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Candidate defends out-of-city proposal Justice department says less than five offenders from outside city in 2011 released in YkSimon Whitehouse Northern News Services Published Wednesday, Sept 26, 2012
He points specifically to the NWT Corrections Act, which states the warden shall provide transportation to inmates "to the place in the Territories where the inmate was convicted." The act also states that the director of corrections with the Department of Justice must approve applications from inmates if they seek to go somewhere else. "The issue is that (downtown) businesses think that clientele are driving away customers because they don't feel comfortable or safe," said MacKenzie, who said if elected to council, he will put pressure on the justice department to have discharged inmates from North Slave Correctional Centre sent to their home communities if they are not from Yellowknife. "We can only ask on behalf of the city that the Department of Justice - if they follow the constitution and policy for when an inmate is being released to the communities - that the inmate be sent to their destination of the conviction." He said that if the people are sent away and then choose to come back to Yellowknife, it shouldn't be at the expense of taxpayers. MacKenzie said he would like to see better co-operation with the city and the GNWT on the city's social issues committee where representatives from the departments of Justice and Health and Social Services sit as "advisers" but not as full members. "We would put a request to the GNWT to look at this factor and see if there are ways they can assist to make things progress in a positive format," said MacKenzie. A lot of downtown businesses are supporting him on this issue, said MacKenzie, but he is also championing this cause in the name of safety. The father of four daughters said he is concerned about the risk to people who go downtown, particularly at night. To this point, he is also advocating for more lighting on the McMahon Frame Lake Trail. Amanda Mallon, a city councillor running for re-election and chair of the social issues committee, said the discharging issue has not come up during meetings but believes it is a valid "discussion point." Her committee has had trouble in recent years just getting the GNWT representatives to attend meetings. "From my three years on council, I don't see any way that council can make this happen other than by working with various orders of government," said Mallon. "It might be something to do through the social issues committee or community policing committee." Sue Glowach, senior communications adviser for the Department of Justice, said the department typically does return inmates to their home communities upon release unless their court rulings forbid them from being near a person, such as children or a spouse. She added the number of inmates who do stay in Yellowknife is very low."It is the standard practice of North Slave (Correctional Centre) to send the inmates back to their home communities when their custody has expired," she said. "The number of inmates that stay in Yellowknife, based on 2011 statistics, is so low. It is almost to the point where you can identify people because it is in the single digits in a year." Blair Van Metre, warden of the North Slave Correctional Centre, reiterated in an e-mail this week that very few inmates from outside of the city are discharged in Yellowknife. "In 2011, approximately one per cent of total releases from the North Slave Correctional Centre were offenders from other communities requesting to be released to Yellowknife," he stated. "This equates to under five offenders." WEB DISCUSSION A reader asks mayoral candidate Mark Heyck to explain how his proposal for a local improvement charge applied to homeowners for energy-efficient retrofits will work. Please visit www.nnsl.com/Yellowknifer and click the 'vote' button to see the question and Heyck's response, plus more municipal election coverage.
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