New Nanaimo Correctional Centre opens
The $181 million project will see an increase in capacity from 190 rooms to 200 and include a new unit for women in short-term custody. Photo: Government of BC
After more than two years of construction, the new Nanaimo Correctional Centre is now open.
The provincial government said the replacement of the correctional centre is a step forward in advancing correctional services on Vancouver Island and supporting community safety.
The $181 million project will see an increase in capacity from 190 rooms to 200 and include a new unit for women in short-term custody. This is the first-ever women’s correctional unit on Vancouver Island,
CHLY attended the press conference at the centre for the opening. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth spoke at the conference. He said the new facility is designed with specific outcomes in mind and built spaces to support staff and enhance programs that help those in custody gain new skills and start to imagine a new way of life when released.
“While in custody, we want people to receive the support that they need to better understand and address what led to their criminal behaviours so that they can make a plan and start to take steps that will help to stop the cycle of reoffending,” he said
He shared that the Guthrie Therapeutic Community program is one example of a program offered that combines work, addiction treatment and counselling in a positive environment for residents to learn important social and emotional skills.
“A unique feature of the Guthrie program is the community aspect. It's the participants who hold each other to account, pushing each other every day to give each other their best and be accountable to one another,” he said. “The progress they see in each other and themselves fosters a sense of community that many may not have ever experienced before. And this reinforces their dedication and commitment to being part of something positive, and ultimately life-changing.”
The Guthrie Therapeutic Community is a self-contained residential addiction treatment program offered by Connective–formally known as the John Howard Society–and began in 2007. The program can support as many as 52 residents.
MLA for Nanaimo and Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Sheila Malcolmson also spoke at the conference. She said when planning the new centre, the government wanted to give those in the centre the opportunity to access addiction treatment, counselling, and employment and skills training.
She also said the new 12-room women’s unit will benefit women from Vancouver Island who would normally have to serve time on the mainland.
“I understand that that might be the difference between splitting up a family or even parents losing custody of their children,” she said. “If we have the option, always public safety in mind, always with the best interest of the woman and the family in mind. Now this building here creates that opportunity.”
She said avoiding splitting up families could lead to avoiding future social issues and challenges.
“I really recognize and I hear from women affected that this can be the greatest motivator to rehabilitation and changing their life is to make a better path for their families and for their kiddos,” she said.
Malcolmson said it is important to connect those in custody to the proper mental health support they may need. She said she is grateful for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program that is run through Vancouver Island University. The program brings university students and students inside the centre to take classes together at the centre.
She also said the Guthrie Therapeutic Community program is something that Nanaimo should be proud of. She said there is nothing like it elsewhere in the province and is the first-ever therapeutic community built inside the prison system in all of Canada.
“I think maybe five years ago, being at one of Guthrie's graduation ceremonies here at the old part of the prison [and seeing] how emotionally articulate, how accountable –and how the men that I talked with, having come from very hard times,” she said. “What they had learned and recognized about what got them on this path into the correction system, and how they were going to change their life on the other side.”
Jason is one of the residents of the Guthrie Therapeutic Community and spoke during the conference. After battling with addictions for many years, he was placed in custody over three years ago and thought he would end up in prison for a long time. During his time at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre, he felt he had failed himself, his friends and family but then he decided to change his mindset and write down some goals for himself.
“They seemed really far-fetched at the time. I wrote down some goals saying that I want to get my Dogwood diploma, I wanted to do everything I could to get a provincial sentence so I can make it to the Guthrie House, and I wanted to complete the Guthrie program and get enrolled in university,” he said.
He said he eventually started working on his Dogwood diploma and got in contact with the Guthrie program. He then said he was able to work with his lawyer to get a five-year provincial sentence minus time served that allowed him to join the Guthrie program.
This was his second time joining the program but he said the first time he did it, he did not do the mental and emotional work he needed to do on himself.
“I got accepted back to the program where I was able to do a lot of that inside work and be able to dig up these uncomfortable things that you know, you don't even really want to talk about with family or with friends. And being able to do it with a group of my peers, of Inside students,” he said. “Strongly believe that the inside program and Guthrie program contrast each other in a very unique way.”
He said he has been in the Guthrie program for ten months now and joined the Inside-Outside program which has allowed him to enroll in the Community Mental Health Worker course which he will start in September.
“And it's like, all these thoughts that I had about people, that people were judging me or people thought I couldn't do this,” he said. “I realized over the years a lot of that was just it was myself. It was myself that was–I was judging myself, I didn't believe in myself. So I never stepped outside of my comfort zone. With the Guthrie program, it allows you to step out of your comfort zone.”
He said because of the Guthrie and the Inside-Out program he is finally able to check things off his list of goals.
The opening of the new centre marks the end of the first phase of the project and the second phase will see the deconstruction and removal of the old centre to be finished in Spring 2025.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.