Pine Grove had space for male inmates, province says

The male inmates are being supervised separately from Pine Grove’s female population by guards from the Prince Albert Correctional Centre (PACC). Pine Grove’s gym, he said, also has a separate entrance and the province is ensuring there is enough staff present as well.

“The reality is a correctional worker is a correctional worker and with the males, there certainly is the ability for both a male and a female to supervise them and that happens in every male … centre now in this province.”

The original set of inmates that moved to Pine Grove have since left the system, but they have been replaced by other male inmates. The male inmates at Pine Grove are being housed in the correctional centre’s gymnasium.

The number of inmates housed in the gymnasium is capped at 20.

The decision hasn’t come without objections.

Housing the inmates in Pine Grove’s gymnasium isn’t a good setup, the Saskatchewan Government Employees’ Union (SGEU) president, Bob Bymoen, said on Monday. He said it’s overcrowded and it’s not good for inmates as well as staff.

He said it would be a better situation for workers and inmates if the province re-opened Besnard Lake and the PACC’s new unit. The inmates at Pine Grove would also be able to use the gym for what it’s intended for, he added.

The issue first came to light late last week during Question Period in the Saskatchewan Legislature. Opposition NDP whip and Cumberland MLA Doyle Vermette questioned Minister of Corrections and Policing Christine Tell about the province’s decision to continue to house the male inmates at Pine Grove with the Besnard Lake facility now ready to reopen.

The camp remains closed as the ministry undertakes a review of its programming. It is part of a wider review of the province’s correctional facilities.

The ministry is aiming bring forth a plan with potential near-term solutions for overcrowding in the coming months.

The Besnard Lake facility is a Community Training Residence (CTR), which focuses on rehabilitating inmates in order to get them ready to re-enter the mainstream. McFee said a CTR in the province’s North is a priority, but he said the province needs to determine, within the next six months, if there is a better solution than Besnard Lake in the North.

He said the province has been discussing this with Northlands College and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. They are particularly looking at whether they could go beyond what had been offered to create meaningful employment.

“So that whole thing is under review, we’re a fair ways down the review, it ties into our bigger plan of how we have to reduce numbers and recidivism,” McFee said.

Overcrowding in the jails, according to the union, sometimes means beds are moved to areas where they weren’t meant to be, such as corridors, gymnasiums, and people sleeping in interview rooms or cells used for video links to court.

“They weren’t designed for that, and it comes with issues,” Bymoen said.

Bymoen said overcrowding leads to double-bunking and putting people with mental illnesses in with the general population.

It’s had an effect on staff as well, who Bymoen said express to union leadership that the stress that this type of work puts them under, especially when it’s overcrowded.

“Generally, they just have to suck it up, which is just unfortunate,” he continued.

The growth in the inmate population in the jails is rising at such a steep rate as suspects wait in custody at various stages of their case’s journey through the courts.

Population growth in the jails has been driven by the number of people in remand custody, McFee said. People in remand are kept in custody as they go through the system and await trial.

According to statistics provided by the province, the number of inmates serving sentences in the jails has grown by 2.1 per cent since 1998, while the number of inmates in remand has grown by 89.1 per cent. Of those inmates, 58 per cent of those serve one to 14 days in jail.

“So, if we really want to address overcrowding in our facilities, when 40 to 50 per cent of our facilities are people sitting on remand and a large portion or half of them are one to 14 days with no treatment, that’s where we’re going to focus in and … so we can actually focus in on our programming,” said McFee.

One of the ways the province has been trying to address overcrowding in its facilities is through creating new capacity. More beds for inmates will open up this fall when the PACC opens its new unit. The unit was expected to open in April or May, but now, McFee confirmed it will open in October.

While the Saskatchewan Government Employees’ Union (SGEU) was concerned about the unit opening at half capacity, McFee said it is scheduled to get up to “maximum” capacity in October. The unit will be dedicated to inmates in remand custody.

The unit will add up to 144 beds, or 72 new cells to its current capacity.

“Just by putting this building online, that’s going to help us use our assets better, but we still need to drill into the process that’s driving this, because otherwise it’ll be this continued thing,” McFee said.

The union felt the province on the right track by building the new unit at the PACC and with the repairs to the Besnard Lake facility. He said they want to work with the government to work out whatever “kinks” are delaying the two facilities coming online.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

Pine Grove had space for male inmates, province says

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