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Canada: PCI responds to MTC.

Midland Free Press
October 29, 2004
Letter of the Day
More on CNCC

This is in response to Management & Training Corporation's diatribe ("MTC defends accreditation," Oct. 22, 2004) about Brian Dawe's Oct 15 "Letter of the Day" questioning the American Correctional Association (ACA) accreditation of MTC's Central North Correctional Centre (CNCC).

MTC's Peter Mount never addressed any of the points Mr. Dawe raised. Instead, Mr. Mount resorted to a personal assault on Mr. Dawe and his organization, Corrections USA.

Not once did Mr. Mount defend the credibility or the significance of ACA's accreditation.

Why didn't Mr. Mount just present evidence to counter the claims that:
1. ACA has never failed an institution, during an accreditation audit?
2. ACA refuses to release the results of its audits?
3. ACA ensures that positions on its board and committees are filled with for-profit private prison operators?
4. ACA has accredited some facilities in the United States that have later been sites of excessive staff-on-inmate violence?

In January 2004, Abt Associates released a report for the U.S. Department of Justice called "Government's Management of Private Prisons." This report says the following about ACA accreditation:

Achieving ACA accreditation is not an outcomes-based performance goal. Rather, ACA standards primarily prescribe procedures.
(Emphasis in original) The great majority of ACA standards are written in this form: "The facility shall have written policies and procedures on ..."

The standards emphasize the important benefits of procedural regularity and effective administration control that flow from written procedures, and careful documentation of practices and events. But, for the most part, the standards prescribe neither the goals that ought to be achieved nor the indicators that would let officials know if they are making progress toward those goals over time.

I guess now Mr. Mount will be calling the Abt and the U. S. Department of Justice zealots.

However, it is nice to know that if there is a riot at the CNCC, MTC may have the paperwork to show it has had a riot.

In full disclosure and before Mr. Mount attacks my commitment to the fight against for-profit private prisons, I am the executive director of the Private Corrections Institute, an advocacy group that presents the "other side" of the story on private prisons.

Don't take my word about the horrors associated with profiteering of the incarceration of human beings.

PCI backs up its claims with documentation, without resorting to character assassination.

Ken Kopczynski

Private Corrections Institute