Ontario's Private Prison Experiment

On the topic of 'P3' - here is a section I wrote for my Crime & Punishment textbook. Making sure that information like this gets into courses is part of the reason I keep teaching. This is clear-cut case of why privatization does not work and to keep it interesting for students I illustrated this through jail riots, infected wounds, assaults on correctional staff, management links to Abu Ghraib (!) and clogged sewers spilling prison waste into near-by homes.  

Penetanguishene- Ontario’s private prison experiment

In contrast to the US, the privatization of prisons in Canada has been met with skepticism. John Conroy, a defense lawyer with Conroy & Company in Abbotsford, B.C. and former chair of the CBA's [Canadian Bar Association] Imprisonment & Release Committee is blunt,

"Private prisons are an abomination. The idea of putting people in cages for profit is ridiculous. Once you put people in a private prison, where's the incentive to get them out again, or rehabilitate them? Private prisons will do what it takes to make a profit. They'll skimp on food, on health care, on programs. They'll skimp on anything they can and they'll keep people in for as long as possible."

Allan Manson, the current chair of the CBA's Imprisonment & Release Committee  is equally scathing,

"First and foremost, prisons are an integral part of the sentencing arm of the criminal justice system. This is a function that ought to be entirely within the control - and subject to the discretion - of the government, not private agencies. It's fundamental that prisons conform with the rule of law, the legal framework and the constitutional safeguards that exist in Canada. It's antithetical to those principles to place the control of prisons in the hands of companies motivated by profit.

There is nothing wrong with empty beds at a public institution. But a private entity fills its beds to make money, and making money is its main objective."

These objections voice the fundamental concern that private prison companies' profit is tied to increasing number of prisoners thus incentivizing the creation of new offenses, longer sentences and the elimination of alternative sentencing (Ryan, 2001). The executive director of the John Howard Society notes that private prison companies support the Conservative proposal to eliminate statutory release where convicts serve the final third of their sentence in the community under conditions similar to parole because "[this] would bring about a surge in the prison population of about 50 percent […] You could construct a scenario where you bring in private prisons because of emergency needs of housing a sudden surge in the prison population".

Despite such wide skepticism the Ontario government under radical Conservative Mike Harris was ideologically committed to privatization and opened the first private prison in Canada for a ‘trial period’ of 5 years.  Utah-based 'Management and Training Corporation' (MTC) won the contract with their bid of providing services for $79.95 per inmate per day while all the other bids were over $100. The average cost in an government-run prison was $140 per day at that time.  

The  trial period was put in to address the concerns of many citizens who were fearful of giving an American corporation control of a core government function and an interest in shaping Ontario's criminal justice policy. Additional concerns surrounded, “the loss of accountability, the threat to public safety, inadequate programs to rehabilitate prisoners, social and economic effects of inferior private sector wages” (Nathan, 2000).  The proposal met hostility among the correctional guards union in OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union) whose president stated, "Private employers always want to reduce staffing, slash benefits and cut rehabilitation programs for offenders” (Casselman, 2004).

Some of the strongest opposition  came from American politicians who had already witnessed the growth of private prisons in their own state like Ohio Senator Robert F. Hagan. In a letter dated Feb. 29, 2000 Hagan wrote to Ontario Premier Mike Harris:

"Ohio's experience with private prisons has been to date...wholly regrettable...Given my district's history with private prisons and reports of similar events at other private prisons in the United States, I would respectfully urge you to reconsider your position on the construction of a private prison in the Province of Ontario" (Nathan, 2000).

Under the 5-year trial MTC would construct a private superjail in Penetanguishene (a.k.a. Pentang or Central North Correctional Centre) designed to hold over a thousands prisoners while a similar sized publicly-run prison was also built. At the end of the trial period both facilities would be compared in terms of cost and performance.

From the very beginning it was clear that Penetanguishene had no magic trick that would allow it to offer similar services to Ontario-run jails at half the cost. MTC cut corners to save money in almost every way leading to complaints about the health care, staffing level and the overall safety of the facility through an over-reliance on security technology to replace adequate staffing (Ryan, 2001)  In the first  year “laundry service, health care and food inadequacies led to an inmate riot in September 2002.” (Bowe, 2010) During this riot 100 inmates removed concrete slabs from the shower privacy walls, wrapped the blocks in bed sheets and smashed through steel doors with their homemade wrecking balls in a bid to escape. No one was injured but substantial damage was done to the facility and the OPP had to be called in to quell the riot (Toronto Star, 2002). The prisoners then,

"went on a hunger strike, complaining about a lack of coats to go outside in cold weather, the lack of heat in the building and having only one blanket to ward off the chill, and getting only one packet of sugar with their black coffee and cereal at breakfast. Although these issues sound petty, they can seem enormous when you are spending time behind bars" (OPSEU, 2001).

The private company (MTC) addressed inmates’ complaints by going

"to the Barrie Jail and taking coats from them. MTC staff also helped themselves to bulletproof vests, two property safes and a Ministry van. It’s not hard to figure out why MTC’s bid was so low, especially when it appears that they can shop for free at public facilities." (OPSEU, 2001).

The five years that the Penetanguishene prison ran produced a constant litany of criticism from the inmates, staff and the public, which included complaints about:

•  Increased attacks on correctional officer due to lack of staff. One correctional officer who was a retired police officer and victim of one of these assaults stated that, “There shouldn't have been just the two of us. There should have been probably four or five and this is the shortcomings of private prisons. They've got to economize some way and there's only so many paper clips you can save. The only other area you can cut back on is either meals or the officers on duty".
  
  • Not keeping to the signed contract for the number of staff required on duty or for escorting prisoners out of the facility (like hospital visits).
  
  • A 66% turnover rate for correctional officers
  
  • The allowance of inmate fights by staff.
  
  • Inmates mistakenly set free  (Toronto Star, 2002).
  
  • Consistent computer problems which affected the opening and closing of doors.  During one alteration between inmates the crisis team had to take the longer alternate route to get to the site as the computer that controlled the closest door was not working, resulting in an inmate losing an ear.
  
  • The superjail’s waste disposal did not have a mechanical grinder so it became clogged with hazardous garbage (like toothbrushes and latex gloves) and eventually caused a sewer backup at the prison and surrounding homes. This spillage resulting in a bacteria level in the town’s own sewer system over the legal limit.
  
  • Guards charged with selling drugs inside the facility.
  
  • Increased presence of crack-cocaine in the city attributable to poorly suppressed prison trade.
  
  • Unsanitary working conditions.
  
  • Not answering the phone at the facility and refusing to give any personal urgent messages to inmates.
  
  • Not giving proper medications or medical care to inmates.
  

The detailed documenting of these failures can be attributed to the fact that MTC was being very critically watched by detractors but such vigilance was needed to counter-balance Penetanguishene management policy of secrecy and threatened staff with dismissal if they spoke publicly of their complaints.

The list of failures given above shows that cutting corners in prisons endangers lives. One of the cost-saving trade-off made by MTC was in the area of healthcare. Ryan Skillen who was sent to jail shortly after having surgery on his hand found that that,

his time at Central North Correctional Centre (CNCC) was hell on earth, and it wasn't until he was transferred to Ontario Correctional Institute (OCI) in Brampton that he began receiving the required treatment. To compound the problem, Skillen says his bandages — which contained “a mangled mess” — were not changed as regularly as required. About six days into his incarceration, a nurse removed bandages on his hand where he had 78 stitches, revealing a swollen and infected wound (Bowe, 2004).

Dr. Martin McNamara, the head of ER at a nearby hospital that treated injured Penetanguishene prisoners stated complained that "several cases of prisoners being lost in the cracks resulted in a number of [medical] close calls the first 14 months the jail was open" because "patients coming to the hospital from the prison are admitted far later than they should be, have received inappropriate care and are not receiving adequate follow up." (Bowe, 2004) These problems were compounded by the MTC's secrecy were “you have to go through an incredible maze to get answers [and he saw] almost no improvements, even after several meetings with the prison administration and the government. (Bowe, 2004).

Finally in August 2003, Penetanguishene inmate Jeffrey Elliot died “a few weeks after receiving a cut on his hand” due to infection.  Six months earlier  Dr. McNamara had formally complained to MTC about inmates coming to the emergency department screaming in agony because they had not received proper treatment. (Bowe 2004).

In 2006 at the five year trial period, Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty passed legislation converting Penetanguishene prison into a public institution, because,

"a performance evaluation found that a public jail of equivalent size had better security, prisoner health care, and reduced repeat offender rates. The report comparing the two prisons found the private jail also used fewer staff and ran fewer programs to help inmates." (CBCNews, 2006).

Ontario’s experiment with privatization showed conclusively that there is no magic to privatization that allows to provide the same level of service at lower cost. As a private-run jail Penetanguishene was a failure because all money saved came from having less services, less staff and less safety.

Despite the end of the privatization experiment, Warren Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) complained that many of the problems that occurred at the Penetanguishene superjail were still occurring at the now public facility two years later, calling it the “lingering stench of privatization” and believed it was due to a “mindset at the prison [that] was still worrying about the bottom line” because managers had remained the same when the prison switched from MTC ownership to public governance (Bowe, 2008).

Despite the fail of Penetanguishene and the non-renewal of the contract MTC executive Lane McCotter was given the lucrative job of acting as one of four civilian advisers to oversee the reconstitution of Iraqi prisons during the US occupation. McCotter, a former director of the Utah Department of Corrections led a US Justice Department reconstruction team tasked to“review the entire Iraqi criminal justice system, supervise reconstruction of the prisons, and train Iraqi citizens to work in the prisons." (Wikipedia) It was under McCotter's supervision that the staff for the infamous Abu Ghraib was trained.

The very issue of how MTC received the contract to run Penetanguishene came under suspicion when it was discover that the two 'independent experts' hired by the Ontario government to advise the process had ties to MTC.  Charles Thomas, a retired University of Florida professor, and Mark Hodges, former head of Florida's private prisons commission were hired by 'Partnering and Procurement' (PPI) -  the private Ottawa firm contracted by the Harris government to oversee the awarding of the contract. At the same time Mr. Thomas and Hodges were receiving millions of dollars from corrections companies in consulting fees and large donations to their research projects. A month after Hodges helped MTC get the Ontario contract he and his wife took an expenses-paid trip to an MTC board meeting in Hawaii. The head of Partnering and Procurement firm commented that, "We were horrified [...] They were the experts and they were speaking everywhere [...] Our assumption was that they had no conflict issues." (National Post, 2003). This conflict of interest was only discovered because both men were being investigated by Florida authorities for other ethical violations.



Despite the failure of Penetanguishene Conservative politicians still appear committed to bringing American-style privatized jails into Canada. As the 2007 article 'Privatization – Harper Conservatives quietly eye options' notes:

"Although Stephen Harper has been careful not to mention the word, privatization appears to be quietly making its way onto the government agenda."

A federal review of prisons is currently being carried out by Conservative correctional services Minister Rob Sampson who was the chief architect of Ontario's province's short-lived experiment with private prisons.  Sampson has supported numerous privatization initiatives, including the controversial privatization of Highway 407 with an unbreakable 99-year lease.  With Sampson heading this review many worry that he would bring "privatization by the back door."