Internal documents detail costs piling up for prison dairy program

The alleged justification for this prison agribusiness investment is reducing recidivism by instilling 'transferable' skills in prisoners, but only 12-16 positions have been created by the tens of millions of dollars spent, and CSC says it 'does not track' the post-release employment outcomes.

An incarcerated farm worker shovels cow feed in a prison dairy research program at Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Ont. Jo-Anne McArthur photograph courtesy of We Animals

Feature

BY CALVIN NEUFELD

August 20, 2025

Joyceville Institution, a federal penitentiary near Kingston, Ont., has begun milking in a new 88-cow dairy program that took the Correctional Service of Canada seven years and $36-million to set up. The prison’s milk is being sold to Dairy Farmers of Ontario, and pooled w...

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