Finally The Stupid 'Private Prison" Experiment Is Almost Over In Ontario

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Now if only the Ontario Conservatives had listened at the time............. :warstory:


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060428.TORBRIEFS28-3/TPStory/TPNational/
Privately run jail to be public again
Canada's only privately run jail is going to be public again.

The Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene was saving the provincial government money while in private hands, but "there was a cost in the outcomes," Ontario Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter said yesterday.
A comparative analysis of the 1,200-inmate facility and a nearly identical publicly operated jail in Kawartha Lakes, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, indicated the latter had better security and prisoner health care as well as reduced repeat offender rates, he said.

"It was a worthwhile experiment," Mr. Kwinter said of the maximum-security facility, which has been operated by Management and Training Corp. Canada since May of 2001. The contract ends Nov. 10.
The jail will be converted to a government-run facility over a six-month period, Mr. Kwinter said. He estimated it would cost $2-million more a year to run the prison. CP

http://www.opseu.org/news/Press2006/april272006.htm
Private jail to be repatriated into public hands: Proof that public services are better publicly-run: OPSEU
The Ontario government did the right thing by reversing a Mike Harris decision to privatize adult correctional facilities, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union said today.

The government announced that the contract with a Utah-based company to operate the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene, the first private adult jail in Canada, would not be renewed.
“The public service has outstripped the private sector when it comes to delivering public services. This is a very important lesson for this government,” said OPSEU President Leah Casselman.
Casselman challenged the government to extend this lesson to all other privatized services, in particular facilities for young offenders, road maintenance, water treatment and health care.

The Mike Harris government announced in May, 2001, that Management & Training Corporation would have a five-year pilot project to operate the 1,184-bed correctional centre. It would be compared to the operation of the new Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, which is publicly-run. According to the study, the publicly-run CECC performed better in key areas such as security, health care and reducing re-offending rates.

OPSEU represents employees of both facilities. OPSEU and its allies in the community have been campaigning for years to have the jail retiurned to the Ontario Public Service.
Casselman said the union would be working closely with the government to make sure that all employees and services are returned to the public service where they belong.

“Our members are dedicated to public services, not making profits for private companies,” she said.

 

[a_majoor]

Not a flame, but some questions about this.

1. Is there any indication why the outcomes between the prisons were different? The article really gives no reasons why the private prison had different outcomes.

2. Was there a halo effect in the other prison? The staff there knew they were in competition with the private prison, so had every incentive to do better. Do other provincial jails have similar outcomes to Kawartha Lakes or  Penetanguishene?

3. Is there any indication the new jail will raise to the levels of Kawartha Lakes, or will it remain the same while costing $2 million/year more?

I am curious to what really happened here.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

What happened was once Management & Training Corporation couldn't save enough money on staff wages, they cut back on staffing, training, anything they could to keep the profit margin up. When you have too supply the same services, and throw in an acceptable profit margin, the costs are more than the public jail.

Its hard to compare any other jail as these are the only two exactly the same.....the jails in Milton and Ottawa have "pods" designed the same attached but the similarities end there.
I find it hard to believe that the public jail worked harder for 5 years just for comparisons sake.
I think it will raise the level up at the Penatang jail as we are more interested in "recce" than they SEEMED to be up there. One of our main jobs to make a jail work is intelligence gathering, however I remember a story from one of our casuals from Guelph [who went there full-time] whom got written up for taking too long on a round. She had stopped to talk to an inmate from the old Guelph jail who wished to share something, but instead of possible useful info into the ever-changing jail dynamic she got a letter on her file.

Piss poor planning...etc.

 

[a_majoor]

Interesting points, particularly the idea of cutting back to make a profit. While a private corporation exists to make a profit for the shareholder, would I be wrong in guessing the management of the jail had a contract "guaranteeing" a certain profit? What you are describing sounds uncomfortably like the experience we have with CBO running ATC Meaford.

I was also unaware of the "recce" aspect of running a jail. Your story sounds a bit like this information is "internal use only" and not shared with other jails, otherwise the information would have had a much higher priority in the big scheme of things.

Thanks for the input, it makes things a lot clearer for me.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Interesting points, particularly the idea of cutting back to make a profit. While a private corporation exists to make a profit for the shareholder, would I be wrong in guessing the management of the jail had a contract "guaranteeing" a certain profit? What you are describing sounds uncomfortably like the experience we have with CBO running ATC Meaford.

I am not aware of how the contract was written up but, I am sure that with all the "scrutiny" the union did way back when, that I can find out tomorrow.

 

[MP 811]

Bruce, you seem well versed on the topic of the superjail.  Would be interested in talking to you in more depth about this issue as I used to be a C.O./ICIT up there prior to my current job.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Most of my info comes second-hand, thats why the "SEEMED" to be, however we had quite a few casuals from GCC  go up there. Even now I work with a CO who went there and hated it so much he came back as a casual.....

"Like watching monkeys in a zoo" was how he put it......
Anything you wish to discuss is fine by me though. I think right now the fun will be how the Union has to deal with the senority issues, not to mention the fact that I've spent more time sleeping on night shifts than some of their managers have doing the job....

 

[Steel Badger]

Most of the former GCC types who went to CNCC hated it

Some of us, of course, hate HWDC

 

[Centurian1985]

a-majoor;

Based on my talks with others who work at correctional facilities, this is a common practice.  Guards are usually encouraged to report any information they hear or are told to internal 'criminal intelligence' or 'gang intelligence' units who use the informtion to monitor activities of groups in the jailhouse. 

The confusion on this topic is usually based on the word 'intelligence' -  the guards are collecting 'information' by a covert intelligence process, but the information does not become intelligence until evaluated for content.  (I hate it when people mix these terms up!)

This activity becomes more active at facilities where the tougher gangs and criminals are held, and all the convicts know that this activitiy is going on, and in fact often engage in effective misinformation and propoganda despite their lack of formal training.

 

[George Wallace]

Based on my talks with others who work at correctional facilities................. 

The confusion on this topic is usually based on the word 'intelligence' -  the guards are collecting 'information' by a covert intelligence process, but the information does not become intelligence until evaluated for content.   (I hate it when people mix these terms up!)

Perhaps, then you can clarify that for us and define what intelligence is or the process of gathering intelligence. 

 

[Centurian1985]

Wallace,

Intelligence can mean three entirely seperate things:

1) An organization, agency, or unit, whose purpose is to handle or gather information for evaluation (not neccesarily done by themsleves) or produce intelligence products.

2) Any process used by a person or organization deemed to be part of an intelligence capability; usually this refers to covert or secretive means of gathering information but can include an open process for gathering and evaluating information in a public environment.  I.E. Crimewatchers is a phone-in hot-line where people can anonymously report what they suspect or know to be law-breaing events.  Although a publicly-known information process, it is a form of intelligence gathering. 

3) A product produced as a result of an information-gathering process with future implications, following the path of data, information, summary, evaluation, and intelligence. 
- Data can be anything; a list of numbers, a picture, alphabet letters, etc. 
- Information is a statement about what the data is (these numbers are from a bank account; this is a picture of an armoured vehicle; this is the name of a person; many organizations out there gather together large quantities of information and call it intelligence when its actually only called data-mining).
- A summary is where many statements are compiled into a new statement describing the content of the information statements (this is a list of bank account numbers; these statements were made between person x and person y, there were 27 incidents over the last 24 hours.) 
- An evaluation brings the statements, information, or summaries into context, usually in a manner along the lines of high/low, true/false, likely/unlikely, important/unimportant, giving the audience a frame of reference without having to read all the supporting data and information (there has been a high number of attacks over the last 30 days; this statement is validated as true by other sources; it is unlikely that the moon will fall out of the sky based on the current earth-moon gravitational relationship; this is an important item to consider due to our forces currently being located in that country). 
- Finally, the data, information, summary, or evaluation is placed into the context of intelligence, meaning that it is given a statement indicating how it will affect the near/far future (i.e. this happened in the past so this will likely continue to occur in the future, or, this indicates a change in operations which will require us to change our method of operations, or, if this is true then this would be the new solution required for this situation,or,  based on known patterns this indicates an enemy attack will occur at this place within the next 12 hours).

Generally, most people confuse intelligence products with information gathered by an intelligence agency or with information gathered through intelligence means. Finding out the color of Putin's underwear can be done by intelligence agencies using intelligence means, but that is only information; its not an intelligence product unless they predict that every time he wears red underwear the Russian military launches a test missile.