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Private universities, private jails, private health-care and private water testing. What do all of these things have in common? They are all services the Tory government in Ontario has been trying to privatize with some disastrous results and possibly more to come. The Ontario government, lead by Progressive Conservative leader Mike Harris, has been slowly trying to do away with services that are currently administered by the province. The ideology in question, privatization, has been a hallmark of the Common Sense revolution. But so far the Tories have been slow to make a success of it.
Attempts to privatize the Liquor Control Board and TV Ontario were put on the back burner because of low public support. As well, privatizing hydro utilities has already led to charges of price gouging. But by far the biggest headache is coming from the public outcry over the deaths from the E-coli outbreak in Walkerton, Ontario. Regardless of who the Tories look to blame, the issue continually keeps coming back to the privatization of water labs by the province. Yet now, with these other efforts stalled or creating political turmoil, the government is pushing ahead with its prison agenda. The first of the new superjail's will be opened in Penetanguishine, a small rural community north of Toronto.
This jail is slated to be home to the province's first privatized super jail and the issue has created a storm of controversy. In November of 1999, the Ministry of Corrections announced that the new 1200 bed facility would be turned over to the private sector, contrary to what the municipality had been previously told. Wayne Redditt is a member of a local citizen's committee opposed to the privatization venture. The municipality entered into this deal because they thought they were going be getting a lot of good paying OPSEU (Ontario Public Sector Employees Union) jobs. People were told it was going to be a publicly run facility.
Then after the election we are told that it will be private. People here didn't expect to be treated like guinea pig. The Ministry of Corrections has defended themselves by stating there will be a strict code of standards imposed before private corporations are allowed to take control of the prisons. They have gone on to say that there will also be constant monitoring of the prison by ministry officials. This had done very little to quell public fear in the area. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, or OPSEU for short, which includes prison guards in its union, is also unimpressed with impending privatization of the Penetanguishine super jail.
They feel the risk to staff in a private prison would be much greater than in a public facility. The Ministry of Corrections was hoping correctional officers from jails that were being replaced by the new super jail would be transferring to the privately run jails. According to OPSEU, only 24 of those correctional officers would transfer to a privately run facility, compared to 175 who would transfer to the Penetanguishine facility if it were still run by the province and the corrections ministry. Provincial correctional officer representative, Barry Scanlon, is not surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for the new private jails. Our members are well aware of the inherent dangers of working in a maximum-security facility. Hardly any of them want to risk their lives in a jail run by a profit-driven corporation.
There are just too many opportunities for cutting corners which will endanger lives. There have been numerous horror stories about low pay, short staffing, assaults, murders and escapes from private prisons in the U. S. and Great Britain that will cause experienced public service correctional officers to quit correctional services rather than take the additional risks associated in a privatized facility. Letters have been sent to Premier Mike Harris on the privatization issue from many Ontarians from all walks of life asking him to dispose of the privatization of jails with little success. There was also a letter sent from Robert F.
Hagan, a State Senator from Ohio, telling Premier Harris that private prisons did not work in his state and have not worked in other states. He believes the Premier should rethink the matter, but unfortunately he did not receive a response. There are currently no Canadian companies in the private prison field, which means the most likely contenders are the American companies Wackenhut and CCA. Both of these companies have come under extreme fire across the United States for problems that have arisen in their prisons, including the grave mistreatment of inmates, excessive use of force and improperly trained prison staff. Brian Dawe, director of Corrections USA, says private prisons are there to make money, period.
If anybody in Ontario thinks there's going to be a board meeting at CCA headquarters in Nashville Tennessee or at Wackenhut head office in West Palm Beach Florida and the topic of conversation is 'how do we keep the good folks of Ontario safe, ' you " re out of your mind. The only thing that will be mentioned is 'why aren't we making enough money there. How do we cut corners?' Because the only thing the shareholders care about is making money and that's how this whole thing plays out. In fact, many of the states that had implemented private prisons are now taking back control of those facilities. North Carolina became the latest in a number of states to take back control of prison populations from the private sector and there are certainly more states to follow. The one question that everyone was asking the government, including OPSEU, was why they had decided to privatize prisons.
It was clear from cases in the United States, Britain and Australia that private prisons were a safety risk, so they couldnt use the excuse that the prisons were safer. Many started asking it the government was trying to save money by privatizing prisons, but this does not appear to be the reason either. The bottom like, according to Mary Lou Daniels, spokesperson for the Ministry of Community and Social Services, is that, This was never meant to be a cost saving exercise. It was about the province getting out of the business of delivering services.
This begs the question, If the province doesnt want to deliver any services, whats the point in having a provincial government? When Ms. Daniels mentioned services, she must have been talking about some of the other services the provincial government has been trying to relinquish from their control. The attempts to privatize the LCBO and TV Ontario have already failed or been put off indefinitely, but other privatization routes have gone through with some serious problems. In the spring of 2000, residents in the small town of Walkerton, Ontario became ill due to high concentrations of e-coli in their drinking water. When all was said and done, 7 people were dead and dozens deathly ill from the contamination of their water source.
The blame fell squarely on the shoulders of the Ontario provincial government and the Ministry of Environment. This was because water testing had been downloaded to municipalities where rules and testing cycles were not as heavily enforced as they had been when the province was doing the testing themselves. It was also a problem because certain municipalities did not have the funds, nor the resources to test the water as frequently as it had been tested before. This sparked an outrage from Ontario citizens because the problem with contamination was known long before the events in Walkerton had taken place. Because of the tragedy, the Ontario government sought to implement new legislation that would ensure Ontarians had access to clean and safe drinking water. The Ontario Clean Water Agency was formed to ensure that testing was done properly by municipalities and funds would be available for more testing, but this still meant that...
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