Series of Some Significance: Hudak’s ‘work gang’ election plank

[The following three posts were recently listed separately. I have arranged them together here for your convenience and ultimate satisfaction. Ultimate! gah]

Do you support Hudak’s ‘work gang’ election plank?

Part 1

“Put crooks to work.” That’s the spirit.

At least that’s the spirit in Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s Ontario, if he is elected our next Premier.

What Hudak wants:

He wants 2,700 convicted prisoners (excluding young offenders and inmates awaiting trial) to perform up to 40 hours of mandatory manual labour a week, including “raking leaves, collecting garbage and cleaning graffiti.” (May 27, London Free Press)


[“We’re workin’ on a chain gang”: photo link]

He wants to “end the practice of letting convicted prisoners spend their time watching TV or playing cards.”

What Hudak thinks:

“I just think it’s the right thing to do.”

“It’s time for inmates to give back to society.”

He thinks ‘the value of the work the inmates perform would cover the added cost of security and travel involved in doing it, but would also set aside a $20 million contingency fund in case it doesn’t.’

What do I think? Stay tuned.

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What do you think of Hudak’s plan?

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PT 2 - Do you support Hudak’s ‘work gang’ election plank?

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak plans to put 2,700 (approx.) convicted criminals to work for up to 40 hours per week if elected Premier.

Though Hudak thinks it’s the right thing to do and “details on whether inmates would be manacled together to prevent escape have yet to be worked out” (May 27, London Free Press), not everyone agrees whole-heartedly with his work gang idea.

For example, Jim Bradley, Community Safety and Corrections Minister, feels Hudak “will be putting citizens at risk by bringing dangerous criminals into their midst... (i.e.) our parks and our neighbourhoods and our schoolyards and our business districts, where there are kids and families.”

Correctional workers “support the idea of inmates doing work but would prefer the tasks to be meaningful and productive.”

Alex Hoyos, a resident of my own city, says the following in a Letter to the Editor:

“Bad idea... punitive labour for criminals is a thing of the past.”

Among other things he adds, “Forced labour is immoral, guarding the criminals... costs more than the benefits, the risk of a criminal fleeing is many times higher...”

However, he notes he is not against paid or voluntary jobs within prison facilities that provide meaningful occupations, the possibility of earning some money, and opportunities to learn skills for a job outside of prison. And finally he notes, “this is just another crazy idea from Hudak.”

Then there’s an idea from Harrison.

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Do you think this is another crazy idea from Hudak?

Would you want criminals raking leaves in a park next door to your property?

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PT 3 - Do you support Hudak’s ‘work gang’ election plank?

Alex Hoyos of London thinks PC Leader Hudak’s plan to make 2,700 provincial inmates perform up to 40 hours of mandatory manual labour per week “is just another crazy idea from Hudak.”

And me? What do I think? Two things.

I think Hudak’s intentions might not be half-baked. I think his initiative, however, is.

Hudak’s intentions: No one can look inside the PC leader’s little round head to determine the full extent or purity of his intentions, but if he intends to make prisoners rake leaves or collect garbage instead of play cards in order to better prepare them to re-enter society with useful job skills and more education, then society as a whole will receive a benefit.

If Hudak intends to take any monetary savings connected to his work gangs and make some form of restitution to those who suffered losses as a result of certain crimes, then some citizens will receive a benefit.

But can we attribute such intentions to his initiative to send prisoners to do mandatory work such as “raking leaves, collecting garbage and cleaning graffiti?”

I don’t think so. Though Hudak attributes ‘value’ to the manual labour (“He expects the value of the work... would cover the added cost of security and travel... but would also set aside a $20 million contingency fund in case it doesn’t”) I don’t think the value is in sound education or meaningful job skills that will help anyone in the future.

$20 million spent, in my opinion, on meaningful education and job skills is a sound investment in Ontario’s future. And Hudak’s plan has less to do with investing and more to do with inventing. Or re-inventing, i.e., the chain gang.

I’ll let Michael Den Tandt have the last word:

“And of course there's the now obligatory crime wedge issue, whereby right-thinking, law-abiding folks are invited to get mad at the lousy, despicable felons and crooks.

“So the Conservatives would use public money to have convicts, presumably in striped jailhouse outfits or Guantanamo orange, paraded along the boulevards, picking up trash and cutting grass.

“As a campaign platform, it is truly pitiful. It throws the door open to Horwath and the NDP to do something interesting, if they can.” (May 31, London Free Press)

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If you feel Hudak’s plan has some merit, please let me know.

Please click here to read deep thoughts from a conservative think-tank.

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