Bringing a prison abattoir back from the dead

Public Safety Canada has reopened the door to a controversial operation that offers up federal inmate labour at an Ontario slaughterhouse, according to tender documents.

Corrections cutting jobs as prison farm costs blow past $40-million

CUSMA negotiations may spell further trouble as the carceral agribusiness competes in Canada’s supply-managed dairy sector, and implicates prison labour in a supply chain of powdered milk exports.

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. 

Years later, still looking for clarity on Correctional Service Canada’s prison farm plans