Roommates, portable beds on tap for jail in Yarmouth

By Tina Comeau, THE VANGUARD, NovaNewsNow.com

The correctional centre in Yarmouth is set to double in size, but not square footage.

A memo sent to correctional services staff last Friday outlines the justice department’s plan to increase capacity at its correctional facilities in Yarmouth and Burnside as a means of addressing overcrowding issues at jails in the province.

In the case of the Southwest Nova Scotia Correctional Facility on Forest Street in Yarmouth, the intention is to double the capacity from 38 prisoners/inmates to 76 by bringing in portable beds to turn the single cells in the jail into double cells.

The memo indicates staff compliments in Yarmouth and Burnside will increase to accommodate the additional population, although it does not indicate by how much.

It says additional tables and day room furnishes will also be added.

According to the memo's author Fred Honsberger, executive director of the justice department’s correctional services, the department is experiencing higher than normal custody rates in its adult facilities, largely due to the remand population.

People in correctional facilities on remand are those waiting to be dealt with by the court system. They tend to be people who have either been just charged and are awaiting their first court appearances or bail hearings. They are also people who have been denied bail because of the nature of their offence, or they are seen as a flight risk or at risk to re-offend if released. These people remain on remand until their court matters have concluded with either a conviction or an acquittal. In the case of a sentencing that involves jail time, they’re given credit for the time they spent in jail on remand.

The memo notes the remand problem and high custody rates are not unique to this province.

In addition to increasing capacity at the Yarmouth correctional facility, the capacity at the facility in Burnside will increase from 224 male offender beds to 336.

In his memo Honsberger says the design and square footage allocation per inmate in the Yarmouth and Burnside facilities is sufficient to accommodate the excess population. He says he is confident corrections staff will be able to respond to the situation through a measured responses and a strong team effort.

But critics of the department’s plan say making already overcrowded jails more crowded will make a bad situation even worse.

“When you double bunk inmates and you’re putting more pressure on the staff, you’re increasing the stress on staff and you’re also going to increase tension on the inmates,” NDP justice critic Bill Estabrooks told the Yarmouth Vanguard/NovaNewsNow.com Monday afternoon.

He says he’s concerned about the safety of correctional officers, and also about the quality of life for inmates and their safety.

“There will be physical confrontations and there will be incidents that occur because of this overcrowding,” Estabrooks predicts. And in the case of Yarmouth, where prisoners and inmates will be sent from outside of their region, this is a situation that further compounds things, says Estabrooks, because you’re housing people in facilities far from their relatives.

The memo states the Yarmouth and Burnside facilities will accept transfers from Antigonish, Cumberland and Cape Breton if need be, where capacity will remain the same.

So what’s worse? Overcrowding at correctional facilities or the department’s plan to address it? Estabrooks says that’s a good question, and maybe not the only one that needs to be answered. He says another question might be are people on remand being held in the right place? Already, he notes, there is “quite a mix” of people being housed in provincial correctional facilities. You’ve got what he called the ‘weekenders,’ you’ve got the people serving jail terms of two years less a day which keeps them in provincial facilities, and you’ve got people on remand, some of whom are high-risk offenders whose final destination may be federal prison.

“Are the remands in the right place?” he asks of the latter.

On the flip side, he says, the justice department should be looking at more ways to keep non-violent offenders out of jail.

Meanwhile, the province’s Liberal justice critic is also concerned by the plan to increase capacity at the facilities in Yarmouth and Burnside.

“If the number of inmates is doubling, (Justice) Minister Cecil Clarke needs to ensure the number of staff doubles as well,” says Michel Samson. “Our corrections officers must be insulated and protected from this potentially unstable situation.”

Samson points to other recent situations involving correctional facilities including the premature release of some inmates and the escape of a prisoner facing charges of attempted murder and hostage taking.

“Instead of being tough on crime the Conservative government is only making the job of corrections staff even more difficult and dangerous,” he says.

The memo to correctional staff states that the changes to capacity will be in place “pending consideration/and of infrastructure in northern Nova Scotia. It is intended that we will return to our single cell custody arrangement when new infrastructure is available, subject to government approval.”

NovaNewsNow.com has put several questions to the Department of Justice about the change in capacity to the Yarmouth and Burnside facilities. Stay tuned for other updates.