The story states that the price tag for building the Toronto South Detention Centre is $594 million. However, if you look at the 28 October 2009 press release from Infrastructure Ontario, the contract for building, financing and maintaining the facility is $1.1 billion over 30 years. This means that Ontarians who are just entering the workforce like me will be paying for this prison mortgage until the day we retire (should that day ever come).
Another point worth raising is the claim that these new detention centres will be cheaper than the facilities slated for replacement. If the new facilities we’re ‘replacing’ were of a similar size an operational cost savings may be had. However, in Ontario and right across the country, we’re building newer and bigger provincial-territorial prisons (read 16 February 2011).
According to a Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services webpage, the 1,650-bed Toronto South Detention Centre is replacing the 550-bed Toronto Jail. That is an addition of 1,100 new beds to the overall capacity of the system.
Should these beds come online and are each filled (which should be no problem with new federal sentencing legislation and the persistence of court backlogs despite the passage of the Truth in Sentencing Act in 2009) – at a cost of $179.97 a day or $65,689 a year per prisoner, Ontario taxpayers will be on the hook for an additional $72,257,900 per year for this facility.
If savings are to be achieved, the Ontario Government needs to provide us with their figures so that their assertions can be verified independently because based on the numbers available to constituents the math simply doesn’t add up.
According to another Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services webpage, the new 315-bed South West Detention Centre is slated to replace the aging 140-bed Windsor Jail. That is a capacity increase of 175 beds.
We don’t yet know the cost of building, financing and maintaining this facility, as it will be announced shortly, but based on the available figures above it will cost Ontario an additional $11,496,575 to operate these 175 new beds. Where are the savings?
As part of its “prison modernization”, the page 75 of the 2011 Ontario Budget notes that the “government will close underutilized prisons in Owen Sound, Walkerton and Sarnia, and partially close Toronto West Detention Centre. It is anticipated that this will reduce expenditures on the transferred inmates from the oldest facilities by more than 50 per cent, while achieving over $8 million in annual savings”. And in between 2011-2012 to 2013-2014 these savings are to total $16 million (see page 64).
How they arrive at these figures? No one knows. The Ontario Government needs to substantiate its case and not simply make assertions without evidence.
I’d also note that, historically, calls for new prisons to replace aging penal infrastructure are common. However, it’s often the case that prisons slated for replacement are never closed. Take for example Kingston Penitentiary. Built in 1835, this facility has been slated for closure a number of times. However, not even a riot that damaged much of the facility in 1971 (a riot that was quelled by our Armed Forces) led to its closure because of the number of new prisoners that were entering our prisons at that time.
With a federal punishment agenda, led by the Conservatives but often supported by either the Liberals, NDP or the Bloc, and sometimes by all of them (read 23 February post), there is a significant chance that this history will be repeated.
As a researcher, I’m worried that this focus on new prison construction is taking up funds that could be spent preventing victimization from happening in the first place, and on services to meet the complex needs of the victimized and criminalized (read 6 April 2010 post).
As a taxpayer, I’m perplexed that governments across this country are engaged in an ill-advised and expensive carceral binge that based on evidence (not a popular thing these days) will likely not enhance safety in our communities in the long-term, will cause tremendous damage to the individuals that will now be incarcerated or will be incarcerated for longer periods of time, and will not meet the complex needs of victims which are being ignored when governments think the only way to meet their wishes is through longer sentences for those who have harmed them.
We’re in desperate need of leadership in this area and unfortunately politicians across the board are not stepping up to the plate, perhaps because they are afraid of being labeled ‘soft on crime’ – a meaningless and misleading label if I’ve ever heard one.
I’d also note that, historically, calls for new prisons to replace aging penal infrastructure are common. However, it’s often the case that prisons slated for replacement are never closed. Take for example Kingston Penitentiary. Built in 1835, this facility has been slated for closure a number of times. However, not even a riot that damaged much of the facility in 1971 (a riot that was quelled by our Armed Forces) led to its closure because of the number of new prisoners that were entering our prisons at that time.
With a federal punishment agenda, led by the Conservatives but often supported by either the Liberals, NDP or the Bloc, and sometimes by all of them (read 23 February post), there is a significant chance that this history will be repeated.
As a researcher, I’m worried that this focus on new prison construction is taking up funds that could be spent preventing victimization from happening in the first place, and on services to meet the complex needs of the victimized and criminalized (read 6 April 2010 post).
As a taxpayer, I’m perplexed that governments across this country are engaged in an ill-advised and expensive carceral binge that based on evidence (not a popular thing these days) will likely not enhance safety in our communities in the long-term, will cause tremendous damage to the individuals that will now be incarcerated or will be incarcerated for longer periods of time, and will not meet the complex needs of victims which are being ignored when governments think the only way to meet their wishes is through longer sentences for those who have harmed them.
We’re in desperate need of leadership in this area and unfortunately politicians across the board are not stepping up to the plate, perhaps because they are afraid of being labeled ‘soft on crime’ – a meaningless and misleading label if I’ve ever heard one.
"We’re in desperate need of leadership in this area and unfortunately politicians across the board are not stepping up to the plate, perhaps because they are afraid of being labeled ‘soft on crime’ – a meaningless and misleading label if I’ve ever heard one."
ReplyDeleteAgreed!!!
Thank You so much for all of your hard work regarding the Canadian correctional system - your blog is invaluable!