Yarmouth jail getting an extra $1 million to cope with doubling of inmate population

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

The correctional facility in Yarmouth is getting two-thirds of the $1.5 million announced in the provincial budget to address the increase in inmates that will be coming to the jail.

A spokesperson for the justice department said the Southwest Nova Scotia Correctional Facility on Forest Street will be receiving $1 million over the next budget year to cover the costs associated with doubling the inmate capacity at the jail from 38 prisoners to 76.

The increase in inmate capacity is aimed at easing the burden of inmate overcrowding at other correctional facilities in the province, including the one in Burnside.

“That money is to go towards the extra staff we’ll need, the extra food, the extra utilities, the extra cots,” explains department spokesperson Sherrie Aikenhead, who says the department has been advertising for additional staff.

Aikenhead said the plan is to hire an additional 20 staff members in Yarmouth, 13.5 of which will be fulltime positions. The new staff won’t just consist of guards, there will also be kitchen, maintenance and operational staff hired.

“I believe they’re in recruitment right now,” she said. “They’re hoping to have it all done as quickly as possible.”

The remaining $500,000 of the increased funding announced in the budget will be spent at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Burnside, where the inmate population capacity is set to increase from 224 to 336 inmates.

This brings the budgets of Yarmouth and Burnside to $3.3 million and $15.1 million respectively.

At both facilities single cells will be turned into double cells with the addition of portable needs when needed.

The justice department says most of the inmates at the correctional facility in Yarmouth are serving sentences of two years less a day – what the department refers to as a stable population – whereas at the metro jail the additional funding is going mostly towards addressing the costs and resources associated with inmates spending time on remand.

“Yarmouth is the priority…moving some of the people down from Burnside to Yarmouth under this plan, and then looking at the numbers that are on remand, etc. at Burnside and determining how many more staff and cots you’ll need there,” says Aikenhead. “So this will take pressure off the Central Nova Scotia facility.”

When the department’s intention to increase capacity at the two jails was first made public weeks ago, critics of the plan expressed concern that double bunking will compromise staff and inmate safety.

The union representing corrections officers also said the upcoming situation will put further strain on understaffed facilities. The union said from its perspective an additional 16 fulltime officers would be required at the Yarmouth facili