Bob Hilson.

I’m confused about the running of the AgriBusiness sector of Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Corcan is the ‘special agency’ that oversees prisoner employability upon release. Corcan seems like a public/private enterprise. They run manufacturing operations, for example, and sell much of the products (which are assembled by prisoners) to the private sector. Am I being paranoid, or is this not the privatization of a supposedly (my preference) public sector, that is, correctional facilities? Corcan’s latest annual report available online is from 2006-2007, available at http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/prgrm/corcan/pblct/ar/07-08/0708-e.pdf. On page 19, Corcan betrays its purely business interests in regards to prison farms:

“Agribusiness revenues account for 11% of the CORCAN total, but these operations employ a disproportionately high number of offenders to keep the enterprises functioning. Sales are predominately to CSC (about 55%), with private sector partners accounting for most of the remaining activity.”

Their interest is in minimizing the number of employees to make the largest profit. I believe Corcan was instituted during Harper’s term, so he’s not off the hook. However, it seems like it might not be the government, that is, Correctional Service of Canada, who has ultimate control over the farms, otherwise known as AgriBusiness in Corcan’s terms. So petitioning the government might be moot. It’s private sector that’s doing what it needs to do to maximize its profit, and not to ensure employability and decrease recidivism: words used to veil their truest interest, which is profit. I don’t understand what the term ‘special agency’ means, in terms of Corcan. This is what Corcan is about (from corcan.ca):

“Examples Of Goods and Services Available From The Prison Work Program

MANUFACTURING

With 18 ISO certified production plants across the country, CORCAN is the first ISO certified prison industry in the world. Some examples of our manufactured products are:

Workstations
Furniture Refurbishing (Environmental Stewardship)
Ergonomic Seating
Acoustical Screens
Lockers
Shelving
Kiosks
Bookshelves
Barrack and Dormitory Furniture
Reception Furniture
Executive Office Furniture
Recycled and New Mattresses
CORCAN also manufactures a wide range of wood and metal products to satisfy customer’s specialized needs.”

So, does Corcan make money for CSC is what I want to know? It doesn’t seem so, exclusively.

Phew. I’m concerned now that Corcan, having gotten rid of the pesky cows taking up prime real estate, will sell the land to developers. I would like to be part of the movement to prevent this from happening.

Thanks for listening to my rambles. Is there any place where many people are talking about this, so that I can listen to others and share my ideas/worries? I’ve been doing a bit of it on Facebook, but of course many of my ‘friends’ have no interest in this… I appreciate your thoughts, here would be great, or email me at julianevegregory@gmail.com.

Heartbroken, because the dairy herd that has lived at a quiet prison farm has been shipped away in trucks; disgusted, because Stephen Harper ensured that it happened.

Heartbroken, because our local food bank will not have a ready supply of locally produced eggs and milk; disgusted because local citizens who depend on the food bank were not considered in the decision to close the prisons.

Heartbroken, because the inmates whose hearts may have turned to good will no longer have the opportunity to care for live animals; disgusted, because the government of Stephen Harper would opt to have food trucked in to our prisons rather than have our prisons produce their own food.

Heartbroken, because so many good honest people have been trying kindly and gently to change the path of the government only to be denied and treated like criminals; disgusted, because the number of police officers at the farm closure protest today was truly outrageous especially given that a majority of the protestors were senior citizens.

Heartbroken because the government determined that a heavy police presence should greet the protestors; disgusted that extra Ontario Provincial Police officers were brought in for the protest (and they left their vehicles running).

Heartbroken because the government deems it appropriate to follow the path of the United States in creating super prisons; disgusted that the government intends to expand our prisons even though crime in Canada is declining.

Heartbroken because democracy no longer has meaning with our current government; disgusted that the word democracy no longer has meaning with our current government.

I am sure that those protestors that shed a tear while singing Oh Canada at the protest today were not doing so out of pride and honour.

But this I know, that every Law
That men have made for Man,
Since first Man took his brother’s life,
And the sad world began,
But straws the wheat and saves the chaff
With a most evil fan.

This too I know–and wise it were
If each could know the same–
That every prison that men build
Is built with bricks of shame,
And bound with bars lest Christ should see
How men their brothers maim.

With bars they blur the gracious moon,
And blind the goodly sun:
And they do well to hide their Hell,
For in it things are done
That Son of God nor son of Man
Ever should look upon!
___
The vilest deeds like poison weeds
Bloom well in prison-air:
It is only what is good in Man
That wastes and withers there:
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,
And the Warder is Despair

For they starve the little frightened child
Till it weeps both night and day:
And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool,
And gibe the old and grey,
And some grow mad, and all grow bad,
And none a word may say.

Each narrow cell in which we dwell
Is foul and dark latrine,
And the fetid breath of living Death
Chokes up each grated screen,
And all, but Lust, is turned to dust
In Humanity’s machine.

The brackish water that we drink
Creeps with a loathsome slime,
And the bitter bread they weigh in scales
Is full of chalk and lime,
And Sleep will not lie down, but walks
Wild-eyed and cries to Time.

- Oscar Wilde, an excerpt from The Ballad of Reading Gaol

My father, Bill Chitty, a fomer warden of Collins Bay and Joyceville Institutions, wrote a letter to the editor of the Whig in response to their editorial “Why not get rid of Canada’s penitentiaries?” In part, he wrote ” …penitentiaries stand at the end of a series of societal failures to cope with the problem of crime and delinquency in our communities. We all need to be reminded that the progression to the penitentiary usually starts in our homes and leads through schools, foster homes, probation, jails, training schools, reformatories and the parole system. One must assume that that the foregoing facilities and methods failed to modify the anti social behaviour maintained by those offenders who graduate to our penitentiaries. He went on to write: “Thousands of men and women offenders who have moved to the point where they recognize the need for their own behavioral change are desperate for opportunities for their own rehabilitation. The penitentiary system, with scarce resources, effectively assists and prepares for that moment of change by providing a broad range of personal and skill-development opportunities inside the institution.”l

For those who believe prison farms don’t provide useable work skills in an economy that is increasingly urban, Bill Chitty was raised on a farm. When he wrote that partially quoted letter to the editor he was the president of the Ontario Association of Corrections and Criminology.

I believe my father would have supported your efforts 100%