Northeastern Ont., advocacy group says Sudbury doesn't need a new detention centre for women
CBC
An advocacy group in northeastern Ontario says Sudbury doesn't need a new detention facility for women.
Last week, the Ontario government announced its plans to redevelop the Cecil Faser Youth Detention Centre into a 50-bed detention centre for adult women. In an email to CBC News, the province said the plans are yet to be finalized.
The centre is a secure detention and custody facility for young males, between the ages of 12 and 17, who have been convicted of a crime. It is meant to hold them accountable for their actions and steer them away from crime.
The facility is built to accommodate up to 16 youths at the moment, but due to insufficient staffing, it currently has 12 beds.
Cory Roslyn is the executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario. The organization advocates for alternatives to incarceration of women in the region.
"From my point of view, it's difficult to say that this would have a positive impact on women," Roslyn said.
"They're still incarcerating them. If the province wants to spend money ... investing in women, it should be done in the community — looking at supportive housing, transitional housing."
Roslyn said she foresees two circumstances resulting from the redevelopment project: either the region will see an increase in local women being held in Sudbury or the province will decide to transfer women from elsewhere in the province.
"Either plan, I will suggest, will have a significant negative impact on marginalized women," she said.
Roslyn added that transferring women from across the province could also cause harm and challenges to rehabilitation, as inmates could potentially be separated by hundreds of kilometres from their family and support network.
Rosyln said that her organization has not been consulted on the project.