RDOS proposed Correctional Facility in the news:

Below is a link to a recent article in the Oliver Chronicle newspaper.  The figure of 500 indirect post construction jobs as quoted is interesting, as no economic (or social/environmental) impact study was put forward by the BC Liberals or the RDOS during the "competition" for the jail.

The link will be "live" for a couple of weeks, then will likely vanish into the archives of the paper.  Please read "Ministry confirms prison on schedule"  if you are interested in this subject.

Watch for more posts on the proposed  RDOS prison in the coming weeks.

Thank you.

Reply from Shirley Bond

In late August, the 3458 name citizen petition (submitted in May) against locating the remand centre/jail project in Penticton or the RDOS received a brief response from Solicitor General Shirley Bond.  Here is a link to a pdf of that letter.

It has recently been discovered that several residents who wrote letters expressing their individual concerns about the remand centre/jail proposal to Ms. Bond received replies which were word for word, almost exactly the same as Ms. Bond's letter in response to the petition.  The petition package had also included a detailed covering letter.

It is disappointing that the response to this citizen project appeared to be a "form letter".  A more carefully considered reply was properly expected. 

June 20 Council Decision

At the Council meeting last night, Coun. Pearce proposed a motion to withdraw Penticton sites from the prison bidding process, but added a section to the effect that Council will provide a letter of support to applicants outside Penticton if they can show that it will be of significant economic benefit to Penticton.  Other South Okanagan sites include Penticton Indian Band land, Osoyoos Indian Band land near Oliver, and Summerland sites.

That was not the result we hoped for.  Penticton has the region's only courthouse and is the largest urban centre in the RDOS.  We also have the airport, hospital, and the largest downtown.  There will be issues, as Mayor Dan Ashton acknowledged last night (though extra policing costs was the only one cited).

We heard from Corrections BC at the March 8 publlic meeting that remanded prisoners, if released, will be set free at the courthouse.  No projections were ever stated about the numbers.  However, this will be BC's biggest provincial jail at 720 inmates with 52% remanded prisoners.

RESULTS OF THE VOTE!

Penticton citizens have said NO to a jail.  A clear NO.

Results of the poll:

NO: 4,302
YES: 2,143

Don't be confused by reports to the contrary, because the intitial City of Penticton press release was wrong!    We hope there are not too may people out there who simply turned off their radios in dismay. 
Hopefully we can now get back toour regular civic involvements.

Voter Information

"From Tuesday, June 14th through Saturday, June 18th, qualified electors can cast their vote between the hours of 8:30 am - 7:30pm at City Hall Council Chambers on the following question:

Do you approve of a Provincial Correctional Centre being constructed and

operated within Penticton City limits?

Please take time to cast your vote." *

* (City of Penticton Fact Sheet #3 "Quick Facts Regarding a Proposed Correctional Centre")

This information has been relayed by the City of Penticton via  newspaper ads, but surprisingly as of this morning (June 12) there is still no specific bulletin on the City's website to notify local citizens of this  important voting opportunity. So please remember to vote, tell others, and share the link to this blog.

For more information and other recent updates, please click on this LINK to view our May 6  "Vote NO"   post. . . .

Vote NO at City Hall: June 14 - 18

Penticton Prison Proposal Table of Contents:

1. Some Public Concerns Regarding the Prison Proposal

2. Public Support Fades at Second Public Meeting

3. Public Expressions of Opposition

4. Decision to Submit Prison Sites

5. News Reports Raise Concerns  

6. Research Showing Prisons Negatively Affect Small Communities

7. WSU Researchers Find Prisons Offer Few Economic Benefits to Small Towns

8. City of Penticton Website

9. Updates on this issue as they develop, please check in often.

1. Some Public Concerns Regarding the Prison Proposal

It is disturbing that one-sided information, containing only apparent positives, has been supplied to the public by the City of Penticton and Corrections BC.  Disclosure of social and economic risks should be an essential part of the City's due diligence process. None of the risks or potential negative impacts have been elaborated, except by concerned citizens, businesses such as the Okanagan Hockey School, and City Councilor Garry Litke.

The shortage of suitable land for fully serviced development in Penticton and the RDOS casts doubts on the notion that using 20 acres of this land for a prison site is the highest and best use for this land. As a community we could choose to build 100 family homes on 20 acres, or a business park that could generate many jobs, either of which could be a superior long term choice for the future of our communities.

Should a prison be built in or near Penticton, which does not have the population base of larger prison centres such as Victoria. Kamloops and Nanaimo, we could readily be labeled as a "Prison Town."  There is great potential for that perception to damage existing economic mainstays such as tourism, small business and retirement location.

It is unclear who would pay for the various social services needs resulting from the location of a large prison in a small city such as Penticton.  Our local agencies are already strapped for funding.

Many issues remain, including the fact that the building of BC's biggest provincial jail in Penticton would not help address the  fact that our prisons house a significant number of people with mental illnesses and addictions, and a disproportionate number of aboriginal people.  The above statements are not meant to discount or ignore such important facts.



 2. Public Support Fades at Second Public Meeting

At the City of Penticton's second of two public meetings, Corrections BC officials confirmed that there would be few jobs available for locals, because an initial proportion of available positions would be awarded to transferees from other BC prisons, and most of the remaining jobs posted province-wide on the BC Public Service website and awarded on a merit basis.  They advised that locals wanting to apply for those jobs should pursue appropriate training and education beforehand. Health care and food service jobs are awarded via two provincial contractors.  Local trades people would be called in to do future repairs such as painting and plumbing; however, there was no guarantee that the construction contract would be awarded to a local company.

On the subect of whether ex convicts would be free to remain in the Penticton area, Corrections officials also confirmed that although released inmates are given a bus pass to their home community, there is no obligation to use that pass.  Further more, it was confirmed that remanded prisoners, if released elsewhere folowing trial (for example those who have served their full sentences while in remand), would be given a bus pass back to Penticton to pick up their belongings.

An exit survey completed by members of the public at that meeting did not support the building of a prison in Penticton.

3. Public Expressions of Opposition

Significant public opposition to the prison has been revealed in the record of public correspondence to Penticton City Council, letters to the editors, the City of Penticton's Facebook page, and the public survey completed at the second of two City sponsored public meetings.  The Okanagan Hockey School, a significantly large sports tourism business in Penticton, has spoken out against the prison in local media, and has a letter of opposition to the jail in the Council record of correspondence. 

A citizen petition was also drafted to deliver to the BC Solicitor General, Penticton City Council.  It reads as follows:
"We, the undersigned, believe that a medium security prison is not an appropriate facility for Penticton or the RDOS, and therefore ask that this facility not be built in our city or our region.  We are concerned that it will not bring overall net benefits and that it will present economic and social risks to our communities."
It is noteworthy that this petition does not ask for taxpayer funds to be used for a referendum.

4. Decision to Submit Prison Sites

Despite substantial opposition, Penticton City Council made its decision to submit two prison sites to the Province at the March 21 Council meeting.  This item was not explicit in the meeting's agenda.  Rather, it was raised under "Business Arising from in Camera Minutes".  With no advance notice there was no one in attendance to ask questions during the agenda/public questions part of that meeting.  Campbell Mountain and the Cantex gravel pit are now formally submitted for consideration as sites for BC's biggest provincial jail, without members of Council ever having faced citizens to answer questions regarding their positions on this matter.  (Councilor Litke was absent from that meeting, but later publicly stated his opposition to the prison proposal. Click this link to see that portion of the Council meeting video.)

Mayor Ashton had previously stated that there is "community support" for the prison, and that there would be no referendum. Council decided to hold a referendum only after public pressure to do so was expressed in letters to the editor and Council correspondence.

5. News Reports Raise Concerns

• Penticton Herald May 6, 2011    "Jailers Can't be Trusted, City Told" . . .In this article, the former Mayor of Maple Ridge (2005-2008), who resides 1km from the Fraser River Correctional Centre, states that Corrections BC has ignored local concerns and has not informed the public as it considers expansion of two prisons in that community. Mr. Robson cited a "good neighbor agreement" signed between Corrections BC and a local community association. He states: "The two prisons they have here, they keep changing the uses and increasing the population with no communications with the community at all". He also mentioned that released inmates are merely deposited at the downtown bus depot, and some decide to stay. "Weve had people here on the streets who don't even know where home is".   The agreement called for an automatic phone alert of area residents in the event of an inmate escape. However during a recent escape from FRCC, the public was not notified for three days. He issued a warning to Penticton City Council. that ". . . whatever promises they (BC Corrections) are making now, they will not live up to.  The evidence here in Maple Ridge over the past 15 years is that Corrections will not admit or honour the agreement they had, and that is very disturbing."
• Penticton Herald, May 5, 2011  Regarding the June 18 referendum, Penticton Mayor Dan Ashton stated that "Council will continue to present the facts (whether positive or negative) as we continue our investigation. . . . We want this all out- the pros and the detriments of a facility, either in your community, or operating close to your community."     (The authors of this blog page sincerely hope that Mayor Ashton, who resides in Summerland and not Penticton, will soon reveal the detriments to Penticton which have been uncovered in the City's due diligence investigation.  That has not been the case thus far in the process, and with the exception of Councilor Garry Litke, the task of elaborating risks and disbenefits has been left to concerned voters.)   It is also important to note that Okanagan Hockey School president Andy Oakes expressed strong concerns about the potential negative impact of a prison on Penticton's existing and future sports tourism economy in this May 5 Penticton Herald article.

• Sunday Okanagan, Jan. 2, 2011  The Mayor of Drumheller Alberta comments on the benefits of "cheap labor for community projects" .  He reveals that the drug trade within the prison has seeped outside the prison walls, and that it  ". . .does bring a little bit of a cloud into the community".

6. Research Showing Prisons Negatively Affect Small Communities

Source link to various studies:  Summerland No Prison wordpress.

As we enter Canada's prison  building boom, we can learn from prison siting mistakes made in the USA and elsewhere.

7. Washington State University Researchers Find Prisons Offer Few Economic Benefits to Small Towns

This article (dismissed by Corrections BC officials at the March 8 public meeting as "the American experience, despite their admission that no similar Canadian research exists) summarizes WSU staff research findings regarding the negative economic effects of building prisons in small rural US communities. Their conclusions deserve attention.  The US definition of a "rural county" appears relevant in Penticton and the South Okanagan, which fit the criteria of less than 50,000 persons in an urban area and a total population of less than 100,000.

Quotes from this article include:

• "We found no evidence that prison expansion has stimulated economic growth;
• We provide evidence that prison construction has actually impeded economic growth in those rural communities that were already growing at a slower pace; and
• . . . counties without a prison have the highest annual rate of growth and those with a newly built prison grow at the slowest pace".

A 2010 update from that research team has added that "prison construction impedes growth in rural counties, especially in counties that lag behind in educational attainment".  In such counties they noted a "negative realtionship between the growth of new prisons and growth in private emplyment". Their results, published in the March 2010 issue of Social Science Quarterly concluded:

• "Prisons do not solve the economic problems of rural areas but do create new ones;
• . . . economic multipliers associated with prisons are extremely limited; and
• Prisons may stigmatize host communities.  Whatever (limited) gains are experienced as a result of the multilpier effect of prison jobs is always counterbalanced by the loss of businesses or people who leave or choose not to relocate in a prison town."

A WSU news article discussing the original 2004 research can be found at: http://researchnews.wsu.edu/security/51.html

8. City of Penticton Website

You can read the City's points of view at the City of Penticton website link to Correctional Facility proposal:

http://www.penticton.ca/admin-clerk/correctional_centre.asp 

9. Updates on This Issue:
June 9, Link to No Prison News Bulletin #4  Let's not gamble with our future!

June 3, Link to Narmata Bench Wineries say NO to Prison  19 local wineries issue press release.

June 3, Link to NoPrison News Bulletin #3 Kamloops Prison Board Muzzled and other. . . .

May 30, Link to No Prison News Bulletin #2  More issues revealed!

May 29, Link to 4 minute CKNW Radio Vancouver broadcast "The Alcatraz of BC". . .4 minute video and interview.  Be sure to turn on your sound!

May 28, Link to No Prison News Bulletin #1 Paper copies of these bulletins distributed Saturdays at Penticton's Community Market.)

May 24, Tuesday May 24 at 3:30pm, the NoPentictonPrison.com petition (now 3458 signatures including paper copies) will be delivered to the City of Penticton on the steps of City Hall.  Also delivered will be a 100 name petition by a group of youth who are too young to vote in the referendum but who wish to have a say in the future of their city.  Please take time to attend this brief event and show support for the petitioners.

In the May 11, Penticton Western News, BC Solicitor General Shirley Bond states that community support  is a "critical piece" of the process to determine which of the applicants will be selected as the host community for the prison. With regard to Penticton's referendum, she comments that the Province cannot wait for our referendum results when choosing a site.  "At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the mayor and council of Penticton to choose whether or not they want to be in this process". . . "They have told us that they want to be in this process.  So if constituents are unhappy with them being in this process they need to make sure they are making that clear to the mayor and council". . . That message was in fact sent loud and clear to City Council and is evidenced in the public record of Council correspondence, letters to the local papers, and in the City's exit survey at the second public meeting on the prison proposal.  But 2 Penticton prison sites were submitted regardless.  Now Mayor Dan Ashton and others on Council, still hoping for evidence of community support, are staging a $50,000 referendum. To comment on the proposal to locate BC's biggest provincial jail in Penticton, send an email  to Mayor Dan Ashton and Council, including the words "Attention Mayor and Council" (to ensure distribution to Council).  Click on this link to the City's website communication form and submit your comments.  Mayor Ashton remarks in the May 11 article that the referendum will be cancelled if a site other than Penticton is chosen before June 18.  Could it also be cancelled, and Penticton's sites withdrawn from the process, if enough people write?

May 12, 2011  A Vote No 18 campaign has been initiated by Citizens Against a Prison In Penticton (CAPP).  Your assistance would be very welcome.  Find us Saturdays at the Community Market in Penticton.

Vote NO at City Hall's opinion poll, June 14 - June 18.  Thank you for considering the information provided on this page.  Please share the link to this site with others.