ONTARIO WASTING PRISON CASH, REPORT SAYS

Non-violent Offenders Could Be Freed: Auditor

Ontario is wasting at least $50 million a year by keeping non-violent
criminals behind bars, the provincial auditor says.

The cost of running the province's 47 jails has gone up 19 per cent in the
last five years despite a 6 per cent decline in prisoner population,
according to Erik Peters' annual report.

He said part of the problem is the significant decline in the numbers of
non-violent offenders released under the Temporary Absence Program.

Peters said a review of the Temporary Absence Program showed Ontario's
success rate over the past eight years has remained unchanged at about 97
per cent.

"Ministry staff indicated there was not one case of an offender committing
a serious crime while on temporary absence," Peters said in his report.

"If Ontario had used its community programs to the same extent as Alberta,
it would have, on average, over 1,000 fewer adults inmates each day in the
institutions," he said.

Peters said given that it cost $50,000 a year to keep an adult in jail,
that works out to a saving of $50 million.

The report is a blow to Corrections Minister Rob Sampson who just this week
announced that he wants to keep inmates in jail even longer.

'People are being sent to jail for punishment.'

Sampson yesterday agreed his ministry is not being run as efficiently as it
could be, but made no apologies for making inmates serve their sentences
behind bars.

"He (the auditor) in a nutshell is saying what I've been saying for some
time, which is the system is a very expensive system to run and one that is
not delivering good results," he said.

Even so, he said, "people are being sent to jail for punishment."

"We've said we will allow people out on temporary work programs and
treatment programs when we believe it is safe to do so and when . . . we
believe that inmates have earned that privilege."

The report highlighted other problems at the province's prisons:

Major security breaches at two of five institutions visited. In one case a
ladder was not kept out of the reach of inmates, allowing five of them to
escape over the fence.

A kitchen facility at Maplehurt in Milton, which was suppose to cost $5
million and prepare enough meals for several provincial institutions, ended
up costing $9.5 million. Instead of being able to supply food for 10 jails
it could only handle six.

The ministry paid the operator of its young offenders boot camp north of
Barrie, known as Project Turnaround, an additional $400,000 over the
contracted amount when it had absolutely no obligation to do so.

The number of sick days for corrections staff increased by 38 per cent
between 1995-98, giving them the worst record in the government.

Supervisors did not keep track of sick days and made no effort to fill the
vacancies with cheaper, contract labour. The auditor's report also
criticized the corrections ministry's decision to build two controversial
1,200-bed super jails.

"The ministry's decision to finance and construct two 1,200-bed
correctional institutions that cost $180 million was not supported by a
sound business case assessing the risk, costs and benefits of all feasible
alternatives," the report said.