Who benefits from Canada’s federal prisons? New executive summary

$259,654. That’s the cost to tax payers to keep a woman in federal prison for a year. Jaw dropping, isn’t it?

It gets worse. There are cheaper alternatives that are more effective. Hear Lisa talking about her experience with one of those alternative: a Healing Lodge.

So the fact is this: Incarceration costs much more than effective alternatives. It also fails to reduce reoffending. Why, then, does the carceral system persist? Who benefits?

CFSC’s ground-breaking report Following the Money: Cui Bono Report uses the guiding question “cui bono” (“who benefits?”) to investigate Canada’s carceral system and the economic interests that surround it.

We’re pleased to share a new four-page Executive Summary of the full report.

Download the Executive Summary.

Learn more about transformative justice.