Following the money: Cui Bono report | Who profits financially from incarceration in Canada?

Canadian Friends Service Committee is excited to announce the publication of “Following the Money: Cui Bono report. An analysis of who profits financially from Canadian carceral institutions.”

You can read the report by clicking here.

While acceptance of transformative approaches to harm and wrongdoing have been making inroads in Canada, the progress is still slow. Why are we still so committed to putting people behind bars? There is ample evidence that incarceration can create more problems than it solves. When Restorative approaches have been proven effective and cost-efficient, why do we choose mass incarceration? Perhaps because there is money to be made from imprisoning people. Transformative Justice Program Coordinator Karen Ridd, and her colleague Lindsay Hunt have been researching corporations who receive Correctional Service Canada contracts.

Did you know that a US-based corporation being sued for its role in the opioid crisis is one of the biggest recipients of Correctional Service Canada contract largesse? That incarcerated people at the Manitoba Remand Centre are being charged hundreds of dollars just to watch content on tablets – and that these profits enrich a company headquartered in Texas? That government data on contract expenditures is inconsistent and unverifiable? Read the “Cui Bono” report and learn more.