The federal government is considering re-opening some of Canada’s closed prison farms.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced June 2 that the federal government is conducting a feasibility study restoring the two prison farms near Kingston, Ont.
“This process will allow citizens, business leaders, and other stakeholders to share their visions for what the program could look like. It will allow the government to review the costs and efficacy of reinstatement,” Goodale said in response to a friendly question from a fellow Liberal MP.
For the next two months, Canadians can submit their thoughts to Correctional Services Canada about the prison farms online. The agency also plans to hold a town hall style meeting in Kingston with local residents — many of whom have been pushing for the farms to be reinstated. The online submission date ends Aug. 2.
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As of June 13, a date for the meeting had not been set.
Once the pride of the federal prison system, supplying some $2 million in fresh produce to Canadian penitentiaries, the six prison farms were closed in 2010 by the former Conservative government as part of its tough on crime agenda.
The surprise decision, then Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, was prompted because the farms were no longer seen as a useful way of rehabilitating inmates.
Less than one percent of inmates, he told reporters in 2009, “learned any skills that were relevant.”
About 300 inmates worked at Canada’s prison farms.
This, even though many considered the Kingston-area Frontenac farm as one of Canada’s leading dairy farms. Its award-winning herd was the result of a century of breeding efforts.
The farm also donated eggs to the local food bank.
Twenty-three of the cows were eventually placed on farms in the area, an arrangement organized by the Pen Farm Herd Co-op.
The intention was to return the animals to Correctional Services Canada when the prison farms were reopened. Six years later, the herd has grown to 30.
The decision to shut the farms was met with stiff public resistance. Weekly protests were held in Kingston, with some supporters later making the two-hour trek to Parliament Hill.
Blockades in front of Frontenac farm were organized, and two dozen protestors were eventually arrested.
A vigil continues to be held every Monday night at the entrance of the Frontenac Institution.
Yet, despite public pushback, the Conservative resolve to shut down the farms was firm. Farms in the Maritimes and Western Canada were auctioned off, while the Frontenac farm was replaced with a laundry facility.
Six years later, with a new government in Ottawa, Canada’s prison farms are back on the federal government’s agenda.
Word of the feasibility study was welcomed by members of the National Farmers Union and the Save Our Prison Farms organization, who insist the farms helped support local business, protect farmland, and benefited inmates.
“Many people said closing the prison farms didn’t make sense,” Jeff Peters, a member of the SOPF organizing committee, said in a news release.
“The farms provided meaningful work experience and training, as well as rehabilitation and therapy.”
