There is this idea that prison should be the worst place in the world. That much is clear whenever you see someone complain about inmates having leisure activities or, in the case of the province’s own premier recently, the belief that they should have decent food. The idea is that prison is punishment, so people within prison should expect nothing, and get nothing in return. The question is whether that view of prison is the most effective way of actually running a prison.
To be clear, prison should be punishment to an extent, but then taking away freedom is inherently punishing. The main goal of prisons should be to ensure that the inmates within their walls, once their sentences are complete, do not return. If someone leaves the prison only to commit another crime and come back, then that prison is a failure, because it was not a deterrent, but it also wasn’t rehabilitation. It was a pause between crimes, rather than a way to actually do something about it. When inmates at the Regina Provincial Correctional Centre protested food quality with a hunger strike, some argued that the bad food was part of the punishment. However, it seems like the bad food is an opportunity to look at a way to run the kitchen within the prison differently.
One of the ways to reduce recidivism is to prepare inmates for re-entry into society, and here we have an example of how to use the quality of food at the Regina Provincial Correctional Centre as a chance to actually try to build those skills. We have a kitchen, a bunch of people who do not think the food coming out of it is very good, and an opportunity. Turn the kitchen over to inmates themselves, or at least inmates with good behavior who can be trusted with the responsibility.
It’s a plan that’s already often used in minimum security facilities. It’s a smart idea, it’s preparation for life outside of prison, because it sets inmates up for careers in the food industry. Inmates can’t really complain too much about food quality because they’re making it and they’re ultimately responsible for how good or bad it tastes. Cost-wise, whether it’s more or less expensive than bringing in a contractor it is more effective at serving the purpose of the prison itself, which is to get people who are incarcerated to be more productive. While it might not be appropriate for all inmates in a facility like Regina to work in the kitchen, it still seems like something that can be kept within the prison system itself, and since it’s being handled by contractors anyway then just contract it to those minimum security prisons which handle food production training.
It’s a thought, at least, an alternate way of looking at a potential problem within the prison system. It’s an approach to look at just because every problem within the prison system should be approached as a way to promote rehabilitation within the population. If we can use this to find a way to prevent people from returning to prison after their release then we should, and if prisoners are complaining at least we should find a way to take their complaints into account in a way that would benefit society at large.
Which makes it more disappointing that the response from Premier Brad Wall was to just dismiss the complaints completely. Yes, being in prison means you’re giving up freedom, including freedom over what you get to eat at any given point. But the response of just ignoring inmate complaints doesn’t actually solve anything, even if the goal of such comments actually was not about solving anything.
The purpose of his comments was about appealing to the streak of prairie populism that has lead to his high poll numbers, rather than actually responding to what the complaints actually were. He knows as well as anyone that he has supporters who are all about prisoners getting punished for crimes, even if his government has at least publicly recognized the value of rehabilitation and building job skills in inmates – Minister Responsible for Corrections and Policing Christine Tell has told me that they want to take approaches that make inmates productive members of society.
And to paraphrase Brad Wall again, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is foolish, so feeding prisoners the same food and expecting much to change within the walls of the Regina Provincial Correctional Centre is not going to work either. It’s going to make problems for guards and inmates, as it already has, so clearly there needs to be a new approach. While there’s plenty of obstacles to overcome, having the corrections system be the primary contractor for their own food, whether with inmates within Regina or from other facilities, is at least a way to use the food service for the primary purpose of the prison system, preventing people from ever coming back.
