After filing information requests with the government, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation recently discovered that Saskatchewan taxpayers have been picking up the bill for video games in government-run youth jails. Yes, video games.
Thankfully, the controversial expenditures have been outlawed by the government in the future. Remarkably, it took just six hours from the time we raised it with the Premier's office to the time they indicated taxpayers would never again have to pick up the tab for video games in provincial youth jails.
Thumbs up to such swift action.
After all, jail isn't supposed to be a place of luxury. Why on earth should law abiding taxpayers have to pay for inmates to play the best video games money can buy?
Yes, you read that right. We're not talking Atari 2600's or Nintendos from 1986 - the facilities have Playstation 3's and Xbox 360's - the best systems on the market right now.
Games for the systems are purchased with either jail funds or inmates' own funds. Incredibly, the numbers show the government has been spending more on the average game than inmates.
On average, inmates spent $8.30 less per game than the government. The latter even purchased the most expensive game of the bunch - "Rock Band" for $153.81; it undoubtedly must have come with the plastic drum set and guitar.
In the grand scheme of things, the government didn't spend a lot of money - just $1,616.97 on the games over a four year period. But that's not the point.
Jails should be a place to repay one's debt to society and learn skills to stay out of trouble in the future. It shouldn't have all the luxuries that people can enjoy on the outside.
It's probably safe to say that few taxpayers would care if inmates had a deck of cards to play with or magazines to read after a long day of learning, cleaning up parks or some kind of other productive activity. But certainly high-end video games are a stretch in terms of basic necessities and simple pleasures.
The situation in Sask youth jails even has an ironic twist. You see, many of the video games purchased were NHL hockey games. The irony comes from the fact that Edmonton Oilers star goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was just released from the toughest jail in the United States - Arizona's Maricopa County jail run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
He's the sheriff that makes inmates wear pink jumpsuits and ride exercise bikes in order to produce electricity for lighting that inmates want to use at night.
Thus, it's entirely conceivable that at the exact same time that car thieves in Sask youth jails were busy playing as the Edmonton Oilers in an NHL video game, the real Oilers' goalie was sweating on an exercise bike to produce electricity in the toughest jail in Arizona.
So does Sheriff Joe's approach work? Well, the numbers seem to suggest it does. One study from 2008 found Arizona had the lowest reoffending rate in the nation at just 24.5 per cent.
Perhaps numbers like that might entice the Sask government to go beyond cancelling funding for new video games and pull the existing systems out of jail all together.
One thing is for certain, taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing video games in jail. Thankfully the government has said 'game over' to more in the future.
Colin Craig is the Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
