Superjail scraps race notation
Inmates' ID cards named skin colour
FROM CANADIAN PRESS

Canada's only privately run superjail has ended the practice of noting the race of inmates on their photo ID tags following complaints it was a violation of human rights and consistent with racial profiling.
The decision came within hours of a report in the Star on the measure used at the Central North Correction Centre in Penetanguishene, Ont., said Doug Thomson, the jail's administrator.

"We've decided today in reviewing it to remove all the information, not only race, on the back of the card," said Thomson.

"The only thing that will remain on the cards is the photo ID, last name, the first name and, of course, his institutional number."

Given the criticism, Thomson said it was important to re-examine why physical descriptors such as race, weight and eye colour, had been included on the tags.

Part of that review will include the controversial notations of white, black, hispanic and other racial identifiers, Thomson said.

The identification system is used in U.S. jails also run by Management and Training Corp., the American-based private corrections firm that runs the maximum-security, 1,100-bed Ontario superjail.

Human-rights lawyers and others were outraged by the practice but Thomson denied there was any racist intent. Nor had prisoners complained, he said.

"We're not collecting any information for racial profiling whatsoever," Thomson said.

"The intent of the inmate identification is to enhance security for us and for the public safety in knowing who the right inmate is."

Brent Whetung, an aboriginal who works in intelligence at Warkworth institution and spent eight years as a guard, said he was dismayed to learn of the racial notations and that the government would allow it.

"What's next? Are we going to have driver's licences come out with what race we are? Where do we stop?" he said in an interview.

Legal protections for human rights don't end at the jail door, Whetung added.

Despite the jail's decision to remove the race information, a spokesman for Bob Runciman, the minister responsible for Ontario's jails, said the ministry had asked the provincial privacy commissioner to investigate.

Jamie Wallace said the ministry's internal race-relations co-ordinator will also investigate.

"The goal here is just to ensure that the ministry policies on race relations are clearly articulated," said Wallace.

Last month, a provincial rights panel ordered several officials - including an acting deputy minister - to take sensitivity training after finding ministry workplaces to be "racially poisoned.

Keith Norton, the head of Ontario's Human Rights Commission, was gathering information and had no immediate comment on the ID controversy, a spokeswoman said.

Liberal public safety critic David Levac said the government should have known about the tags and not waited until the "furor hit the fan" before acting.

Storm erupts over prisoner race ID
Inmates' ID cards name skin colour
Richard Brennan
Queen's Park Bureau
Jan. 10, 2003. 05:05 AM

Ontario's only privately run jail is being accused of racial profiling by requiring inmates to wear detailed photo identification tags that include their race.

The Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene, run by a U.S.-based private corrections company, is the only facility in the Ontario corrections system that does it.

"This is a perfect example of systemic racism ... and I have no doubt it is a breach of the Ontario Human Rights Act and I have absolutely no doubt that it is unconstitutional," Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer said yesterday.

"Compelling inmates to bear their race ... is completely abhorrent to our value system and this is a perfect example of why leaving our jails up to private interests guarantees all kind of injustices," said Falconer, a prominent voice on race relations.

The practice was revealed by Liberal critic MPP David Levac (Brant) and confirmed by a spokesperson for Public Safety and Security Minister Bob Runciman and by an official with the jail.

Runciman spokesperson Jamie Wallace said a senior ministry official will look into the appropriateness of the card, even though the information has been gathered since the maximum-security jail opened in November 2001.

"We will have a talk with MTC (Management and Training Corporation-Canada) and with the superintendent and find out why they are using this particular information
and make sure it is consistent with ministry policy," Wallace said.

Doug Thomson, administrator at the Central North Correctional Centre, defended the practice of keeping racial information, adding it is a system used in the company's
U.S. jails as another tool to keep track of inmates. "We are not interested in profiling. We just want to make sure we have the right inmate identified for both
internal reasons as well as when inmates are released," he said.

The photo ID card includes an inmate's name, date of birth, eye and hair colour, weight, height and race.

"IDs of any type can be manipulated and you want to make sure you have the right information. It's not geared for anything else but making sure you've got the right inmate," Thomson said.

The jail, which houses more than 1,000 inmates, got into hot water last March when an inmate was mistakenly released. Besides that, staffing was called into question when 100 inmates attempted to escape in September.

Union officials, opposition critics and lawyers interested in human rights lined up to condemn what the private operators are doing.

"It's disgraceful ... they don't even do this in Milhaven (penitentiary), said Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby.

"What's the point? This is demeaning, and I'm certain it is a violation of their constitutional rights," Ruby said.

"We treat people with dignity ... it's contrary to every Canadian value ... it is shameful. Prisoners lose their right to privacy but they never lose their right to dignity," Ruby said.

Levac has demanded that the government move quickly to force the operators to remove race from the personal statistics because "it absolutely strikes of racial profiling."

Said NDP MPP Rosario Marchese (Trinity-Spadina): "This is beyond the pale, it is illegal, it is egregious, it's racial profiling and it's got to stop."

Barry Scanlon, an official with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said the union will be filing an official protest demanding that the practice stop.

"It is inappropriate and illegal and it is just shows that they brought America up to our prison system," Scanlon said. "This is another example of what happens when you let a private operator from a foreign country run one of your prisons," he said.