Angry correctional officers to visit Sampson for answers

TORONTO - Ontario correctional officers will pay a visit to their boss today to demand answers about his government’s plan for wholesale privatization of correctional services.

Date: Friday, Dec. 17, 1999

Time: 11:30 a.m.

Place: Constituency office of Rob Sampson, MPP
1100 Central Parkway, Mississauga

Ex-banker Sampson was named Minister of Correctional Services on June 17, 1999. On Nov. 19, he announced plans to contract out inmate escorts, food preparation, expanded "boot camps," and operation of the new, 1,200-bed superjail planned for Penetanguishene.

"Corrections workers and the people of Penetanguishene were told by [former Corrections head] Bob Runciman that that superjail would be publicly-run," says Barry Scanlon, a correctional officer and spokesman for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. "He said it was because there were ‘too many unanswered questions about safety’ at a private facility.

"The U.S. experience with private jails is one long story of riots, murders, corruption, and greed," says Scanlon. "We’d like to know why Sampson thinks the story won’t repeat itself in Ontario."

An angry public meeting in Penetanguishene last night was furious that local Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop did not show up. All participants, including the Mayor and town council members, were adamantly opposed to private operation of the superjail now under construction.

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For more information:

Randy Robinson (416) 315-2982 (cell)
Don Ford (416) 723-8420 (cell)

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