private prisons
Private prison companies look to Canada as industry faces lawsuits in US
By: Bilbo Poynter, The Guardian
US private prison firms are targeting Canada for fresh opportunities as pressure builds at home on the troubled multi-billion dollar industry from human rights groups and legal actions, and as more states look to scale back their reliance on them.
Two of the biggest operators in an industry once regarded as recession-proof, Geo Group and Management and Training Corporation (MTC), have been lobbying various government departments in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. Read more »
Can private jails come to Canada?
By donalee Moulton, The Lawyers Weekly
A controversial report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) slams private prisons and mass incarceration in the U.S. for harming imprisoned individuals and the government’s bottom line while making companies extremely wealthy.
Legal experts in Canada say that the same jailhouse problems — escalating violence, increased costs, and overcrowding — exist in this country, and the federal government’s new omnibus crime bill may sow the seeds for private prisons here. There is, however, a constitutional issue that may make this impossible. The federal government is also saying private prisons are not coming to Canada. Read more »
B.C. shackled with private-prison experiment
BY DAPHNE BRAMHAM, EDMONTON JOURNAL
Reposted by Vancouver Sun
Five years ago, Canada's public safety minister Stockwell Day and the Conservative government embraced a tough-on-crime agenda and opened the door to private prisons.
It's unlikely that Day's Okanagan constituents ever anticipated the trouble that might bring to their bucolic valley known for its wine, weather and beaches even after he retired from politics.
Few could have anticipated that British Columbia's biggest jail would be located in the southern part of their valley or the possibility that the 720-prisoner facility would be financed, owned and maintained by a publicly traded corporation. Read more »
