Articles & News

May 30, 2008

Do real time in this jail

Top cop hopes triple credit for time served will be history in new, uncrowded remand facility

By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA

The province's top cop hopes the new remand centre in north Edmonton will put an end to prisoners getting triple credit for time spent in jail awaiting trial.

"We're concerned any time somebody gets a three-for-one," Solicitor General Fred Lindsay said during a tour of the new centre's construction site yesterday.

But the facility "will take care of that concern, and I don't think we'll see that carryon in the future," he added, while acknowledging that judges have repeatedly expressed concerns about harsh conditions at the existing remand centre downtown.

Using a remote-control module, Lindsay and Infrastructure Minister Jack Hayden helped pour the concrete walls for the building's foundation yesterday.

But officials pointed out that construction has been underway since October. As a result, about 18% of the foundation is done on a jail that will include six self-contained living pods, a health centre and a main administration building.

So far, officials have tendered about half of the contracts to build the new prison, which is supposed to be complete by 2011.

When the government initially unveiled plans for the site near 186 Avenue and 127 Street last year, a chorus of observers, including judges and police, worried about the long distance between the new facility and the downtown courthouse.

Concerns centred on the possibility of prisoners escaping during the commute as well as delays in court proceedings. Lindsay, however, said that with 65% of remand centre inmates expected to appear via video link before a judge, the risk of prisoners going on the lam is low.

Yesterday's unveiling of plans for the new centre followed a rash of skirmishes in recent weeks between guards and inmates at the downtown facility - which has a capacity of 348 but currently holds 750 people. In early May, for example, a corrections officer suffered injuries to his shoulder while intervening in a fight, an incident that prompted the union representing provincial employees to call for a serious look at improving security at the new centre.

Government officials, however, say that's exactly what they've done. Separating inmates into the pods, which have their own eating, exercise and living areas, will help keep antagonistic groups of prisoners away from each other, said Alberta Infrastructure spokesman Darcy Scott. "Each pod is like its own jail," he said.

Calls to replace the downtown jail grew louder as judges began handing out generous credits for pretrial custody to prisoners who spent time there. Just last month, 26-year-old Miguel Alvarado received about 2 1/2 days' credit for each day he was kept in segregation cells. As a result, he had less than three years left to serve of his six-year sentence for shooting his ex-girlfriend's new beau last year.

But while officials acknowledge the problems at the existing remand centre, Lindsay said its life as a holding cell for people awaiting trial may not end when the new $620-million facility opens three years from now.

"If our inmate populations continue to grow the way they are and with segregation regarding gangs and those types of things, we still may need it - but hopefully we won't," he said.