Will the Okanagan Correctional Centre (OCC) on Osoyoos Indian Band land adjacent to the Town of Oliver increase already unacceptable local crime rates and put further demands on our already stretched policing resources?

The opening of the province’s largest prison is now only eight months away but this question has still not been adequately answered by Town council, local RCMP or Steve DiCastri, the prison’s warden.

Public officials to date have focused on job and economic development opportunities associated with the prison and have downplayed concerns about potential negative impacts of the prison.  Unfortunately, their views are at odds with the experience of many rural communities in the United States which have failed to realize the promised economic opportunities from prisons and have lost other opportunities because of their reputations as “prison towns.”

They are also at odds with two recent provincial government reports authored by Liberal backbenchers who have raised concerns about the way that BC Corrections releases departing prisoners back into the community and community responsibility for servicing those releasees; and also with a recent BC Auditor General’s report that is highly critical of BC Correction’s rehabilitation programs.

A recent Safety Review of BC Corrections by the Parliamentary Secretary for Corrections concluded that our corrections system does little to prepare inmates for release:  “Where does a newly-released offender go on that first day away from the institution? Does he have any social supports, proper medications, money, personal identification, a place to live or any job prospects? The answer to all these questions is too often ‘no,’ and thus offenders revert to what they know: the criminal lifestyle, followed by a quick return to a correctional centre.”

Initially, only about 378 prisoners will be incarcerated in the OCC, but ‘double bunking’ with the BC corrections system is rampant so this number will grow to closer to 666 inmates at full capacity. About 45 per cent of these inmates will be prisoners serving short (average 60-day) sentences for lesser provincial offences; but the other 55 per cent will be remand inmates, often charged with much more serious federal offences, and staying an average of only 34 days.

The result is a ‘churn’ of upwards of 4,000 inmates released into our community each year. Over half have mental health issues and over 90 per cent have drug problems. It is naïve to think that all of these inmates will immediately board a bus and leave our region. Many will resort to what they know best, property crime, to meet their immediate needs for food, shelter and drugs.  Our Town council needs to start planning now to manage this problem.

Oliver is a small rural community with limited ability to absorb the fallout of a large prison compared to the larger communities hosting other prisons in the province. Oliver does not have the level of policing resources to ensure public safety; or the array of shelters, halfway houses, drug detox centres and mental health facilities necessary to service an increase in the transitory criminal element in our community.

Our local RCMP detachment will be responsible for servicing the OCC itself – investigating offences in the prison, gathering documentation for trials and giving effect to court orders.

OCC inmates injured as a result of the high levels of gang related violence in today’s prisons will end up in our local hospitals and our local RCMP will have the job of escorting these high risk inmates to and from the hospital. These daily prison-related tasks will more than fully occupy the two new officers requested by RCMP Superintendent Kevin Hewco.

Corrections system officials like to keep the conversation on the prison positive and focus their discussion on rehabilitation efforts. Warden DiCastri, for example, emphasizes the supervised community work programs, the therapeutic wild horse program, and the fish farm and vegetable garden. Unfortunately, these comments do not reflect the reality that the BC corrections system is all about incarceration, not rehabilitation.

The 2016 audit report by the province’s Auditor-General concludes that BC Corrections regularly fails to meet legislative requirements or policy expectations to provide core programs to reduce recidivism.  Only 15 per cent of offenders fully or partially complete these programs. Recidivism is rampant – almost two-thirds of inmates return to prison at least once; and a quarter return at least five times.

Mayor Hovanes and MLA Larson need to get Attorney General Suzanne Anton to acknowledge the reality of the situation and to fund accordingly. As a start we need to at least double the size of our local RCMP detachment; and the cost should be borne by the province, not by the Town of Oliver which is not deriving a tax base from the new prison, given its location on reserve lands.

Al Hudec, Oliver