Articles & News

November 10, 2008

Police chief wants remand centre built

Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix, rnickel@sp.canwest.com

Police Chief Clive Weighill hopes to create a crime and punishment campus on the site of the planned new police station.

Building a new provincial courthouse and a remand centre by the new station would shorten prisoner transportation, but also free up a dozen police officers. A remand centre, such as those used in Alberta and Winnipeg, is a jail designed to hold prisoners for short periods, such as a day or two.

"We're not corrections workers. We don't really have the proper facility, we don't have the proper training for it," Weighill said.

When police make an arrest, they can hold the person in the detention for up to 72 hours until a first provincial court appearance.

Police officers take prisoners to court in the morning and then back to the police station if necessary. If the prisoner is remanded in custody, a sheriff's officer drives him or her to the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.

In 2006, Thomas Dale Mountney died in the Saskatoon police detention centre of intoxication, according to the conclusions of a coroner's jury. It recommended a "rousability check" on any inmate who remains in the same position without moving for an hour.

If Saskatoon had a remand centre, police would take a new arrest there, where they would interview the person and leave him or her for Corrections staff to supervise and later transport to court.

The police station, provincial courthouse and remand centre wouldn't need to be under one roof, just on the same six-acre site, Weighill said.

The Saskatoon board of police commissioners wrote to Corrections and Public Safety Minister Darryl Hickie in spring pitching the idea. Hickie wrote back to say the ministry isn't interested in a partnership, Weighill said. He hopes Hickie reconsiders before the new police station is under construction within about two years.

Coun. Maurice Neault has for months promoted the idea behind the scenes to provincial officials. He says the police station and both courthouses -- provincial and Queen's Bench -- could share one building he dubs "the monument to justice." A remand centre could be a separate building. Courthouses and police stations have similar needs, such as cells, tight security measures and separate elevators for staff, the public and prisoners, Neault said.

"We can build the whole enchilada for probably $120 million. We don't have to duplicate everything."

The Saskatoon Police Service plans to build a $91-million station on an extension of 25th Street near Idylwyld Drive by 2013.

The province wouldn't consider placing a courthouse into the same building as police headquarters, said Laur'Lei Silzer, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General.

"That would send out a signal that (the courts) are not impartial if they're in the same building."

Silzer didn't rule out separate buildings housing police and the provincial courthouse on the same site, but said Saskatchewan Justice's interest would depend on the plan's details.

Saskatoon Correctional Centre (SCC) has some remand units already and could be in line for more because of overcrowding at the prison, said Judy Orthner, spokesperson for the Ministry of Corrections. She couldn't say if that expansion would remove the need for police to house prisoners. In any case, the ministry is more likely to continue expanding SCC than build a new remand centre near the police station, she said.

Both courthouses have shortages of space. Queen's Bench, built in 1952, has limited wheelchair accessibility.

Saskatchewan Justice is planning and designing an expansion for Queen's Bench on its Spadina Crescent site that would meet its needs for 10-15 years, Silzer said. Construction would take place next year if the project is approved in the 2009 provincial budget.

Ministry officials are considering how to remedy its space shortage at the 19th Street provincial courthouse, which was previously a car dealership, but won't likely have a solution for a couple of years, she said. Expanded video-conferencing, which reduces the number of prisoners who attend court, could be the solution, she said.

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008