The provincial government has pried open the bars on its girls' custody plans, but the program is still a lock.
On Friday the Ministry of Children and Family Development announced that the province-wide centralization of all girls in custody (female inmates under the age of 19, or in rare instances 20) would still focus into the youth containment centre in Burnaby. The other girls' containment centres in the province - Prince George and Victoria - would close.
However, according to minister Mary McNeil, when protest was sounded over the idea, she and her staff saw fit to act on some of the concerns.
The plan was drawn up to maximize provincial efficiencies both in the cost of running the lowly populated girls' program and the delivery of rehabilitation programs. One of the chief concerns was, a great many girls in prison are only there a short time on remand awaiting their next court appearance and many of those have not even been convicted of anything.
"Prince George girls who are remanded to custody for a week or less will be placed at the Prince George custody centre instead of being sent to Burnaby," said McNeil in a written statement issued Friday. "However, if a girl is alone in a unit, she will be given the choice to move to Burnaby to reduce feelings of isolation."
Furthermore, girls who do require transfer to Burnaby will be sent there the same day as they become eligible for it, or the next day if no transportation is immediately available, so as to prevent the need for overnighting in Prince George cells ill equipped for this purpose.
One of the loudest advocates for keeping the girls' jail open in Prince George - closer to home for northern inmates - is the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council. Tribal chief David Luggi said Friday the only reason Prince George's youth containment centre couldn't do the job permanently for all local girls was because of government insensitivity to northern First Nations, northern youth, and the communities of the north in general.
"Last month we met with senior officials on this issue and it remains our position that the centre should remain open in the north," he said. "It would appear that the province has done some of that [with the Friday announcement] but still with the objective of moving the entire girls' incarceration operation to Burnaby. The service centre up here will still have a slow death, rather than a quick death, and the government's initial objectives are still within their sights, which is of course disappointing."
McNeil also announced that the entire centralization scheme would get an independent review by the McCreary Centre Society (a youth advocacy and development group based in Vancouver's downtown eastside). Also, B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth led by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond would have a standing invitation to observe the transition and its aftermath.
"On the watchdog side, that seems to be positive, that they will be monitoring the situation," said Luggi. "Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond always blows the whistle if things aren't going properly."
According to ministry data, there is an average daily total of 16 girls in youth custody so far in 2012. Prior to the centralization, daily averages were: eight girls in Burnaby, five in Victoria and three in Prince George. There were many times in Prince George and Victoria where only one girl was in custody, and many times when the staffed girls' unit in Prince George was empty.
There have been 118 individual girls admitted to custody this fiscal year to date, 76 of whom were placed in Burnaby.
