Prison Farms: The protest that won’t go away

Jeff Green | Jun 03, 2010

“We don’t believe it when they say it’s a done deal,” said Brigit Doherty, one of the organizers of a rally that is taking place in Kingston on Sunday to try to convince the federal government to save and revitalize Canada’s six prison farms.

The decision to close Canada’s prison farms, two of which are located in Kingston, was revealed publicly about 16 months ago, and has led to a concerted campaign of letter writing, petitions, delegations, and parliamentary motions which, according to a press release posted at saveourprisonfarms.ca “have gathered unanimous support from across the country.”

While support for the prison farms has been expressed by all of the opposition parties in the national parliament, both in the interest of the prisoners who work on them and their role in the local agricultural communities, government Members of Parliament have been silent on the matter.

Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington MP Scott Reid did attend an information session in March of last year about the planned closures. While he did not take a stand on the closings, he did offer the following insight: “I suspect that the public servants who did this would not reverse their decision. Ultimately all political decisions can be reversed or changed, but it becomes the job of politicians to make those kinds of decisions. So this is the realm that this is now in”. 

The ad hoc committee that has been working to save the farms since then has certainly taken that route, enlisting any and all supporters they have been able to find.

Time is running out for the protest, however, as the closure plans proceed. Sometime after June 21, the dairy herd at the Frontenac Institution, some 150 head, is scheduled to be auctioned off.

“Among other things, that herd has been a closed herd since the mid-1800s,” said Brigit Doherty, “so its loss will mean the loss of a genetic heritage as well.”

It will also lead to increased costs to the public, since the milk that has been supplied by the herd will have to be purchased, at a cost in excess of $1 million per year for the three Kingston institutions that have had their milk supplied by the Frontenac herd. “We don’t know the total cost,” said Brigit Doherty, “because the herd supplies other prisons with milk as well.”

In recent days, prominent Canadians from diverse backgrounds have joined the fight against closure, in direct and indirect ways. Author Margaret Atwood will be on hand to join the rally on Sunday at the Corrections Canada offices on King Street.

In a more indirect fashion, Conrad Black wrote an article last weekend for the National Post, direct from his own prison cell in the United Sates. Black lambasted the Canadian government for its “prison roadmap”, which he said abandons any pretext of rehabilitation in Canadian prisons in favour of punishment and retribution.

This point was picked up by Brigit Doherty. “We want prisons to return better people into our communities when they leave. This is the real, primary value of the prison farms,” she said. Brigit Doherty says it would be a sign of strength, not weakness, if the federal Conservative government reversed their decision to close the farms. “We want to give them an opportunity to change their minds. We would really respect them if they listen to Canadians.”