NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON CANADA'S PRISON FARMS - Live Online from Public Safety Minister Vic Toews' Riding on Monday, February 1st, 2010

Join Members of Parliament and Canadians from across the country for a live online discussion about the planned closure, the value of, and potential for revitalization of the national prison farm program. This all party panel discussion will take place in Public Safety Minister Vic Toews riding, not far from his constituency office in Steinbach, Manitoba and webcast interactively so that citizens from coast to coast can participate.

The panelists include:
Niki Ashton, Manitoba NDP MP, Rural and Community Development Critic – confirmed
Wayne Easter, PEI Liberal MP and Agriculture Critic – confirmed
Mark Holland, Ontario Liberal MP and Public Safety Critic - confirmed
Kate Storey, Manitoba Green Party of Canada, Agriculture Critic – confirmed
Vic Toews, Manitoba Conservative MP, Minister of Public Safety – declined the invitation

The federal Conservative government's plans to overhaul the Canadian prison system, including the closure of its prison farm program, is a "roadmap to disaster", according to Mark Holland a Liberal member of Parliament's Public Safety committee.

Holland is critical of the government's plans to keep more convicts in jail, and for longer sentences, while cutting rehabilitation programs such as the prison farms.
"More than 90 percent of inmates leave prison. Who do we want to walk out those doors?" asks Holland, MP for Ajax-Pickering in Ontario. American attempts in the 1980s to deal with crime by having larger prison populations did not lower the crime rate, he adds.

"Prison farms in countries such as New Zealand and the United States are expanding and going green. Inmates around the world are starting to eat fresh food they've grown themselves," says Green Party agriculture critic Kate Storey. "Why are we shutting the door on such innovative approaches to cost savings, health, and rehabilitation here in Canada?"

"We cannot allow one more farm to be lost in this province, or country, let alone one we actually have control over as the federal government," adds Ashton. "We should be revitalizing the Rockwood Institution prison farm in Stoney Mountain, as a model of sustainable agriculture and rehabilitation."
"The panel discussion will be webcast live online, with opportunities for audience questions and feedback from across Canada, turning this meeting into a national democratic dialogue," says John Hutton, director of the John Howard Society of Manitoba, and host for the even, which is being organized by the national Save Our Prison Farms campaign.

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) announced early in 2009 that it would close its six prison farms across Canada by March 2011, but is already dismantling parts of the farm operations. CSC cited the annual $4 million cost of the program and the fact that few inmates work in agriculture upon release to justify closing the farms. Supporters of the farm program argue that inmates learn useful work skills and attitudes that are transferable to other jobs, as well as receiving effective rehabilitation and therapy through the farm work.

The six prison farms are,
• Rockwood Institution in Stoney Mountain near Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Riverbend Institution near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
• Bowden Institution in Innisfail near Calgary, Alberta
• Pittsburgh and Frontenac Institutions in Kingston, Ontario
• Westmorland Institution in Dorchester, New Brunswick

The panel will be held Monday, February 1, 2010, at 1:30pm-3:30pm CST, at the Mennonite Heritage Village meeting room in Steinbach, Manitoba. The public is welcome to attend for free. It will be broadcast live at 2:30pm MST, 11:30am-1:30pm PST, 2:30-4:30pm EST, 3:30-5:30pm AST, and 4:00-6:00pm NST - find the link to the live webcast online at the homepage of Deconstructing Dinner on February 1st:
http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/nationalprisonfarmdialogue.htm

For more background on the campaign, which has been ongoing since closure of the six prison farms was announced, February, 2009, please see these websites:
http://www.nfuontario.ca/316/prison-farm-campaign
http://www.saveourfarms.ca
July 2, 2009 Deconstructing Dinner episode on the prison farms.

MEDIA -- PLEASE NOTE:
This event replaces a similar panel that was organized for the riding of the previous Public Safety minister, Peter Van Loan. As a result of the recent Cabinet shuffle, we moved the event to Vic Toews' riding.

For further information, please contact:

John Hutton, Director
John Howard Society of Manitoba
W: 204-775-1514 ext. 315
C: 204-612-4570
jhutton@johnhoward.mb.ca

Andrew McCann, Director
Urban Agriculture Kingston
W: 613-484-2020 mccann17@yahoo.com