The upcoming closure of the Prince George Youth Custody Centre is an opportunity to help northern B.C’s. most vulnerable women, says Connie Abe, executive director of the Association Advocating for Women and Community.
“It should be a women’s-only treatment centre or a family treatment centre so moms can go to treatment with their children, and it should be a detox centre,” said Abe.
“Right now the challenge we have is we don’t have enough detox beds, and when they go to detox there’s a wait to get into treatment,” she said. “Typically it’s 60 to 90 days and sometimes six months if you’re trying to get into Redfish Treatment Centre in Vancouver. They have to go out of town for that. We have Baldy Hughes but that’s for men."
The closest women’s treatment centre is in Kamloops.
“When you keep seeing in the news that the overdose death rates are higher in the North, that would be a good indication that there should be a treatment centre in the North to help deal with addiction."
Abe would like to see immediate drop-in access to detox services where people who decide they want to stop using drugs or alcohol can be brought on short notice. The current 20-bed detox centre behind the hospital on Alward Place has limited entry and calls to determine bed access for clients are not accepted until after 8:30 a.m. If a spot is found, the outreach team then has to go out to locate the client before their bed is given to another person.
She said the detox centre serves the entire northern half of B.C. and is inadequate for the number of clients it could potentially serve.
“You’ve got people from Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Fort St. James, this is their detox and there’s only 20 beds, that’s not enough,” said Abe. “When someone comes from Terrace coming to Prince George to access detox, then what happens to them? There’s that wait list, so where do they go after that?”
The Prince George youth custody centre is being closed after years of being underutilized. While the current capacity is for 24 youth aged 12-17, most often there are fewer than 10 young offenders incarcerated there and that is what prompted the provincial government’s decision to close it by March 31, 2024.
