Do some armchair activism (prison farms)

http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/consult/index-en.shtml

You are invited to participate in an online consultation that is being conducted by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). We are seeking the public’s input as part of a feasibility study on re-establishing agriculture and agri-food operations that would include offender employment initiatives at the former penitentiary farm locations of Collins Bay Institution and Joyceville Institution, located in the greater Kingston area.

"Forced labour?" Geez, ikosmos, - you've really got to stop watching those old reruns of Cool Hand Luke.

And if you really want to be a friend of the imprisoned, read up on the Kingston Prison Farm project, and why the cut of this program by the Harper Gov't was considered a huge loss by all concerned: the cons, (the Cons not so much), the community, local farmers, John Howard Society, food security advocates, and beyond.  

http://projectsoil.ca/project-overview/case-studies/frontenac-and-pittsb...

There is documentary evidence that the US is already using forced prison labour (in California). So the concern is entirely legit, seeing as the current Canadian regime, and its predecessor, is so anxious to ingratiate itself to that regime.

I see the JH Society is in your list. Who speaks for the prisoners?

Just for managment.

This is Canada not the States. While there may be many things that are the same it cannot be asumed that everything is the same.

I thought everyone here would already know about this.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/reopening-prison-farms-considered...

Pat Kincaid credits the dairy cows on a now-shuttered prison farm in Ontario with teaching him the skills he needed to break a life-long cycle of crime and incarceration.

The 65-year-old Kingston, Ont., resident, who has spent a total of 35 years behind bars for assaults, thefts and other property crimes, hopes other inmates get the chance to benefit from a program the federal Liberal government is now considering reopening.

"There's not a program in jail, even today, that can teach those skills that the cows have taught me by working with them," said Kincaid, who's been out of prison for seven years.

"The cows taught me patience and how to control my anger, and how to deal with being upset...I know it helped other inmates too.".....

A group of farmers and others protesting the closures banded together and bought some of the prison farm cattle auctioned off by the federal government. The cows, and the calves they've since borne, are now hosted at farms in the area.

"We're eager to have them taken back to prison and start the herd back up again," said Jeff Peters, chairman of the Pen Farm Herd Co-op. "The animals are what they call bred for docility, they're friendly, they won't kick you. And that's what the inmates needed."

In addition to helping the inmates develop a good work ethic, the farms produced food that was used to feed the prison population as well as supply local food banks, and also helped the local economy as it generated the need for fertilizer, equipment and other supplies, said Peters.

"It was a real economic engine for the farm community," he said. "There's so many reasons why the farms were a good idea."

This was not a system like in the states. The prisoners wanted to work there. It was not something anyone was forced to do.

Harper closed them because they were not turning a profit.

If the Harperites closed it,then it must be a good program.

One of the articles I read noted that some of the critics of the closures (under Harper) felt that the closures were a precursor to a deeper privatization of the prisons in Canada. The Conservatives certainly made some noise about that.

With the enormous, "world class", prison population in the US, there are rich opportunities for $$$$. That's one more thing we don't need to imitate.

There is hope that the programme at Dorchester Penitentiary eill be re-started.