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Town councillors in Penetanguishene have taken full advantage of Corrections Minister Rob Sampson’s offer to receive input from the town in the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

So far, the council has submitted over 70 items that they want included in the RFP document. The list of items either meets or exceeds standards that are currently in place in the public system.

The town’s list is extensive, covering issues around employee qualifications, legislative controls, liabilities and the public accounting of matters arising in the jail’s operation.

To give an example, the town has demanded that all employees hired initially have a minimum of six to eight years’ experience. When a Ministry official pointed out that this was a higher qualification than used for public employees, Councillor Randy Robbins stood his ground.

"So what?" Robbins asked. "We know how many problems are going to occur in a privatized facility. What this does is prevent a company from hiring brand new people to save money right off the bat. Plus, we are going to need people in that jail who know what they are doing."

Council also wants any company who is awarded a contract to post a $5 million dollar bond to offset fines, and to carry $100 million in liability insurance. They also want the government to exclude from the bidding process any company who has a record of hiring improperly trained staff, has a record of security breaches or a record of inmate abuse.

Penetang council does not believe that the Ministry will include every item that they have submitted. So as extra insurance, the town has taken a full-page ad in the local newspaper listing the items they have submitted. "We want our community to know exactly what we tried to do to protect them," Councillor Robbins said. "That way, they can compare the government’s final RFP document against what we demanded."

Despite Penetanguishene’s involvement, the local politicians cannot make it clear enough that they are against a private company coming to town. Midland Mayor George MacDonald, who sits on the Public Liaison committee, went on record with his views at Thursday night’s liaison meeting.

"I don’t want to have to mention Walkerton," MacDonald said. "I want to officially go on record and say that I am opposed 100 per cent to a privately-run jail. In a year or two, when the problems are going on, I don’t want the townspeople asking if the members of this committee were asleep at the switch and allowed this stuff to happen."

We can only hope that our minister has the smarts to figure out what the mayor meant by his reference.

Nearly 50 protesters gathered today outside the Vanier Centre for Women to draw attention to the planned closure of Ontario’s only institution for sentenced female offenders.

New Democrat MPP and Corrections Critic Peter Kormos spoke to the crowd, affirming his party’s stance against privatized correctional services. Kormos toured the facility after the protest, which only sealed his conviction that warehousing female offenders to a male institution is a ghastly mistake.

Dave Graves, Vice Chair of OPSEU’s Corrections Ministry Employee Relations Committee (MERC) also addressed the protesters.

Members from Vanier were joined by members from Local 229 (Ontario Correctional Institute), Local 521 (Mimico), Local 530 (Toronto Jail) and Local 234 (Maplehurst).

The canteen follies continue

The Corrections Ministry’s first foray into privatization is fast becoming an albatross around the neck of Rob "High Standards" Sampson.

Two weeks after employees of the private canteen operator were caught smuggling drugs in the Toronto East Detention Centre, two more employees were escorted off the property at Toronto West Detention Centre.

It turns out that the female clerk who was distributing canteen is the common-law wife of one of the inmates incarcerated at the West. Further investigation by staff revealed that the male clerk was the same inmate’s brother-in-law. Both were immediately removed from the institution.

Meanwhile, correctional officers across the province are searching canteen bags brought in by the private operator in order to avoid another situation like the Toronto East D.C. had.

Isn’t privatization working out great, Rob?

We can now add the Township of Fauquier-Strickland near Kapuskasing to the list of municipalities opposed to private corrections. And whom do we thank? None other than the Resolution Warrior himself, Len Mason from Local 737 (Thunder Bay Jail).

Corrections Minister Rob Sampson is once again instilling confidence in his employees with his brilliant planning skills.

Contractors were spotted this week sizing up one of jails for the installation of video remand. According to the ministry, this is an excellent way to reduce costs for transporting inmates who only have to appear briefly in court to get a remand date. Knowing how quickly the government moves on this kind of work, the installation will probably start around September.

Just one glitch Rob – the jail in question is Waterloo D.C., and you’re closing it in October.

The number of Ontario municipalities opposing privatization is now 78.

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