On comparative advantages

The OPSEU points out that the results are in on a Mike Harris-fueled trial run at privatizing a jail. And based on a direct comparison between the private facility and a public one, the McGuinty government has come to the conclusion that the province is getting a better deal in the public sector:

The (Ontario) government announced (today) that the contract with a Utah-based company to operate the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene, the first private adult jail in Canada, would not be renewed...

The Mike Harris government announced in May, 2001, that Management & Training Corporation would have a five-year pilot project to operate the 1,184-bed correctional centre. It would be compared to the operation of the new Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, which is publicly-run. According to the study, the publicly-run CECC performed better in key areas such as security, health care and reducing re-offending rates.

The areas of success for the public sector are particularly worthy of notice given the central functions of incarceration and rehabilitation - both of which appear to be better carried out by the public sector. Next time a Harris type wants to ask what we have to lose by giving privatized correction systems another shot, the ready answer is security, both inside and outside the institution. And few Canadians will be happy to accept higher re-offending rates as the price to indulge a government's privatizing ideology.