The remarkable federal plan for portable prisons : Cancrime

For years, critics of the Conservative government's tough-on-crime agenda have warned that ill-conceived legislative tactics will swell federal prisons at a time when many of Canada's 58 penitentiaries already are overcrowded and crumbling. The Harper government has been mostly silent about how the system will cope with a sudden influx of new prisoners. Now we know what they're planning, and you might not believe it.

Portable prisons. That's right, like the portables that have sprouted around overstuffed primary schools across Canada. Don't believe me, check the document below, obtained recently by Liberal MP Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering) who is his party's justice critic.

Holland put several written questions to the government about the effect on the correctional system of the government's new crime laws that are expected to put more people behind bars for longer sentences. Holland submitted written questions, because the government is then required to respond, and it has dodged questions about its plans for the prison system.

In the near term, CSC will be able to accommodate anticipated prison population within existing infrastructure and by possibly using additional temporary structures to house offenders.

At a recent Senate committee hearing, the boss of the federal prison system, Corrections Commissioner Don Head, explained that "temporary structures" means trailers.

This document also reveals that the prison service might carve up fertile farm land – after it closes six penitentiary farms – and build new prisons on the properties. The government doesn't explain that it would dodge any local approvals processes, including environmental assessments, by building on federally owned property that is already designated for penitentiary use.

All told, Corrections will spend $787 million on prison infrastructure in the next five years. The government hasn't offered any explanation of how it is spending those tax dollars.

Here's my story in the Whig-Standard about the government's penitentiary plans:

Kingston Whig-Standard, Thursday, October 8, 2009

By Rob Tripp
A surging federal prison population, fuelled by Conservative law-and-order initiatives, may force Ottawa to use fertile prison farm land to build new penitentiaries, a federal document reveals.
In the short term, the prison service might also install trailers, akin to to portables used at schools, to alleviate overcrowding.
"It's a roadmap to disaster," said Mark Holland, the Liberal MP for Ajax-Pickering, who obtained the information through written questions submitted to the minister of justice.
Holland is his party's critic for public safety and national security.
He fears that closing the prison farms, coupled with other measures, dooms the system.
"I think what we're going to be doing is creating crime factories with our prisons," he said, citing the U. S. experience, where years of get-tough measures led to prisons bursting with criminals with no apparent corresponding reduction in crime.
The information Holland acquired is at odds with previous public statements by Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, who said the prison farm properties would be leased to local farmers.
Holland asked about the government's plans for hundreds of hectares of prime farmland attached to six federal penitentiaries.
In February this year, Corrections Canada announced that it will close the prison farms that employ inmates, including two in Kingston, despite protests from prisoners, agricultural organizations and community groups that say the farms provide invaluable training and rehabilitation for inmates and are part of a sustainable local food network.
In an interview in May, Van Loan said the closings would benefit local agriculture since Corrections would stop competing with area farmers.
"We don't anticipate disposing of any of the land and I expect in terms of agricultural land, there'll be efforts to have all (six properties) rented out for the immediate future to other farmers," Van Loan told the Whig-Standard.
The government says it is closing the penitentiary farms because they cost $4 million yearly and do not teach prisoners marketable skills.
The prison service has refused to release internal audits of the farm operations.
Corrections plans to retain the farmland, the government states, in response to Holland's questions.
"Future additional capacity needs may make it necessary for some of the land to be used for prison constructions [sic]," the document states.
Holland told the Whig-Standard yesterday (wed) people have been trying to understand what the real motive was behind closing the prison farms, particularly given how successful they've been.
"This confirms the motive appears to be building new prisons."
He suspects the Conservatives are eying the the farm properties for construction of super jails.
A 2007 report for the Harper government, set out a roadmap to overhauling the corrections system, including the proposal to build mega-prison complexes that would house more than 2,000 inmates at one site.
The government has not announced plans for any new prisons, despite a raft of legislative changes that are expected to increase the federal prison population by up to 11% over the next two to three years, according to estimates given to a senate committee recently by Corrections boss Don Head.
The information obtained by Holland reveals that Corrections plans to spend $787 million on new infrastructure over the next five years, though no details were provided.
Holland said those plans might include a mega prison in Ontario, which has the largest proportion of federal inmates.
"That is a very real possibility, and given what we've seen now from this information ... it looks like that might be what is really behind the closing of the prison farms," he said.
Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada, suspects that the 455- hectare property around Frontenac Institution in Kingston, where one of the farms slated for closing operates, is targeted as a site for a new super prison.
"It's the only logical outcome when you think that the government already controls this land, so they don't have to ask any permission, they don't have to do environmental assessments," he said.
"They are committed in rhetoric and legislation to growing the rate of incarceration. Where are they going to put (new inmates)? On the land they already own."
Jones said Head told a senate committee that "temporary accommodation" means trailers will be installed at prisons.
"The implication of temporary accommodation in things like portables is a spike in the level of tension and violence which would undermine the working conditions of CSC staff and make the whole living environment more difficult," Jones said.
"I'm deeply concerned with the idea that our prison situation is getting to be in such a state of crisis that they're considering things like portables or temporary units; that's no way to house inmates," Holland said.
He said Conservative strategies will lead to more crime and communities that are less safe.
"If you have overcrowded prisons with inadequate programs and services to rehabilitate prisoners and you're cutting things like prison farms, which gives them both skills and confidence, then you're going to see the rate of recidivism rise," Holland said.
Jones said more prisons and longer sentences don't make communities safer.
"That money would be much better spent on community-based alternatives to prison and to addressing the human resource shortfalls that currently plague the service," he said.
He'd like to see Corrections pay more to hire and retain the best psychologists, social workers and other staff and to use the cash to improve programs for inmates.
Jason Godin, regional president of the union representing correctional officers, said they haven't been consulted about any plan to install prison trailers, an idea that concerns him.
"We'd want to see what they're talking about," he said, expressing concern about the security of temporary buildings.
The government is moving ahead with more mandatory minimum prison sentences, the elimination of two-for-one remand credits and the elimination of statutory release, at a time when roughly 10% of federal prisoners are living two two a cell.
Overcrowding creates tension and more dangerous working conditions for staff, Godin said.
"The ballooning population is a major concern for us and our prisons are really outdated," he said.