Paula White
Northern News Services

INUVIK (May 14/99) - It shouldn't be too long now before a site is selected for the new female young offenders facility.

"It's what everybody wants to know," said Bob Cook, Young Offenders Co-ordinator for the territorial department of Justice, at a presentation at Aurora College on May 5.

"We want to hear what the community has to say."

Cook was in Inuvik to give an update on the facility. He spoke to a small crowd about the department's plans for the building, including construction and design, funding, location and staffing.

"It's an exciting time. This is going to be a very exciting project," Cook said. "I'm excited. I wanted to tell Inuvik what's going on. The community deserves to be excited about this project. This project is going to put Inuvik at the forefront of corrections in Canada."

The facility, which will be the first one in Canada exclusively for girls, will house young women between the ages of 12 and 20 from all over the Northwest Territories. Anyone older than 18 would have committed their offence before they turned 18. The offenses could be anything from a breach of probation to violent crimes.

The reason Inuvik was selected as the site, Cook explained, is because most of the offenders hail from five communities in the NWT -- Inuvik, Fort McPherson, Fort Smith, Hay River and Tuktoyaktuk. Of the offenders from those communities, Cook said statistics show nearly half come from Inuvik, Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk. This means most of the girls will be close to home if the facility is located in Inuvik.

As to a specific site, however, Cook said one hasn't been selected yet. But he said the facility does have to be built close enough to town to have access to the utilidor. Also, the girls have to be able to learn how to use community resources, such as the library, properly.

"Keeping them close to the town is important," Cook said. "We want to find somewhere that is fairly central."

Karen Henry, a project officer with the NWT department of Public Works, told the group that the government hopes to have a specific site nailed down by this fall. She said if rezoning is required, town council will be approached in August.

The facility, which will likely be about 13,000 square feet, will be designed to house 12 girls. Cook said that will include a three-bedroom house where families of the girls can stay during voluntary family therapy sessions.

Cook said between 20 and 24 people will make up the staff, which will include a psychologist, a case manager, a cook, a program co-ordinator and several youth officers. All of the employees, he added, will be female.

"Research shows girls achieve better in an environment where there are only other girls," Cook explained.

The girls' schooling will be provided by a teacher who will be a member of Samuel Hearne's staff.

To go along with the construction of the young offenders facility, Aurora College plans to start a Corrections Certificate Program in September of this year. It will be an 18-month program.

The department plans to begin building the facility in the summer of 2000 and hopes to have it up and running a year later. Cook said there is a second facility for boys being constructed in Yellowknife.

The facility, with building costs estimated at about $5.5 million, will be funded through the P3 (public/private partnership) initiative. Cook said that towards the end of this year, the government will be seeking a partner to begin the design and construction phase of the project.