charbonneau, the opposition critic for public security, is among those who say no to the latter question.
"Have a public debate. There are contradictory opinions. It's an important question," he said.
Charbonneau also suggested a week of public hearings. "If we have a parliamentary commission it won't take 15 years."
bbranswell@thegazette.canwest.com
-------------------------------------
Ontario under scrutiny
A study by the Ontario government may shed more light on the debate over private prisons.
The government is comparing Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene - Canada's only privately run prison - with a publicly operated prison in Lindsay, Ont.
The report is expected late this year and will look at several factors including cost variance and per diems, levels of security performance and rehabilitative programming, said Phyllis Bennett, a spokesperson for Monte Kwinter, Ontario's Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
"Our industry has long wanted that kind of apples to apples comparison," said Carl Stuart, communication director at Utah-based Management and Training Corporation, which has a five-year contract to run CNCC. "And we know that we'll compare very favourably with it."
The CNCC facility has endured its share of controversy since it opened in 2001, including a coroner's inquest over an inmate's death. The man died from complications after his finger became infected from a small cut. Stuart acknowledged there have been a few bumps along the way "but there are at all correctional facilities. It's just some seem to draw more attention than others."
Stuart said it goes without saying MTC is able to operate more economically. "If we're doing the same job at $85 or $90 per inmate per day compared to $140 then you tell me where the value is."
Stuart rejects the argument by critics that as a private company they are in it for the short term and only driven by profits. "We have no motivation to try to not rehabilitate our people in hopes that they'll come back. Because if they come back in big numbers, then it makes us look bad and then we are not competitive in this field."
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/montreal/story.html?id=6292882c-ad6f-4a8d-9687-15f5e9f19e14&page=1
BRENDA BRANSWELL
The Gazette
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
The phrase is a mouthful and the acronym is odd.
Public private partnership - or PPP in Quebec government-speak - may not be arresting language. But talk of such a venture for a proposed new prison on the South Shore is sparking controversy.
Scores of prison guards are expected to descend upon Sorel today where critics will speak out against the plan.
Several opponents don't think a new prison is needed. And they don't want it in private hands.
"When we look at what happened to our neighbours in Ontario, it's a disaster," said Daniel Legault, a consultant with the provincial prison guards union.
The object of his criticism is Canada's only privately run prison in Penetanguishene, Ont. It is one of several jails with private-sector involvement that Quebec bureaucrats recently visited on a fact-finding mission.
"From our perspective it's been an experiment that has not worked," said Barry Scanlon, chair of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union's corrections division. "It's basically an American design taken out of California, which minimizes staff," Scanlon said.
Not surprisingly, his dim view of the "super jail" is not shared by Management and Training Corporation, which runs the Central North Correctional Centre. It insists the jail is successful. "We do operate the facility within the guidelines that are spelled out by the (Ontario) government," said Carl Stuart, MTC's communications director.
Quebec bureaucrats also checked out prisons in England and France that operate under a public-private model.
The government is considering building a 400- to 500-cell prison accessible to Longueuil - a judicial district that has the third highest volume of cases in Quebec but no detention centre, said Daniel Thibault, press secretary to Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon.
"We're in the analysis stage," Thibault said, noting nothing has been ruled out. "What we hope is to increase our prison capacity and obviously if the costs can be reasonable, it will also weigh in the balance." Ensuring public security remains the over-riding concern, he said.
During the past few months, the prison population in Quebec jails has reached 4,000 and higher for a capacity of 3,786 spots, Thibault said. The population has increased by 20 per cent over the past five years because of the fight against organized crime and tighter criteria for temporary absences and parole, he said.
Critics of the idea like criminologist Johanne Vallee noted that the incidence of crime is on the decline. She contends the overcrowding is temporary and suggests space could be rented in federal penitentiaries.
A committee of experts set up by the Association des services de rehabilitation sociale du Quebec does not oppose the privatization of some services, as is done in federal prisons.
"But we are really against the participation of the private sector in what we call the management of the sentence," said Vallee, the association's executive-director, citing how the time is served and inmate security.
The committee met with provincial corrections officials in October. Vallee said the officials mentioned three prison models under study. They range from having the private sector build and maintain a new jail to a much more sweeping privatization of services including security.
Vallee said the private sector is concerned with the present, but government must answer questions in the longer term, like recidivism rates. "That's why we say the private sector doesn't have its place there."
She also laments that because of budget cuts, there are few programs to help inmates within provincial jails. "It's easy to say the private will do better because there is hardly anything being done in prison establishments in Quebec because of budget cuts."
Chagnon is expected to receive the feasibility study in March. Parti Quebecois MNA Jean-Pierre Charbonneau contends there are two decisions to make: is a new prison needed in the Monteregie? And if so, should it be managed and operated by the private sector?
Charbonneau, the opposition critic for public security, is among those who say no to the latter question.
"Have a public debate. There are contradictory opinions. It's an important question," he said.
Charbonneau also suggested a week of public hearings. "If we have a parliamentary commission it won't take 15 years."
bbranswell@thegazette.canwest.com
-------------------------------------
Ontario under scrutiny
A study by the Ontario government may shed more light on the debate over private prisons.
The government is comparing Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene - Canada's only privately run prison - with a publicly operated prison in Lindsay, Ont.
The report is expected late this year and will look at several factors including cost variance and per diems, levels of security performance and rehabilitative programming, said Phyllis Bennett, a spokesperson for Monte Kwinter, Ontario's Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
"Our industry has long wanted that kind of apples to apples comparison," said Carl Stuart, communication director at Utah-based Management and Training Corporation, which has a five-year contract to run CNCC. "And we know that we'll compare very favourably with it."
The CNCC facility has endured its share of controversy since it opened in 2001, including a coroner's inquest over an inmate's death. The man died from complications after his finger became infected from a small cut. Stuart acknowledged there have been a few bumps along the way "but there are at all correctional facilities. It's just some seem to draw more attention than others."
Stuart said it goes without saying MTC is able to operate more economically. "If we're doing the same job at $85 or $90 per inmate per day compared to $140 then you tell me where the value is."
Stuart rejects the argument by critics that as a private company they are in it for the short term and only driven by profits. "We have no motivation to try to not rehabilitate our people in hopes that they'll come back. Because if they come back in big numbers, then it makes us look bad and then we are not competitive in this field."
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/montreal/story.html?id=6292882c-ad6f-4a8d-9687-15f5e9f19e14&page=1