Manitoba Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen says the province will work with Agassiz Youth Centre staff and the government employees’ union to match workers with jobs elsewhere.David Lipnowski/The Canadian Press
The Manitoba government is closing one of its two youth jails, citing a sharp drop in the number of young people being sentenced to custody.
The Agassiz Youth Centre will close July 22 after operating at less than half capacity for several years, and those inside will be transferred to the Manitoba Youth Centre in Winnipeg.
Both facilities have been operating at less than half capacity for years because of changes to federal law in the early 2000s, Manitoba Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Thursday.
“The Youth Criminal Justice Act puts a priority on sentencing in terms of rehabilitation, restoration, (while) also recognizing that youth might have diminished responsibility.”
There are fewer than 90 youth in custody across the province – down from more than 300 a decade ago.
Workers at the Portage la Prairie jail will be offered other jobs, Goertzen said.
No decision has been made about the future of the site, but it might be used for a new $283-million hospital in the community, he added. The hospital was promised by former premier Brian Pallister shortly before he retired last fall.
Goertzen also said new measures will be announced shortly to allow more young people from northern communities to be housed closer to home. Most of the people in youth jails are Indigenous and many are from the north, where there are no youth jails.
Goertzen hinted at an expansion of transitional housing in the north where youth could serve the final portion of their sentences.
“Because there aren’t transitional facilities in the north, a lot of those youth serve their entire time at (Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie) and don’t get the ability to go back into their communities and transition back into the community, which we know has better results,” Goertzen said.
“You will hear of announcements on how we’re going to be repurposing those resources into northern communities in a really short period of time.”
The Manitoba Government and General Employees Union, which represents jail guards and other staff, said it was not consulted on the Agassiz closure.
“This will impact the youth incarcerated there and it will eliminate over a hundred good-paying jobs which support Manitoba families in the community,” union president Kyle Ross said in a statement.
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