It has been an arduous, surreal journey for eight Hawaiian female prisoners sent to do their time on the mainland. The plight of this group of women housed, most recently, in a prison in the small eastern Kentucky town of Wheelwright, would have escaped unnoticed, had it not been for the death of 43-year-old Sarah Ah Mau, on New Year’s Eve… return to article
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Reader Comments (11)Page 1 of 1 pagesIn a related development, Canada’s only private prison is reverting back to public control. Interestingly, the issue wasn’t money—the private Utah-based company running the prison did save the province money—but rather “security, prisoner health care and other concerns were below the quality of services seen at a nearly identical publicly operated facility.”
Read on:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?use er_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060427.wjail0427/BNS Story/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20060427.wjail0427&ord=114 47294183402&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true
Posted by JDThompson on May 10, 2006 at 8:58 PM I would be curious to know statistics linking distant transfer of prisoners to those same prisoners’ rates of recidivism and reincarceration. A cousin of mine who has been inside for 8 years has made it repeatedly clear that the only thing keeping him going has been the regular visits of his family members, who live about 2 hours from the prison he is in. I don’t want to imagine how things might change for him psychologically if he should be transferred to a distant location, especially since he will one day be released and will have to mix once again with regular civilians. We already know that prison often hardens inmates, making them worse as people than they were when they were first jailed. Maybe this is one major factor.
For the record, his was a non-violent offense. Drug charges.
Yeah, I know he should have known better.
Posted by Kuya on May 11, 2006 at 6:56 AM JTD—Could not find link even when registered…
Private prisons are like Diebold voting machines—- strong indicators of a society going ever increasingly faster down the pan.
Posted by frog on May 11, 2006 at 9:39 PM Sorry about that—G&M appears to have moved the article to their “premium” pages. Here’s another link to the same text:
http://www.prisonjustice.ca/starkravenarticles/cncc_unprivatized_0406.html
Posted by JDThompson on May 11, 2006 at 10:36 PM JDT
prisonjustice.caA much better link, two articles instead of one.Thanks .
The original US article , above, describes such a situation of awfulness and inhumanity, that one wonders how anyone could support such a system.
Good to see that Canada has not completely lost its head, but the war has not been won, just one battle.
The Privatisers will be back———-
....“It’s just that from our perspective, for the type of facilities we want to run, we have found that there is not any great benefit when you factor in not just the nominal costs.”
.....
———————————& ——————————— 8212;——————————̵ 12;————-Firm, Ontario dispute jail savings
Apr. 28, 2006
CANADIAN PRESSPrisoners and taxpayers are better served when jails are run publicly, Ontario’s corrections minister said Friday despite a company’s claims that millions of taxpayer dollars will be lost when Canada’s only privately run prison is returned to the province.
But Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter insists prisoner health care, security and rehabilitation were all lacking at the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene compared to a virtually identical jail run by public workers.
.....Kwinter said the study showed offenders were better treated by the public service and were less likely to reoffend.
...
Kwinter wouldn’t elaborate on past problems at Penetanguishene. However, two years ago, a review of staffing levels there indicated chronic understaffing and a lack of adequate supervision.
Kwinter acknowledged it was cheaper to run the prison privately. But he attributed the savings to the contract drawn up by the previous Conservative government in Ontario that allowed the company to employ 94 fewer people than Kawartha Lakes, which the minister said resulted in lower-quality services.
“The contract was flawed and we had two-tier correctional delivery,” Kwinter said.
The company, which runs jails in the United States and Australia, denies the smaller workforce impacted services. !!!
Kwinter said the company was fully compliant according to its contract. But he said there were plenty of situations where understaffing led to substandard services.For example, Kwinter said there are nine people at Kawartha Lakes who work to follow up with inmates after they leave prison so they can reintegrate into society. Penetanguishene only had one staff member doing such work, Kwinter said.
New Democrat critic Peter Kormos said it’s a good thing the prison is being returned to public hands. But he also said it provides evidence that the government shouldn’t be looking to private companies to run anything from hospitals to highway maintenance.
“When you are dealing with public safety . . . the existence of a middle man who is going to suck money out of the process by way of profits inevitably puts the public at risk,” Kormos said.
Conservative Leader John Tory, however, said the government shouldn’t shut the cell door on privatizations of prison operations.
“I don’t think we should rule it out,” Tory said.
Source: www.thestar.com
———————————& ——————————— 8212;——————————̵ 12;——————
More articles on prisonjustice.ca on privatization
More information on the fight against the privately-run CNCC: Citizens Against Private Prisons
Posted by frog on May 12, 2006 at 6:30 AM Every aspect of privately owned prisons should make any thinking person run screaming to the nearest privately-operated ballot box. To imagine that corruption will not be the first by-product of such an arrangement is naive at best. One cannot but wonder why, since privately-run prisons have become the norm, the incarceration rate has increased dramatically. The United States, to add yet another dubious distinction to its list, recently surpassed even the former Soviet Union and South Africa in this category, according to Bureau of Justice statistics. Of course, we know that all our politicians are honest to the bone and certainly not subject to the siren-song of bribes and other enticements, and that therefore only the best-qualified applicants would ever get the contracts to run these establishments.
As opposed to state-run institutions, which tend to drift toward the more-is-better school of thought vis-a-vis staffing, privately owned institutions most often cut services to the bone while lavishly lining the pockets of their corporate officers. This, to me, is criminal. Perhaps some of these good people should be given the opportunity to spend some vacation time in their own facilities. Perhaps if they were cut off from all semblance of what we normally think of as ‘civilization’, their appreciation for what constitutes a CORRECTIONAL versus a merely PUNITIVE institution would be enhanced.
Posted by curiousaqua on May 12, 2006 at 4:19 PM In a further thought, has any study been conducted on how much money these institutions have funnelled into various political campaigns, and what the voting record of their recipients reflects on issues of justice, such as sentence reform or legalization of non-violent or ‘victimless’ crimes? I’m sure it would be unduly cynical to suppose that there would be any reason for these prison operators to see any monetary advantage to themselves in ‘tough on crime’ stances taken by politicians, and surely none of our good pols would let their vote be influenced by any considerations these institutions may offer them . . .
Just curious!
Posted by curiousaqua on May 12, 2006 at 4:29 PM I’ve started to notice that there’s a repeating pattern occurring whereby communities have had coal or other energy-related industries move in, provide jobs and a basis for an economy, devastate the mined land by blasting the tops off mountains and basically ruining it for use for anything else for decades, underpay and harm the health of their employees (including killing them); then, when the coal is depleted, the coal company pulls out of dodge leaving an economically devastated community behind that has had the rug pulled out from under it. The ensuing lack of jobs causes the economy of these communities to collapse, and then the desperation to feed one’s family leads to crime, ill health and drug abuse. In fact, I’ve seen some communities where it seems the only thing their economies are based on is the crime, with an endless cycle of incarceration for those who live there. The only businesses that really flourish in these communities are the lawyers and bonding agents (and now that we have privately-run prisons, the prisons). There ends up being very few job opportunities except to sell drugs or work in one of the law-enforcement-related jobs, which you can’t do if you have a record. Basically, almost any time someone is pulled over by the police in these communities, they’re bound to find someone violating their probation, and back to jail they go. The logical path this should take is when too many members of the community are incarcerated, the system should collapse on itself. But throw in the factors of the federal government giving kick-backs to communities based on the number of people incarcerated, and private prisons trying to stay solvent by ensuring their jails stay filled, and you end up with a community where you’re either in jail or work for a jail-related “industry,” and that’s it. Oh, and let’s not forget the healthcare-related part of this scenario in the form of rehab facilities. This is just sick, unnatural and immoral, much more so than using drugs (especially considering that, if youre talking about marijuana, the only dangerous thing about it is the fact that its illegal). Not to mention that all the people in jail and on probation are disenfranchised voters. This is almost like corporate conspiracy against the people. No wonder people jump at the chance to join the military to go fight in Iraq they dont think it could possibly be worse than their lives presently are…......
Posted by OligarchyNot on Jun 5, 2006 at 5:33 PM Who can i get intouch with at otter creek kentucky? my daughter is hawaiian born and need’s attention of medical.due to headache,absent memory.and an x-ray show’s blood clog a sign of a stroke.they only give her asprin for condition for blood thinner.
She needs to be home were we can keep in touch with her to make sure she has the right medical treatment.
Posted by 4-joey on Mar 2, 2007 at 4:11 AM This post is directed to 4-joey who posted on March 1, 2007. My daughter was just sent to Otter Creek. She has a simple drug paraphanelia charge…two years. I ( a 58 year old mother) plan to visit her as soon as I can get authorization. I live only one hour away. If I can do anything, please let me know. I have much sympathy for all the girls, especially from Hawaiian who have no family. I would be glad to give her a message or visit her for you. If you are still around answer and I will make arrangements to try to help her someway.
Posted by summerbreezelb on Apr 26, 2007 at 5:19 PM Thank you,summerbreezelb
For your reponds,yes you can help me and my family.
Her name is Penelope k Faumuina, she has a sister over there also her name is.
Winifred k Tumbaga,but she will be home soon after her program.But my concern is Penelope, she has the medical problem.
If you can give her a message for me tell her we have her in our prayers
and hope she is taking care of herself ,i know her sister and her can’t
be together, but all is well.
God bless you Summerbreezelb and thanksa million
4-joey@myway.com
Posted by 4-joey on Apr 26, 2007 at 6:09 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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