By the end of the week, inmates will begin populating a new facility built to house men serving weekend jail sentences.
The new $9.3-million, 112-bed Regional Intermittent Centre (RIC) at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) was built to address overcrowding concerns and help prevent weapon and drug smuggling by weekend inmates.
Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister David Orazietti toured the standalone facility on Tuesday.
"I believe we will be looking at other locations across the province where this type of facility will be very beneficial doing exactly what it is designed to do here, which is reduce some of the capacity pressures and address those individuals that would be required to serve sentences predominantly on weekends," says Orazietti.
The RIC, constructed over 10-months, is a tensioned membrane structure consisting of aluminum arches with a fabric panel overlay. It is linked to the EMDC by a walkway, which will only be used by staff. A full-body scanner has been installed inside to stop the smuggling of drugs and weapons into the corrections system.
"We hope that it will act as a significant deterrent for anybody who might contemplate bringing something into our facilities knowing that this technology is in place and so we will get more voluntary compliance as well," says Orazietti.
The 22,000 sq ft facility has state-of-the-art security features and segregates intermittent inmates from the general inmate population at the EMDC. But it hasn't eliminated all safety concerns for corrections officers.
"One of the direct supervision desks has a spot where telephones are behind, not directly behind but off and to the right behind them. That shouldn't be happening. That is a concern we would like to have addressed," says Len Elliott, OPSEU Regional Vice President. "Once the inmates are in here, if there are some additional concerns by corrections officers I hope they are taken very seriously."
Intermittent sentences are decided by a judge. Deciding factors include the nature of the crime, age and character of the offender, and employment and child care responsibilities that would make it difficult to serve a regular sentence.
