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On September 12th 1996 the Ministry of Corrections announced their
Adult Infrastructure Renewal Project (AIRP), which consisted of:
The construction of two MegaJails each of 1,200 beds.
The retrofit of certain existing detention centres.
The identification and closure of certain older jails.
To date, twenty-two older institutions have been slated for
closure and three institutions have actually been closed down.
(Cobourg Jail; Haileybury Jail; L'Orignal Jail)
The retrofit of Hamilton, Maplehurst, Toronto East and Toronto West
have commenced.
Ontario sites identified for MegaJails are: Lindsay and
Penetanguishene.What this committee finds suspicious is that ex-Corrections
Minister Runciman has gone one step further than his announced
AIRP.
In September of 1998 it was announced that a new facility would be
constructed in Brockville Ontario and it would not take on the
description of a Mike Harris MegaJail.
What was announced is The St. Lawrence Valley Correctional Treatment
Centre.
This departure from the norm (MegaJails) on the part
of this government is somewhat of a mystery until you realize that
Minister Runciman represents the Brockville Riding and it seems
that the norm is not what HIS riding will get.
The new Brockville institution is being built to replace, in part,
The Brockville Psychiatric Hospital now scheduled to be closed. It
will house both regular inmates and inmates requiring psychiatric
treatment.
Only one hundred (100) of the five hundred and sixty (560) beds will
be earmarked for psychiatric treatment, thus the title "Correctional
and Treatment Centre" is somewhat of a misnomer.
What the government is doing here is simple. They are closing down
another psychiatric facility and making a half-hearted attempt of
placating the Brockville taxpayers and anyone with a vested interest
in psychiatric treatment.
None of the above should shock Ontario taxpayers as closing
psychiatric institutions is a popular passtime of Ontario governments
, past and present. A tour along the west end of Toronto's Queen Street
to see the parade of out-patients of that facility is testimony
to this. The number of mentally ill inmates in custody throughout
Ontario jails is further testimony.
The Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk Citizen's Action Committee
wishes that our local taxpayers also not be treated like the norm
- we also support the treatment of the mentally ill and would welcome
such a unit in a Regional Correctional Centre on the
Burtch property.
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