The Ontario government is becoming famous for its clumsy manner of
ruling by decree. Corrections Minister Bob Runciman decreed last
Thursday that the super-prisons the government had suggested would
be built, but then abruptly cancelled, were indeed proceeding. In
a stern, righteous manner he announced that five megaprisons would
be built, two from scratch and three using the structures of
existing facilities. The total cost is estimated to be $250
million. They will replace 14 existing jails.
Runciman said that the prisons will include "no frills," and
will be "Spartan" and the "cheapest built in North America." They
will require fewer corrections staff per inmate, allowing the
government to lay off 1,400 guards. The plan also does away with
credit courses and 307 certified teachers in the Ontario prison
system. Runciman said: "I don't think our goal...is to necessarily
improve the quality of life for people convicted of crimes who are
serving sentences.... Most taxpayers don't want to see us spending
an arm and a leg to build new jails." He said that the new prisons
should bring down the daily cost per prisoner to $76, which would
be the lowest in Canada. Each megaprison is designed to house
around 1,200 inmates.
Many immediately denounced the megaprisons as "warehousing of
people" and "inhuman." OPSEU President Leah Casselman said inmates
will receive less treatment under the new system. "They're not
sub-human; they're people who had trouble with the law....I guess
the (government) doesn't care," she said.
Earl Manners, President of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) said, "The plan...to create
megaprisons is going to rob educational opportunity from Ontario
prisoners....The proposal to remove credit courses and certified
teachers from the prisons seems to be a continuation of the
government's moves to diminish...the public education system."
Mark Buligan, President of the Federation of Provincial
Schools Authority Teachers said, "One of the most moving ceremonies
an Ontario citizen can witness is the graduation of an inmate....In
each of the last three years, an inmate student has won a prize in
OSSTF's Marion Drysdale Awards."
A significant advance over medievalism during the Age of
Reason was an enlightened view towards crime. Modern, scientific
and humane thinking replaced the barbaric and mechanical view that
coupled crime and punishment. Outstanding thinkers managed to wrest
social crime free from the confines of Christian atonement, the
concept of "cleansing" the individual through "confession" and
"penance," and the fear of retribution that was to keep a person
pure and free of sin. Crime was recognized as a social problem and
that "changed societies produce changed people," and "thinking is
a reflection of social being." Instead of looking into the
individual for what was wrong, the society was examined and plans
to rectify it and eliminate the root cause of crime were proposed
and widely discussed. Canadian society is sliding dangerously into
the morass of medievalism and fascism.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
