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Two Kingston-area prison farms, shut down by the former federal Conservative government in 2010, could be back in operation by next spring or early summer.
“The cows are coming home,” Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, said Thursday on the Joyceville prison farm property north of Kingston.
And goats will be moving in as well.
Cow and goat milk production will take place at Joyceville Institution along with agriculture and horticulture activities at Collins Bay Institution, the correctional service announced. Combined, the farms consist of about 1,500 acres of land.
Funding of $4.3 million over five years was announced in this year’s budget. Programs will be phased in over the next few years.
Inmates will be involved in building and renovating infrastructure as well as working to repair and rebuild farmland in the coming months to prepare for crops.
The farm operations will be managed under CORCAN, a key rehabilitation program for CSC.
Also attending the announcement were Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen; Scott Harris, deputy commissioner for the Ontario Region for CSC; ; and Dianne Dowling of the Prison Farm Advisory Board.
Morning Joy, a descendant of the prison herd, and Billy, a seven-week-old Nubian goat, were also in attendance at the event.
Morning Joy wore a sign provided by prison farm advocate Jeff Peters that read “Moooving Back To Prison. Thank You.”
Holland said the program has helped helped turn lives around for prisoners.
Working with animals taught inmates empathy, Holland said.
“The pride of spending a full day of work and being able to produce and work in agriculture,” he said.
Holland praised the work of the group Save Our Prison Farms and the Prison Farm Advisory group for seeing the farms come back after almost eight years.
“When something shuts down, it’s not often the community can bring it back, but it’s the power of this program and the power of what’s being done that makes this possible,” Holland said.
He also mentioned the small but dedicated group that protested in front of Collins Bay Institution every Monday night since the cows left on that Monday afternoon in August 2010.
“These people believed in it and they did it the right way. They did it in a way that democracy promotes and expects us to do it in,” Gerretsen said. “This is your victory.”
Kelly Hartle, acting CEO for CORCAN, said the new agricultural operations are going to give prisoners an opportunity to continue to create possibilities for employment and training that will help the inmate population reintegrate into the community.
“To the degree that we possibly can, we’ll be looking at restoring buildings and renovating buildings. Certainly there will be some new construction to ensure that we have a facility that’s up to date for our new operations model,” Hartle said.
Dianne Dowling of the Prison Farm Advisory Board said that the Pen Herd Co-op has offered the prison farms the descendants at fair market value but hasn’t heard back from CORCAN.
“It’s definitely our hope they will buy back the cattle that we have,” she said.
Dowling said members of the Save our Prison Farms, who started to organize in February 2009 when the federal government announced the closure, were buoyed by their conviction that the prison farms provided “valuable training and therapy for inmates.”
“This is an awesome day for us. We were excited with the budget announcement, disappointed that the cows weren’t involved, but we were given a second chance through the minister’s office to make a proposal that would include the dairy cows and it was accepted after a lot of hard work on numbers and so on.”
In the past, the group proposed an artisan cheese production but now they’ve agreed to have their milk processed offsite.
She also said CSC wanted goats as part of the program with an infant formula plant soon to open in Kingston.
“The federal government’s interest and approval of the goat operation is related to increased demand for goat milk in eastern Ontario that will come with the (formula) plant,” she said.
“It’s great to finally say the cows are coming home.”
imacalpine@postmedia.com
Twitter: @IanMacAlpine
查看原文...
“The cows are coming home,” Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, said Thursday on the Joyceville prison farm property north of Kingston.
And goats will be moving in as well.
Cow and goat milk production will take place at Joyceville Institution along with agriculture and horticulture activities at Collins Bay Institution, the correctional service announced. Combined, the farms consist of about 1,500 acres of land.
Funding of $4.3 million over five years was announced in this year’s budget. Programs will be phased in over the next few years.
Inmates will be involved in building and renovating infrastructure as well as working to repair and rebuild farmland in the coming months to prepare for crops.
The farm operations will be managed under CORCAN, a key rehabilitation program for CSC.
Also attending the announcement were Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen; Scott Harris, deputy commissioner for the Ontario Region for CSC; ; and Dianne Dowling of the Prison Farm Advisory Board.
Morning Joy, a descendant of the prison herd, and Billy, a seven-week-old Nubian goat, were also in attendance at the event.
Morning Joy wore a sign provided by prison farm advocate Jeff Peters that read “Moooving Back To Prison. Thank You.”
Holland said the program has helped helped turn lives around for prisoners.
Working with animals taught inmates empathy, Holland said.
“The pride of spending a full day of work and being able to produce and work in agriculture,” he said.
Holland praised the work of the group Save Our Prison Farms and the Prison Farm Advisory group for seeing the farms come back after almost eight years.
“When something shuts down, it’s not often the community can bring it back, but it’s the power of this program and the power of what’s being done that makes this possible,” Holland said.
He also mentioned the small but dedicated group that protested in front of Collins Bay Institution every Monday night since the cows left on that Monday afternoon in August 2010.
“These people believed in it and they did it the right way. They did it in a way that democracy promotes and expects us to do it in,” Gerretsen said. “This is your victory.”
Kelly Hartle, acting CEO for CORCAN, said the new agricultural operations are going to give prisoners an opportunity to continue to create possibilities for employment and training that will help the inmate population reintegrate into the community.
“To the degree that we possibly can, we’ll be looking at restoring buildings and renovating buildings. Certainly there will be some new construction to ensure that we have a facility that’s up to date for our new operations model,” Hartle said.
Dianne Dowling of the Prison Farm Advisory Board said that the Pen Herd Co-op has offered the prison farms the descendants at fair market value but hasn’t heard back from CORCAN.
“It’s definitely our hope they will buy back the cattle that we have,” she said.
Dowling said members of the Save our Prison Farms, who started to organize in February 2009 when the federal government announced the closure, were buoyed by their conviction that the prison farms provided “valuable training and therapy for inmates.”
“This is an awesome day for us. We were excited with the budget announcement, disappointed that the cows weren’t involved, but we were given a second chance through the minister’s office to make a proposal that would include the dairy cows and it was accepted after a lot of hard work on numbers and so on.”
In the past, the group proposed an artisan cheese production but now they’ve agreed to have their milk processed offsite.
She also said CSC wanted goats as part of the program with an infant formula plant soon to open in Kingston.
“The federal government’s interest and approval of the goat operation is related to increased demand for goat milk in eastern Ontario that will come with the (formula) plant,” she said.
“It’s great to finally say the cows are coming home.”
imacalpine@postmedia.com
Twitter: @IanMacAlpine
查看原文...
