Founded speculation: Conservatives push for for-profit prisons and prison services in Canada?

There are some concerning trends happening in Canadian federal politics and government. Our current Conservative government is intent on passing legislation which would aim at putting more and more people in prison.

Safe Streets and Communities Act – the already passed Omnibus Crime Bill.
An excellent post here, outlines one of the main problems with this bill.

The provisions of the bill that introduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes is, perhaps, the most draconian feature of the Omnibus Crime Bill.

This legislation was intent on introducing a multitude of minimum sentences, from distribution of marijuana to growing of plants and other petty offences. This will, without a doubt, increase the prison population as it removes the ability of judges and justices to sentence offenders to other perhaps more appropriate rehabilitative programs. This bill will specifically “lock (more) people up”.

Parole toughened in Canada.
One of the first things Conservatives did was make it harder for someone in prison to get a pardon, and they did that by quadrupling the fee, despite protest that it was a horrid idea.

Out of the 1,086 responses the federal government received to its proposal to raise pardon user fees from $150 to $631, a total of 1,074 individuals and organizations disapproved saying it would amount to an undue financial burden and make it impossible for many offenders to obtain a pardon.

Also, ever since the Harper Conservatives have been appointing people to the Parole Board, approvals have been on the decline.

At least 24 Tory appointees to the parole board have made financial contributions to the party or its candidates or had other involvement in Conservative politics at the federal or provincial level. These appointments are happening while the Tories are putting forward new legislation to tighten parole rules…

In 2005-06, the last fiscal year of Liberal government, the board granted 74% of applications for day parole.

But as Tory appointees joined the board, that rate fell steadily. In 2009-10, day parole was granted to only 66% of applicants.

Similarly, full-time parole granted has also fallen incrementally in every one of the past five years, from 45% of requests in 2005-06 to 41% in 2009-10.

Less approval, more people in jail for longer periods of time.

Bill C-31 – Refugee Crime Bill.
This is not law, yet. It used to contain measures of grand unconstitutionality, such as the ability to detain refugees for up to 12 months without a warrant. Now, as the result of opposition pressure, the bill has became more tame, but still allows for some detention. Refugees can still be detained, but their detention must be reviewed within 14 days (or without delay, as the bill says), and then another review six months later. None of this, though, removes the ability to detain and arrest without a warrant.

Section 23, (3) b makes this clear with:

arrest and detain without a warrant — or issue a warrant for the arrest and detention of — a foreign national who, after their entry into Canada, becomes a designated foreign national as a result of the designation and who was 16 years of age or older on the day of the arrival that is the subject of the designation. (Emphasis mine)

This new legislation, if passed, put more people in dentition and prison for a while – for up to 6 months or more, potentially.

Even before the Conservatives came into power, there have been issues with Canada and detaining refugees – this bill will only make things worse.

In 2005, a report by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention highlighted concerns over detention in Canadian facilities, including a lack of communication with detainees regarding the legal process of detention, inadequate access to interpreters, and poor communication between the federal and provincial levels of government on the needs of detainees (WGAD 2005).


All of this justifies – and explains – their funding of new prions.
The Conservatives continue to spend money on increasing prions and expanding prions, and their recent moves really explain why. They want more people in jail.

So, what?

This brings me to my more speculative analysis. It’s essentially this: the more people in prison, the more money private companies can make off the government for managing them. Considering the Conservatives interest in increased incarceration and detention, this isn’t just a wayward theory. 

According to the Globel Detention Centre project, Canada’s prisons that relate to immigrations and refugees are not run by private companies, but many of the services (such as beds, and security) are provided by private companies.

Canada’s three dedicated immigration holding facilities are managed by the CBSA. However, private companies provide many of the day-to-day services, including security. In its 2010 report, CBSA suggested using private corrections companies to operate the centres (CBSA 2010).

Perhaps alone this isn’t enough to fuel privatization speculation, but perhaps in comparison to trends in the highly privatized U.S.A. it is.

America has the highest prison population in the world, about one percent of their population.

Mandatory Minimums, arbitrary sentencing and tougher chance for parole in America.

Sentence lengths have increased by a combination of front- and back-end changes. On the front end, sentences are longer: the use of mandatory minimums, repeat offender enhancements such as three strikes laws, and life sentences has risen dramatically. On the back end, many states either abolished parole or enacted “truth-in-sentencing” laws, which prevent parole boards from releasing low-risk prisoners before they’ve served 85 percent of their (increasingly long) sentences.

 Jailing Immigrants in America.
According to an article on Corpwatch:

While the nation’s economy flounders, business is booming for The GEO Group Inc., a private prison firm that is paid millions by the U.S. government to detain undocumented immigrants and other federal inmates. In the last year and a half, GEO announced plans to add a total of at least 3,925 new beds to immigration lockups in five locations. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the U.S. Marshals Service, which hire the company, will fill the beds with inmates awaiting court and deportation proceedings…

Detaining immigrants has become a profitable business, and the niche industry is showing no signs of slowing down. The number of undocumented immigrants the U.S. federal government jails has grown by at least 65 percent in the last six years. In 2002, the average daily population of immigration detainees was 20,838 people, according to ICE records. By 2008, the average daily population had grown to 31,345.

 Note The Geo Group Inc.

Lobbyist: PATRICK GAGNON

Consulting firm:THE PARLIAMENTARY GROUP / LE GROUPE PARLEMENTAIRE  
Client:THE GEO Group Inc.

So, what does this all mean? I don’t know absolutely, but if I were to put my speculative goggles on, perhaps I could guess more people in prison means more profit for particular groups, and perhaps, even since we have a neoconservative Conservative government, perhaps we’ll have more privatization of prison services – if not prisons themselves.

Someone should seriously investigate this.



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“…but you shouldn’t forget, Harper’s on-the-record promises that he would privatize the Canada Pension Plan, privatize Canada Post, shut down CBC, and re-introduce capital punishment. Or his insistence that all MPs collecting a pension should be kicked out of the Conservative Party.”