Auditor general slams corrections
Nunavummiut held in NWT are unsafe and not being rehabilitated, report says
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Monday, March 9, 2015
IQALUIT
Canada's auditor general Michael Ferguson is expected to present his audit of the operations of the Nunavut justice system this week. Ahead of this, on March 4, he released his audit of the system in the NWT, where 16 Nunavummiut are in custody.
Overcrowded conditions at the Baffin Correctional Centre, including use of the gymnasium to house prisoners on makeshift beds intended for emergency response, are expected to be addressed in a report from the auditor general this week. A report on NWT corrections was released last week. - NNSL file photo |
"The (NWT Justice) Department has a responsibility for ensuring access for inmates to programs and services that assist in their rehabilitation and for ensuring the safe and secure operation of correctional facilities," Ferguson states in his audit, according to a released statement. "We found that it has not met key responsibilities in these areas."
According to numbers revealed to Nunavut legislators last week, in November, Nunavut had 16 inmates – six sentenced and 10 on remand – at the North Slave Correctional Centre, where the audit found "serious deficiencies in case management limit the department's efforts to rehabilitate inmates and prepare them for release back to the community," according to the statement.
"This means that inmates who were identified as needing programs in areas such as substance abuse, sexual offences, and family violence were not receiving this assistance before returning to their communities."
The audit was presented to the NWT legislature March 4, and examined whether the department was doing its job to rehabilitate and reintegrate inmates, and whether it was properly planning and operating facilities to house them.
The NWT is failing, according to the report. At North Slave, "facility management often did not follow safety and security requirements in areas such as managing inmates in segregation, controlling contraband, and conducting fire and health inspections, which are intended to ensure the safety and security of inmates and staff," the statement revealed.
"These concerns are significant, and addressing them will enable the department to better prepare inmates for release into the community and to better ensure the safety and security of correctional facilities for inmates and staff," Ferguson stated.
"We cannot comment on the operations of NWT Corrections," stated Nunavut Department of Justice spokesperson Barbara Ann Tierney by e-mail. "We have reviewed the (auditor general's) report for NWT Corrections. The (auditor general) made their recommendations and NWT responded. If there are any specific concerns raised with us about our inmates who are housed there, then we will follow-up and work with NWT Corrections."
Ferguson is expected to present his report on corrections in Nunavut March 10, Tierney noted.
It comes at a time when Nunavut is set to open its new Makigiarvik correctional facility to house lower-risk prisoners, offering up to 48 beds for those currently housed at the beleaguered Baffin Correctional Centre, which the government acknowledges is in need of renovations.
Responding to written questions posed by Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA Pat Angnakak in November, Justice Minister Paul Okalik submitted that Nunavut prisoners spend on average 78 days in custody before trial.
While in custody, inmates can (or must in some cases, including all youth) participate in rehabilitation programming. Most held at facilities other than Baffin Correctional Centre participate; only about one-third at BCC participate, Okalik stated, which is about the same proportion of those who have been sentenced compared to those held awaiting trial or sentencing.
