System corrections required

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2012 (5172 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The jail in The Pas has twice as many inmates as beds, and some prisoners sleep on the floor.

At the Headingley jail, the province just issued a tender to move woodworking equipment to The Pas and turn the Headingley shop into a dorm for dozens of inmates.

The gym in Winnipeg’s remand centre is now home to 36 bunk beds for women, and one corrections officer compared it to a hurricane Katrina-style emergency shelter.

In the old Portage Correctional Centre, one woman was kept in a solitary confinement cell for 67 days due to overcrowding.

Manitoba Corrections is at a crossroads.

There are 900 more inmates in provincial jails than the buildings are designed to handle. If the last five years are any barometer, the province could have 3,300 inmates by 2016. Operating budgets have nearly doubled in the last five years and the province is looking at millions of dollars in new construction over the next decade.

Reg Forester, the now-retired director of adult corrections for the province, did a back-of-the-napkin estimate and came up with $600 million to deal with current overcrowding and another $600 million to cope with new inmates. That’s a price he says is unsustainable and highlights the need to rethink the way crimes are punished.

Meanwhile, new federal tough-on-crime legislation is the wild card. Everyone agrees it will exacerbate overcrowding, but no one knows how much.

“If we’re in crisis management now, what will it look like in five years?” asked Winnipeg defence lawyer Bonnie Gembey.

She spoke Tuesday at a public hearing of the three-person panel tasked with figuring out how to fix jail overcrowding. Gembey said the problem of the province’s overwhelmed jail system is particularly acute in Thompson, where she worked as a Crown attorney for about a year.

Thompson has no remand or jail space save for a few tiny RCMP holding cells, so prisoners must be driven more than four hours back and forth from The Pas, where the jail is also bursting at the seams.

The logistics hold up court hearings, put sheriffs at greater risk and leave inmates coping with what Gembey called completely unacceptable living conditions.

Both Thompson and Dauphin are lobbying for large, new regional jails with plenty of space for rehabilitation, education and cultural programming, which are at a premium elsewhere in the system.

Provincial jails aren’t being used for punishment. Roughly two-thirds of all inmates in provincial jails are on remand. They are awaiting trial, have not yet been convicted of any crime and are presumed innocent.

And critics, including corrections officers, say chronic overcrowding has forced the province to abandon some of the more modern principles of corrections — ample training and rehabilitation for inmates, semi-private cells instead of dorms, less use of solitary confinement.

According to data released under access to information, more than 30 inmates at the Portage Correctional Centre were placed in segregation due to overcrowding in 2010. That accounts for about 20 per cent of all incidents of segregation in the women’s jail that year.

The federal correctional investigator has repeatedly raised a red flag about the prolonged use of segregation, especially its effect on mentally ill inmates.

But Greg Graceffo, the assistant deputy minister for corrections, said he doesn’t believe segregation cells are used that often as overflow, though the province doesn’t track the data.

Jail staff strive to keep segregation cells free in case they are needed to protect a prisoner’s safety or the safety of other inmates.

“When it comes to the management of segregation, superintendents are very careful to make sure they are using that space for its intended purpose,” he said.

Corrections officers also say the increasingly common use of dorms to house inmates makes jails more dangerous.

It’s trickier to keep rival gang members apart and it’s hard for guards to spot tense situations or quell violence when it erupts.

Several pointed to recommendations made following the deadly 1996 riot in Headingley to phase out the use of dorms.

But Graceffo said, though not ideal, dorms have been used since the 1960s at Headingley and can be an appropriate way to house inmates. Dorm-style units even work best in some of the new addiction rehabilitation units, called therapeutic communities, planned for Headingley.

Corrections officers say the not-so-simple task of keeping the peace in overcrowded jails means officers have no time to practise the newer, more progressive forms of direct supervision, in which they interact with inmates, form relationships and work on rehabilitation and release plans.

“We’re going to get you fed today. We’re going to get you clean clothes today. We’re going to get you a shower. If we can get you a phone call, bonus,” said one 22-year veteran of Manitoba’s corrections system.

She piped up at Tuesday’s meeting of the capacity review panel, but did not want her name published because she is not permitted to speak publicly.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Snapshot of adult jails

Brandon Correctional Centre

Mostly for male inmates, it’s primarily a medium-security jail.

It has room for 248 inmates. On average, it holds 341.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Headingley Correctional Centre

The province’s largest jail, it’s got minimum-, medium- and maximum-security facilities.

It has room for 485 inmates. On average, it holds about 775.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milner Ridge Correctional Centre

A batch of portables were recently put up at the province’s minimum/medium-security jail, adding another 64 beds.

Another 160 beds are slated to open later this year, costing $34 million.

The jail has room for 300 inmates. There are about 383 on average.

Portage Correctional Centre

Old and obsolete, it’s slated to close once inmates are moved to the new Women’s Correctional Centre in Headingley.

The small jail can hold 35 women but houses an average of 68.

 

 

 

 

The Pas Correctional Centre

The only jail in the north.

The jail can hold 74 people but normally has roughly 157 inmates. Another 40 beds will be added this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winnipeg Remand Centre

Located in a downtown highrise, it has a highly transient population. It’s where newly charged inmates go first and where inmates awaiting trial remain, often for months.

Very little programming happens in remand.

It has room for 289 inmates. On average, it holds 406.

 

Dauphin Correctional Centre

It’s Manitoba’s smallest men’s jail, but the town has made a pitch to dramatically expand or rebuild it.

It has room for 61 people but normally houses 84.