By Naomi Lakritz, Calgary Herald

Why are the Alberta Tories chanting their privatization mantra again?

Just seven years ago, they looked into privatizing prisons and concluded that Alberta's $128-million corrections system is the cheapest and most efficiently run in Canada. Yet, as part of their latest review - one they say is necessary given the changes in sentencing and the release of more people into the community - the "p" word has come up again.

"Ontario has moved to a privatization model and we have to look at it," Solicitor-General Heather Forsyth has said.

The private prison at Penetanguishene has been open just a few months. It's much too soon to know how well it's working, or to rationalize copying it here.

"It's probably too early to tell," agrees Red Deer North MLA Mary Anne Jablonski, head of the corrections review committee. Nonetheless, the committee will troop out there at taxpayers' expense to have a look.

Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and a corrections officer with 16 years experience wonders: "When did Alberta ever point to Ontario as a role model?"

Just since it caught the privatization bug again, apparently.

Jean Olynyk, a spokeswoman for Forsyth's office, says if the province doesn't include privatization in its review, "people will want to know why we didn't."

People? What people? Nobody's brought up the issue except the government.

The AUPE has grave concerns about privatization which should not be dismissed as knee-jerk protectionism.

Union or non-union, who doesn't get upset at a threat to their jobs? That's beside the point - AUPE members are the front-line workers in Alberta's jails and they know what they're talking about when they say private prisons are a bad idea.

Based on his research, MacLennan estimates guards earn up to 50 per cent less in private prisons and rarely enjoy a benefits package. In Alberta, the salary range for 90 per cent of the front-line guards goes from $32,652 to $44,364 after seven years. When the profit motive prevails, it means lower pay, less-qualified personnel and cost-cutting on security measures.

A study done last year by the U.S. National Council on Crime and Delinquency found private prisons "achieve modest cost savings. . .by making modest reductions in staffing patterns, fringe benefits and other labour-related costs."

The Washington Post reported that Corrections Corp. of America, the largest for-profit prison operators in the U.S., saves money by housing violent and non-violent inmates together. Just after CCA took over an Ohio prison, two inmates were slain, five killers escaped and 17 other prisoners were stabbed. At a CCA medium security facility in Colorado, there were nine guards for 400 inmates, under the supervision of a 24-year-old warden.

"You're warehousing people, a lot of whom are very dangerous," says MacLennan, who has worked in eight prisons, ranging from work camps to Calgary's Spy Hill centre.

"You have to have a partner you can trust for back-up, someone you know is qualified to handle anything. I've seen a lot of slashings. You can get attacked by an inmate - it happens regularly. We used to find knives; we had people who were stabbed. One inmate dumped a big pot of boiling water over another guy's head. You have to know how to restrain an inmate during an attempted assault," he says.

Most Alberta corrections officers are graduates of post-secondary criminology programs who take basic training in Edmonton and are mentored on the job by experienced staff.

"It's dangerous in there every day. You deal with hostage-takings. You escort murderers to outside appointments," MacLennan says.

Who's going to work for less pay yet equal peril?

"Hepatitis C is a big problem. I know a (corrections officer) who got a hypodermic needle up to the knuckle," MacLennan says. "There's been a dramatic increase in gangs in prisons; the reason there aren't more problems is that they're taken care of in advance. Experienced corrections officers can spot a problem, stop a suicide or pick up on something violent about to happen."

Researcher Judith Greene at American Prospect magazine reports that when two prisoners escaped from a CCA prison in Texas, investigators found that doors had been left unlocked and the surveillance monitors left unwatched. When the escapees set off an alarm, staff merely turned it off.

Greene's look into private prisons across the U.S. found more violent incidents in general and that profit concerns meant less money spent on programs for inmates and staff training.

"Everything I've found out about the issue," says MacLennan, "indicates that in a private jail, when it comes down to security or profit, they always choose profit."

Alberta's talk of privatization smacks solely of conservative ideology. That's the worst reason in the world for tinkering with public safety.