PUBLIC-PRIVATE JAIL PROPOSAL SETS OFF ALARMS

Quebec looking at South Shore site. Prisoner rehabilitation groups
concerned programs might be outsourced, too

Plans by the province to build a jail on the South Shore under a
public-private partnership formula - and possibly have it operated by
the private sector as well - have upset organizations working to
rehabilitate offenders.

"We're urging the government to exercise great caution," said Johanne
Vallee, executive director of the Association des services de
rehabilitation sociale du Quebec, of the jail expected to go up in the
Longueuil area.

"We mustn't fall into the logic of the private sector," where the main
aim is to make profits, she said, giving the example of privately run
jails and prisons in the U.S., France and Britain.

Private operators consistently use a lower ratio of correctional
officers to prisoners than the public sector does, Vallee said, but
more surveillance cameras.

Vallee said that trend is troubling because the majority of provincial
inmates are struggling with addiction and mental-health problems. They
need more personal contact with jail staff - not less, Vallee said.

In September, Vallee's association, which represents 50 organizations,
put together a committee of experts to examine the issues surrounding
privately operated jails. The one on the South Shore would be a first
for Quebec and among only a few in the country.

The rehabilitation association's committee, whose members include
criminologists and former Corrections Canada administrators, is to
table its report to the association's board of directors next week,
Vallee said.

The jail, to house up to 500 inmates, would probably be built near
Highway 30, somewhere between Ste. Julie and Brossard, Daniel
Thibault, press aide to Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon, said
in an interview yesterday. It would serve the Longueuil judicial
district, which has no provincial jail despite being the third-largest
jurisdiction in Quebec, he said.

Whether correctional officers and programs for inmates would also be
managed by the private sector remains to be determined, Thibault said.
"For now, nothing is being excluded."

He said the minister is looking to submit the project after Christmas.
Vallee said two civil servants working on the project told the
experts' committee the new jail would probably also replace the two
small jails in Sorel and Valleyfield.

Also yesterday, Longueuil Mayor Jacques Olivier issued a statement
expressing frustration that the city hasn't been consulted. Later in
the day, the mayor and Chagnon spoke by phone, agreeing to meet soon
to discuss the project, said Olivier's press aide, Maxime Chagnon.