Citizens� Representative Barry Fleming will be releasing his office�s Special Report to the House of Assembly on facilities and supports for female offenders from Labrador in Happy Valley-Goose Bay today.

Entitled Alone Among the Few the report makes five recommendations to the House of Assembly for consideration and action, based on evidence collected in this five month team investigation which surveyed over 40 stakeholders including current and ex-offenders, justice officials, health officials, volunteers and community-based groups.

Mr. Fleming�s recommendations are:

1. The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador should make an immediate commitment to provide for a secure adult female custodial building that can accept up to five lower risk offenders in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The ability to house up to five low risk offenders is based upon the current Labradorian population at the Newfoundland and Labrador Correctional Centre for Women at Clarenville ("NLCCW"), with some allowance for offenders who are flight risks. This would be a secure place that low-risk women are remanded or sentenced to reside where they are close to courts, to their communities, their families, their religious leaders and elders, to people who are sensitive to and aware of their culture, who speak their language and where they can access programs that are specific to them.
    
2. The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador should take immediate steps to improve the Labrador Health Centre�s capacity to handle citizens with complex mental health needs in a secure environment. One secure hospital room in a community of nearly 9,000 people that serves a region of up to 40,000 is unacceptable. If the room is in use and the police do not have adequate resources to guard a second room that can be secured to their satisfaction that person, whether it is a female or a minor, has no other option than to be held in a holding cell.
    
3. Prior to any construction or retrofit in Happy Valley-Goose Bay of the facility recommended in #1 above, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador should undertake immediate and adequate measures to increase NLCCW offender appearances before the courts through the use of videoconferencing. This will decrease the costly and disruptive requirement for escorts while providing a continuous period of time for the offender to avail of programming.
    
4. NLCCW should increase the availability of the current bi-weekly counseling session to a part-time position in a pilot project of fixed duration, that will both make counseling more accessible and instill confidence in offenders and allow for the establishment of rapport with treating professionals.
    
5. NLCCW should provide offenders, regardless of where they are from, with a printed and regularly updated list of available community supports prior to release.

Investigators found that in this povince, from January 1, 2004 to March 2007, aboriginal Labradorian women composed 100 per cent of Labradorian admissions to NLCCW. Once placed in provincial custody, they embark on epic journeys unlike the overwhelming majority of male adults in custody. At great expense, these women are flown out of Labrador to St. John�s and then driven two hours to Clarenville, sometimes with overnight stops at police detachments or lockups. The investigation also found that Labradorian women stay remanded in prison longer, their typical aggregate sentence length is much longer, their minimum sentence length is much longer and the typical time served is longer.

The report points out that for the last 23 years the men of Labrador have had a correctional facility specifically tailored to the cultural needs of their inmate profile. The Labrador Correctional Centre at Happy Valley-Goose Bay houses a workshop and has in the past supported small boat building, soapstone carving, bicycle repair programs to benefit kids in the community, a separate computer-equipped school building and a capacity for traditional cultural ceremonies to take place. There are interpreters available in the community who can enter that institution to provide services in aboriginal languages in person. Male offenders have more access to relatives and children, and upon release or family emergency are only facing an approximate two hour flight anywhere in Labrador.

Copies of the report can be obtained by telephone or through the Web site at www.gov.nl.ca/hoa/links/Citrep/citizen.html.

The Citizens� Representative is an Officer of the House of Assembly and is independent of political parties and government administration. The office is open to receive complaints about administrative acts, errors, omissions and decisions of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador when all other avenues of appeal are exhausted. This service is free and confidential.

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Media contact:
Jocelyn Walsh
Administrative Officer
709-729-7647
1-800-559-0079

2007 06 13                                                              11:05 a.m.