TORY JUSTICE PLATFORM COULD LEAD TO PRIVATIZATION OF PRISONS: EXPERTS

Imagine superjails run for profit by private companies eager to cash
in on Conservative plans to toughen up on crime.

Leading criminologists say the prospect is a definite possibility
should the Tories pass even part of their law-and-order platform.

They're watching for details as Parliament resumes today on how the
new government would pay for one of its top priorities: a justice
strategy that experts agree would dramatically spike demand for
costly prison space.

"Either they'll spend a ridiculous, unsubstantiated amount of money
on this or they'll move to a more private model of corrections," says
Neil Boyd, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University in B.C.

A more private model poses the thorny ethical question of whether
corporations that profit from having full cell blocks should be
charged with caring for violent inmates. Critics point out the
obvious absence of any business incentive to lower rates of repeat offence.

The U.S. experience with private prisons suggests higher rates of
return to jail, more in-custody incidents, more escapes and higher
staff turnover, says Anthony Doob, a criminologist at the University
of Toronto.

Incarceration rates have quadrupled south of the border since the
mid-1970s. There are now more than two million Americans behind bars,
compared to about 12,000 federal prisoners in Canada, largely due to
tougher U.S. sentencing and parole laws -- the very kind of crackdown
now proposed by the Tories.