The combination of flawed penality, crushing poverty and a natural disaster that devastated Haiti's already fragile criminal justice infrastructure made the country a fitting candidate for a new kind of international aid effort, which we call penal aid. This international aid effort uses rule of law theories and practices to develop credible criminal justice institutions and reform penal practice throughout the world. According to rule of law measures, detention indicates flawed justice and a weak state, whereas trial and transformative punishment promotes global security and poverty reduction. The rule of law is a method for punishing better, a mechanism of international aid, a measure of global security and a means for the recognition of law-abiding states. Rule of law reconstruction is about international state-crafting and remaking Haiti in the image of a global penal state.

This article explores the transformation of contract private security and security intelligence networks by drawing on results of a 2003 survey of contract security firms in Ontario, Canada. Comparing these results with a 1976 survey by Shearing et al. reveals a dramatic increase in the intelligence gathering and sharing capacities of contract security firms. This increased capacity can be put to various uses. The results of the 2003 survey permit the identification of three security intelligence networks that are constituted by this intelligence capacity: disciplinary networks, private justice networks, and multi-lateralized networks. These are differentiated by the type of intelligence provided and by the asymmetrical processes of intelligence provision to select security intelligence consumers. Security firms that share intelligence with their clients are less likely to share intelligence with police. Contract security consumers therefore largely determine the intelligence sharing practices of contract security firms.

This article explores private security self‐regulation and client‐centredness by comparing the results of two surveys of contract security agencies in Ontario, Canada—one by and one by the authors in 2003. Comparative analysis reveals that the perceived adequacy of existing state regulation has increased while the adequacy of enforcement has decreased despite unchanged state regulation. There have been changes in the type of guard‐training agencies provide. Educational requirements for guards and the educational levels of private security managers have increased substantially over time. Changes in the training and increases in educational requirements are found to be positively associated with the provision of customized services to clients. Since 1980, agencies have diversified their client base across public and private sectors, and consumption sites have become more important among client types. Client‐centredness has become a key factor in agency self‐regulation since the "Quiet Revolution".