| This research explores the changing role of the private sector in provincial prison infrastructure expansion in Ontario. After contracting out the operations of a new prison and facing much resistance, the provincial government began delivering prisons by maintaining public operations but financing them privately through public-private partnerships. To understand the political and economic impacts of these changes, I analyzed relevant government documents and interviews I conducted with 15 key informants from government agencies, firms and other organizations involved in creating, implementing and resisting prison expansion policies between 1995 and today. I show how changes in infrastructure governance were shaped by contestation between the state, international financial investors, private firms in Canada, labour and others involved in prison systems. Through public-private partnerships, the role of government shifted towards that of market facilitator, and as infrastructure was placed on global debt markets, international financial capital played a new part in prison development. |
