Youth jail underused, should be repurposed, says former director

A former director of the Prince George Youth Custody Centre says the facility could be put to a better use.

In a letter to the Citizen, Stan Hyatt says PGYCC is home to 60 beds but it is his understanding that it now routinely hosts less than a dozen youth "and there have been days where there were no youth at all in our local youth jail."

"Yet we have no substance misuse treatment facilities for women in the north, very limited services for those with mental health issues and a frustrating unhoused population problem in our city," says Hyatt. "Having a virtually empty youth jail in this community when it could be better utilized to address some obvious systemic problems seems ludicrous if not downright embarrassing."

Hyatt, who retired from the position about 15 years ago, is not alone in expressing the idea. Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris says he has brought the proposal to the attention of provincial government over the years only to be ignored.

"It's a multi-million-dollar building, it's got all the infrastructure necessary to repurpose it into something a lot more useful than a detention centre," Morris says.

Hyatt said the drop in the numbers at PGYCC dates back to 2003 when a revamp of federal legislation made it tougher to impose custodial sentences on offenders under 18 years old.

In B.C., the number of youth custody centres fell from seven to two, located in Prince George and Burnaby and the number of youths serving jail time has dropped from 400 to less than 50, according to Hyatt.

In a response to a request for comment, the Ministry of Children and Family Development said it cannot comment publicly on the number of youths detained in the facility due to confidentiality.

However, it said there has been a "positive trend" of declining youth custody numbers over the past number of years.

Factors include early identification and intervention for children and youth at risk of involvement with the criminal justice system, and on reducing the over representation of Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system.

"Our government’s work to implement changes to the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2019 has also contributed to declining youth custody rates," the ministry added.

According to YCJA.ca the amendments were meant to "further encourage the use of alternatives to charging young people with an offence, reduce unnecessary and restrictive bail and sentencing conditions, limit the use of jail sentences, and increase Youth Court efficiencies."

In a response to a request for comment, the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions said the provincial government is "focused on building a voluntary system of mental health and substance use care that works for everyone, where there wasn’t one in 2017."

It also provided a list of initiatives taken to expand mental health and substance use services in Prince George and northern B.C.:

- A new sobering and assessment centre in Prince George and expanded adult addictions day treatment services across the Northern Health region, part of a $132-million investment in treatment and recovery across B.C.

- Foundry centres in northern B.C., including ones in Prince George and Terrace that provide mental health and substance use supports, as well as health and primary and sexual healthcare, to youth between the ages of 12-24 and their families.

- Free and low-cost community counselling services from six community agencies in the Northern Health region (Prince George, Quesnel and Houston), part of the 49 total community agencies funded in B.C.

- Two Urgent and Primary Care Centres in the north of BC, including Quesnel and Prince George, which offer mental health and substance use supports 365 days per year.

The ministry also highlighted an "historic investment of $500 million," made in 2021, that includes $132 million to add treatment and recovery services throughout the province.

"This investment will add approximately 195 new adult substance use treatment and recovery beds. This is in addition to 123 new youth publicly-funded substance use beds, as well as 105 new adult beds which opened last year.

"The Province is also increasing services for people with complex mental health and substance use challenges who are at risk of homelessness, investing $164 million over the next three years to add complex care housing spaces in communities across the province, including the North," the ministry said.

The comments would likely not do much to assuage Hyatt who said in his letter that requests from local advocacy groups to repurpose PGYCC have been ignored and the "political response" from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions has been to advise of how much provincial money they have dedicated to mental health/addiction programs.