By Kellah Lavoie

P.A. Youth Residence fills

Jul 30, 2011 | 7:25 AM

A back-up of young offenders in remand last week in Prince Albert resulted in some getting sent to Regina.

It is something that is not unusual, said Judy Orthner, communications director for the Ministry of Corrections, Public Safety and Policing, explaining it happens every few months at one of the provincial youth remand centres – what is unusual is they were sent so far away. When the Prince Albert Youth Residence is full, they try to keep the kids as close as possible, sending them to either Saskatoon’s Kilburn Hall or the North Battleford Youth Centre.

“From time to time we just don’t have sufficient space at one location, and you know sometimes, depending on how quickly the kids might go through youth court or it might depend on how many charges have been laid by the local police or RCMP, there are a number of factors that might relate why one youth facility is busier than the other,” she said. The reasons might be as simple as the court system or police might be busier than normal.

The remand unit in Prince Albert has 12 beds, and from time to time they fill up, she said.

“Certainly, Young Offenders does have capacity to manage all of its remand and sentenced youth in our provincial custody system.”

Politics

Liberal leadership race crystallizes as candidates make opening pitches

1h ago

Middle east conflict

Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to begin Sunday

4h ago

BODY-WORN CAMERAS

RCMP body cameras aim to build trust, but expert says can be "problematic"

Jan 17, 2025

Orthner said she can’t speculate on if any of the moves happen on a regular basis.

RCMP will provide transportation to closest facility for the youth, but they normally are not gone for any length of time.

“Part of the court system requires that we need to remand both adult and young offenders to a facility that is the closest to where they were charged, so if a youth was charged in or around Prince Albert they would need to come back to Prince Albert for their court appearance,” she said.

If the youth does have to stay in a different remand centre for any length of time, they may have the opportunity to take part in some of that facility’s programing, Orthner said.

klavoie@panow.com