Farmers, and other community activists, had worked hard, protested, and protested some more over years to bring the prison farms back.

The farm was eliminated eight years ago by the Stephen Harper Conservative government in the name of efficiency and a focus on so-called more valuable skills. The numbers would have rightly told them that there were few jobs available for farm owners and primary labourers because technology continues to increase farming efficiency.

What they missed is that there is a starving market for agricultural workers across the industry.

The farms will have a herd of milking goats, but also, after intense lobbying, a herd of 60 dairy cows. Prison farm supporters hold strong emotional links to the return of the cows because many are, and were, dairy farmers and purchased and have safeguarded the high-quality genetic merit cows that were part of the former prison farm. We’ll see if the government has any interest in bringing back cows that were part of the original herd. It doesn’t make sense financially or practically, but it would certainly have some value for historical continuity.

Working with animals also has an intrinsic value that doesn’t show up on hard skills surveys.

Those of us who have had the privilege of working with large animals know the emotional value that comes with caring for them. There’s a serenity in a well-cared-for barn, especially in the early morning or the late evening.

The animals teach you things that don’t come as easily from human interaction. There’s responsibility, empathy, caring and the opportunity to give and get affection that comes with fewer caveats than negotiating affection with humans. You learn to work with different personalities, as animals respond differently to situations. The animals don’t judge you harshly.

These are opportunities in low supply in prison and serve as reasons why former inmates valued the program. Also of importance is the chance to produce something that nourishes others.

I expect these are the values of the program that prompted prison farm activists to fight so long for the return of the prison farms. They are also the emotional benefits in animal care for both humans and animals that rights activists have difficulty fathoming.

Shortly after I posted a story on the prison farms to our Farmtario website, I received an email from a member of an activist organization expressing concern that the media was missing the real story — that people who had been convicted of crimes like sexual assault and murder would then be relearning those behaviours by being responsible for artificial animal breeding and sending animals for slaughter.

This interaction shows the great chasm of experience and distance between the realities of people in our society. The passion of the activists working to return animals to the prisoner experience was based on a fervent belief that having prisoners work with animals would be good for the prisoners from a skills development, rehabilitation and mental health perspective. My experience says that would all be true.

European research we featured in a previous Farmtario shows that children raised in an environment that includes caring for animals have more mental health resiliency as adults.

However, although I didn’t speak with the man who sent me the email, you could tell by the urgency in the writing that he also holds his beliefs as fervently as the farmers and activists lobbying for a return of the prison farms.

I’m not going to argue one perspective over the other. It’s a long and usually futile process. Arguing isn’t the place to start. Bridging this animal care/animal rights gap starts with walking in other people’s shoes and keeping our minds open. That doesn’t happen often enough.

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The Trudeau government was elected on a promise to return farm operations to prisons, after they were closed under the Harper government in favour of what was called more useful skills.

That resulted in an outcry especially in the Kingston area where there are multiple institutions to house criminals.

The original proposal from the government was to milk goats, but Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to Ralph Goodale, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, announced at the Joyceville prison that the program would include dairy cattle along with goats. The original prison farms involved milking cows and some of the high-classification herd was purchased by area farmers who have maintained the genetics of the original prison farm that was closed in 2010.

“I am very pleased to learn that the government has approved the combination of dairy cows and dairy goats at our Kingston area prison farms,” said Dianne Dowling, a local community member and co-chair of the farm advisory panel. “This announcement comes after years of dedication by hundreds of citizens to the cause of restoring the prison farms with a diverse program of crops and livestock.”

An advisory panel made up of seven volunteers has provided non-binding advice to Correctional Services Canada to help it better understand the farm industry, explore new business ideas and promote partnerships to provide employment opportunities for released offenders.

The return of the prison farms will be phased as the government has committed $4.3 million over the next five years to reopen farm operations.

The Kingston area will be the model, with prison farms at Joyceville and Collins Bay institutions.

“Consultations with community members, businesses and stakeholders have demonstrated strong support for the return of CSC farms in Kingston, and the return of dairy cows is an integral part of the project,” said Holland. “The prison farms are a valuable program that promotes rehabilitation, empathy and skills training, which reduces reoffending and helps make our communities safer.”

Workers at the institutions will be involved in building the facilities needed for the animals as well as rehabilitating farmland for crops.

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Correctional Service Canada (CSC) on Thursday announced the panel members, who are expected to hold their first meeting next month and to “engage with community stakeholders” on the farms’ possible reopening.

The panel is also tasked with helping CSC’s rehabilitation program Corcan to “better understand farm industry operations, explore new business ideas, and promote partnerships to provide employment opportunities for released offenders.”

Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, in a release Thursday, said the new panel is meant to “help us determine the best way ahead for re-establishing penitentiary farms.”

The new panel’s farmer members include Dianne Dowling, who operates an organic dairy and beef farm near Kingston; Jeff Peters, a beef producer at Inverary; Tony Straathof, a mixed farmer in the Whitewater region; and Bruce Vandenberg, a goat and sheep dairy producer and cheese plant operator at Lindsay.

The panel’s other members include Bridget Doherty, of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent De Paul; Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada; and Alec Ross, a local communications consultant, school board trustee and board vice-president for KEYS Job Centre.

CSC last June launched a feasibility study, plus consultations last July and August, to review the previous Conservative federal government’s decision to wind down Corcan’s agribusiness operations.

Results from the consultations, published in November, “will continue to influence CSC’s future decisions related to employment and employability programs offered at institutions,” the department said Thursday.

Participants in the consultations “were asked to provide their input into the possibility of renewing penitentiary farms at Collins Bay and Joyceville institutions” in Kingston.

Collins Bay, which has maximum, medium and minimum security facilities, and Joyceville, a medium/minimum security operation, have combined capacity for over 1,400 male inmates.

“The decision on the future of penitentiary farms is an important one, and (the new panel members’) feedback will be critical in guiding us on how to move forward,” CSC commissioner Don Head said in the same release.

Goodale said Thursday he’s “committed to implementing evidence-based practices and policies that promote public safety and the safe reintegration of offenders.”

CSC had wound down its six prison farms in 2009 under the Tories’ “strategic review” process, in which the service was required to review programs “to ensure that they continued to operate in an effective and efficient manner.”

Groups opposing the end of the prison farm programs included the National Farmers Union (NFU), which at the time said the closures ignored the value of “a restorative approach to justice and a sustainable, local approach to the future of farming and food.”

Dowling, Peters and Straathof all serve in regional executive and/or board positions with NFU-Ontario.

Corcan’s farms had included mixed ag operations at Rockwood (Stony Mountain, Man.), Riverbend (Prince Albert, Sask.), Pittsburgh (Kingston) and Westmorland (Dorchester, N.B.). Bowden, at Innisfail, Alta. ran a mixed farm and composting operation, while Frontenac, also at Kingston, included dairy and poultry operations. — AGCanada.com Network

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Following up on a Liberal campaign pledge, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) announced plans Thursday for a feasibility study including both in-person and online consultations with stakeholders and the public.

Specifically, CSC said its study will “assess the effectiveness and viability of re-establishing agriculture and agri-food employment initiatives for offenders” at two institutions at Kingston, Ont.

The study will look at farm operations for Collins Bay, which has maximum, medium and minimum security facilities, and for Joyceville, a medium/minimum security operation. The two Kingston facilities, both for male offenders, have capacity for over 1,400 inmates in total.

“Our government understands that an effective criminal justice system is built on evidence-based policies that promote public safety and the reintegration of offenders,” federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a release.

“That’s why we will be reviewing the cost and effectiveness of reinstating the prison farm program at Collins bay and Joyceville Institutions, and encouraging citizens, business leaders and other interested stakeholders to share their visions for what the program could look like.”

Both Collins Bay and Joyceville saw expansions built under the then-Conservative government’s long-term plan to add over 2,700 beds at men’s and women’s penitentiaries across the country.

CSC said Thursday its online forum will be open from now until Aug. 2, allowing “stakeholders from government, business, and the community… to share their opinions.”

The service also plans to hold a town hall meeting in Kingston at an as-yet unspecified date for local residents, business leaders and other stakeholders to “voice their perspectives.”

The CSC wound down its six prison farms in 2009 under the former Conservative government’s “strategic review” process, in which the service was required to review programs “to ensure that they continued to operate in an effective and efficient manner.”

Canadian penitentiaries have operated prison farms as far back as the mid-19th century. Before their closures, the prison farms had operated through CSC’s Corcan agency, which oversees vocational training opportunities for offenders.

Corcan’s farms had included mixed ag operations at Rockwood (Stony Mountain, Man.), Riverbend (Prince Albert, Sask.), Pittsburgh (Kingston, Ont.) and Westmorland (Dorchester, N.B.). Bowden, at Innisfail, Alta. ran a mixed farm and composting operation, while Frontenac, also at Kingston, included dairy and poultry operations.

A 1995 CSC study previously suggested Corcan participants were “less likely to return to custody upon release, compared to the national average.”

CSC, in its new online survey, noted it “continues to offer other agriculture and horticulture initiatives including community gardens, institutional gardens, and greenhouses that produce food for internal use, as well as for donation to food banks and other community food programs.”

However, CSC said, “these activities are not typically part of employment training programs offered at the institutions.”

The Liberals, in response to a pre-election questionnaire last October from the John Howard Society of Canada, said prison farms “taught practical skills and helped prisoners prepare for re-integration into Canadian society.”

The party, in its response, said it believes “proper rehabilitation is needed to promote public safety and reduce repeat offending. The prisons (sic) farms delivered on both counts and should be re-opened.”

Groups opposing the end of the prison farm programs included the National Farmers Union (NFU), which at the time said the closures ignored the value of “a restorative approach to justice and a sustainable, local approach to the future of farming and food.” — AGCanada.com Network

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