Some women from correctional centre now being housed at youth facility
‘There certainly was facilities at the youth centre that were underutilized’
Some of P.E.I.'s female prisoners are now serving their time at a facility in Summerside built to house young prisoners, rather than at the Provincial Correctional Centre outside of Charlottetown.
The P.E.I. Youth Centre was built in 1985, and since that time the number of incarcerated youth on the Island has declined. During the COVID-19 pandemic the province was looking for ways to reduce crowding in its correctional facilities.
"We had an empty space and we thought, you know what, this would make sense," said Shannon Ellis, acting director of community and correctional services.
"In this particular space there's an opportunity to have their own independent bedrooms. There certainly was facilities at the youth centre that were underutilized, additional programming that we could provide there too."
Women can volunteer to be moved to the youth centre, said Ellis, but they have to meet certain criteria. They have to be low-risk offenders and have no major medical conditions, such as addictions that require treatment.
Since February there have been three to five women at the Summerside jail at any given time, said Ellis.
The women are kept entirely apart from the youth in the facility, said Ellis. The sleeping, eating and common areas are entirely separate.
Both the women and the staff at the Youth Centre have said the arrangement works well, said Ellis.
More from CBC P.E.I.
With files from Angela Walker