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The Territorializing Function of Penitentiary Farms Land, Agriculture, and the Carceral: The Territorializing Function of Penitentiary Farms Kelly Struthers Montford Abstract: The Correctional Service of Canada is currently re-insti- tuting animal-based agribusiness programs in two federal peni- tentiaries. To situate the contemporary function of such programs, I provide a historical overview of prison agriculture in relation to Canadian nation-making. I argue that penitentiary farms have func- tioned as a means of prison expansion and settler territorialisa- tion. While support for agricultural programming is rooted in its perceived facilitation of rehabilitation and vocational training, I ought to be viewed as an institution made possible by and that re- produces,show that thesesettler justifications colonial power are untenable.relations to Rather animals, the prisonlabour, farm and territory. Prison agribusiness is then an expression of colonial, agri- cultural, and carceral powers. I. Introduction rior to confederation in 1867, and until 2010, Canadian peniten- tiary farms were a component of federal male incarceration.1 In P2009, under the direction of the Conservative government, the I have reviewed do not provide a rationale as to why penitentiary agriculture 1. wasArchambault unique to “Report men’s ofinstitutions. the Royal Commission,” Women under 136. federal The archival sentence records were thathis- - vants.torically See “rehabilitated” Hannah-Moffat, according Punishment to standards in Disguise of. middle-classPrison labour whiteness in women’s so that they could become marriageable and find employment as domestic ser © Radical Philosophy Review Volume 22, number 1 (2019): 113–141 DOI: 10.5840/radphilrev20192494 06--Struthers Montford.indd 113 4/3/2019 3:18:40 PM 114 Kelly Struthers Montford Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) announced the closure of its agribusi- ness programs.2 Prior to their closure, the penitentiary farms employed approximately 716 federal prisoners (less than 1 percent of the prison population) in six institutions3 whose work included animal-based farm- ing activities such as dairying, egg-production, and the rearing, slaughter- ing, and butchering of farmed animals. The government stated that less than one percent of prisoners working in agribusiness found work in this - erating at a loss of $4 million per year—costing $11 million to operate, the farmsfield upon generated release. $7 Furthermore, million in revenue. at the time4 The of government closure, the farmspositioned were opthe - - mentfarms had as both announced financially that unviablethis program and wouldas having be replaced little return by updated on “invest and relevantment” in employmentthat prisoners training were not initiatives. trained in5 marketable skills. The govern In 2010, amidst public resistance and protest, the farms closed. In the summer of 2016, as a result of ongoing public pressure from food activists, exploring the possibility of reopening prison farms.6 thefarming liberal groups, government public officials, committed and citizens,$4.3 million CSC ran dollars a public to re-openconsultation two In February 2018, In the presentation of their federal budget, the current liberal government statedpenitentiary that reopening farms in thetwo Kingston, of the previously Ontario areaclosed over farms the wouldnext five “provide years. federal inmates with training opportunities to acquire new skills, while penitentiaries also continues to be gendered and in service of the larger men’s institutions. This includes laundry services, textiles, and the sewing of prison- - Penitentiary Act of 1868 issued men’s clothing, towels, bed linens, and drapery. See Office of the Cor rectional Investigator Canada, “Annual Report.” The - sons,also provided I suspect for that the agriculture imposition was of “hardnot seen labour” as an for appropriate a period notrehabilitative exceeding programthree months, for women see Canada, as it is “Anrooted Act inrespecting beliefs about Penitentiaries.” strenuous physical For these labour rea - Creatures of Empire Cattle Colonialism Dangerousand masculine Crossings dominance. over nature. See MacDonald, “(Confidential Memo randum)”; Anderson, ; Fischer, ; Kim, - 2. Goodman and Dawe, “Prisoners, Cows and Abattoirs.” 3. Mehta, “Trudeau Government Considers Reopening Prison Farms”; Fitzger ald, “Doing Time in a Slaughterhouse.” 4. Neufield, “The Herd at the Pen.” 5. Francis, “Ottawa Failing on Prison Farm Replacement.” 6. CSC “Penitentiary Farm Online Public Consultation.” 06--Struthers Montford.indd 114 4/3/2019 3:18:40 PM The Territorializing Function of Penitentiary Farms 115 preparing for employment and successful reintegration and rehabilitation 7 intomilk thefrom community.” approximately 500 goats will be sold to a Chinese-based infant As a first step, the re-opened farms will operate a goat dairy, in which been positioned as responsive to an increased demand for goat dairy productsformula producer,in the region Feihe in which International. the two farms Penitentiary will re-open. goat-dairies This increased have - lion to build an infant formula plant in the Kingston, Ontario area. The plantdemand, will however, purchase is Canadian the result dairy of Feihe to make International 60,000 tonnes investing of dry$225 infant mil the baby boom expected with the repeal of their one-child policy.8 With thefood opening per year; of 85 the percent plant, of the which government will be transported plans to double to China penitentiary to support herds from 500 goats to 1000 goats to support production demands.9 Subsequent announcements reveal that thirty cows will also be part of the re-opened farms.10 CSC also plans to have penal agricultural labourers slaughtering and butchering goats not used in the dairy, as well as ani- mals for 350 farms in the surrounding area. In total, the farms will occupy 1,500 acres of land.11 The Government has directed that the farms would 12 13 Despite the historical importance of agriculture in Canada’s colonial againproject be and managed the place by CORCAN of the penitentiary using a for-profit farm in model. Canada’s penological history, it has received little academic attention. Of the attention paid, much of it addresses contemporary penal agriculture, and fails to con- sider farmed animals as subjects who are targeted by overlapping forms 7. Canada, “Federal Budget 2018.” 10.8. McGregor, “New Chinese Baby Formula Plant to Buy Canadian Milk.” 9. Vincent, “The Return of Prison Farms and Tattoos.” 11. MacAlpine, “Cows, Goats Headed Back to Jail,”; Snowdon, “More than 30 Dairy 12. Cows.” MacAlpine, “Cows Not in Initial Prison Farm Plan.” CorrectionalCORCAN is a SpecialService Operating of Canada Agency (CSC). thatIt contributes manages federal to safe prison communities industries by providingin Canada. offenders As per the with CSC, employment “CORCAN isand a keyemployability rehabilitation skills program training ofwhile the incarcerated in federal penitentiaries, and for brief periods of time, after they are released into the community.” They currently produce four “business 13. lines” spanning textiles, manufacturing, construction, and services. See CSC, “CORCAN.” Canada, “Federal Budget 2018”; MacAlpine, “Cows, Goats Headed Back to Jail.” 06--Struthers Montford.indd 115 4/3/2019 3:18:41 PM 116 Kelly Struthers Montford of carceral power.14 Of the criminological literature that takes the question of animal subjectivity seriously, attention is not paid to the role of colo- nialism and animal subjugation.15 spatial similarities shaping separate locations and institutions of human Recent scholarship has considered the- 16 but the prison farm remains unaddressed.and animal confinement This paper respondssuch as prisons, to these solitary omissions confinement by situating cells, the fedfac- eraltory prisonfarms, farmzoos, asand an research instrument laboratories, of settler colonialism that has served to expand the geographical footprint of the prison itself, while at the same time instituting settler-colonial ways of relating to animals, labour, land, current debates surrounding the reinstatement of the penitentiary farms. and Ipunishment. show that in In the so context doing, thisof Canada, paper seeksprison to farms nuance are and distinctly contextualize rooted in a settler colonial project of territorialisation whereby land and animals are transformed into property.17 I approach prison-based agriculture as historically contingent penal practice that requires an account of its con- ditions of possibility.18 - lated to prison-based agriculture, labour, and nation-making, I show that the penitentiary farm wasBy analyzing not an inevitable archival and result historical of historical documents process, re but was articulable because it tracked onto dominant tenets of Canadian on my analysis, I argue that the penitentiary farm is rooted in a settler colo- nialnation-making project of nation-making in the late nineteenth in four overlappingand early twentieth manners: centuries. (1) the prisonBased itfarm reproduces has enabled settler the colonial prison tonorms expand of labour its geographical and life as footprint;natural and (2) su it- relies on colonial relations of private property to animals and to land; (3) food to the prison, and for sale outside of the prison, it contributes to the perior; and (4) as an income generating program that provides labour and theoverall penitentiary viability of farm the prisonis a settler and reproduceslocation of punishment,a specific vision pedagogy,
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