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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Prison construction costs to jump
Don Head, commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, set the stage for prison expansion in a Dec. 23 e-mail, obtained by Canwest News Service. The government has previously said only that it is contemplating expanding existing facilities or building more prisons.
"Any conversation before has been general musing," said Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland. "What this says to me is that they know what they are doing, they know what they are building -- they are just refusing to let it go public."
Critics have questioned the need for a prison-building boom in times of fiscal restraint and declining crime rates, particularly when they say there is no evidence that longer sentences work in cutting crime.
"This is basically pouring money down a rat hole," said Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society.
Government spending estimates, released last week, show the prison system's tab for capital expenditures for the coming fiscal year will increase 43 per cent, to $329.4 million in 2010-2011, from $230.8 million in 2009-2010.
-- Canwest News Service
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 9, 2010 A8
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