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RANKIN INLET
About 50 residents joined a large group of dignitaries to officially open the Rankin Inlet Healing Centre this past month in Rankin.

Nunavut Justice Minister Daniel Shewchuk said it was nice to have everyone from Premier Eva Aariak to the local MLAs and the presidents of both Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Kivalliq Inuit Association attend the ceremony.

He said there was a lot of excitement surrounding the occasion.

"The feeling and atmosphere in the new centre was very, very positive and appreciative," said Shewchuk.

"The whole community is accepting the opening of this correctional healing centre as a good thing for the territory and Rankin Inlet."

Despite all the good feelings, there have been problems with construction and staffing at the new centre.

Construction began in March 2010 for the 48-person medium security facility.

Shewchuk said there has been criticism concerning the timelines Justice has been keeping to get the facility open.

He said it has taken extra time to complete construction, and it's been a lengthy process to get the facility staffed.

"We did start taking inmates into the facility, with about 13 there now, but we need to do this right.

"The staffing is about three-quarters complete, so we still have a little ways to go.

"As we're doing this, we're also training people to do the jobs they're being hired for.

"Ultimately, we want the staff and the inmates to understand each other and what needs to be done there."

Shewchuk said current staffing levels are running 50 per cent beneficiaries and 50 per cent southern employees.

He said most of the southern workers are in management-level positions that require specific skills to work in a correctional facility.

"Over the years to come, we hope the beneficiary staff we have there, who are case workers right now, will go into those management roles.

"With internship positions, we can train them to move forward on career paths within that system."

The new facility took another hit when its initial head warden, Bill Palmer, was suspended for incidents that allegedly took place in the workplace.

The matter is under investigation and Justice expects to have a report from that investigation in the near future.

Shewchuk would not address the matter when asked by Kivalliq News, due to the fact the investigation was still ongoing.

Caseworkers at the Rankin facility do not just guard the inmates.

Shewchuk said they're also assigned individual inmates to work with, to actually try and help them in different programs the facility offers.

He said having a majority of beneficiaries among the caseworkers will prove beneficial in that regard.

"The qualifications needed for management positions within the correctional system simply weren't available to the people inside Nunavut.

"However, when it came down to the caseworkers and administration staff, the high majority of the applications came from Rankin Inlet and within the territory.

"And, most of the hiring for those positions was done from inside the territory.

"There are about another 10 or 11 positions to fill, the majority of which, I believe, are for caseworkers, and they will be targeted at beneficiaries."

Shewchuk said there is a criteria assessment in place which dictates which inmates will be placed in the Rankin centre.

He said there is absolutely no truth to some local concerns of higher-risk prisoners being sent to Rankin over a period of time.

"The facility is built for, and the programming is targeted for, medium- and low-risk offenders.

"There are 32 beds in the medium-risk wing and 16 beds in the low-risk wing, and those are the two types of offenders who are going to go there.

"There are three major types of criteria, including an assessment of the risk of offenders we're going to put in Rankin, which are going on in Iqaluit and, also, outside the territory where we have inmates.

"The second to be measured is the programming required to rehabilitate the offenders and the third is are they from the Kivalliq?"

Shewchuk said there is still no exact timeline as to when the Rankin facility will reach its capacity.

He said it's important to stress the importance of having the training taking place done slowly and, more importantly, correctly.

"We want everyone to understand their job and have the proper training on what they need to do, instead of rushing and having people in there without the standards and capabilities we need to have in order to handle the facility.

"We're going to do this right!

"It took a lot of work to get this facility up and running, and I'm really, really proud of some dedicated people in upper management of Justice who actually completed this whole thing and got it going."

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