Baffin inmates stressed by overcrowding: lawyer

An Iqaluit legal aid lawyer says inmates at the Baffin Correctional Centre are so stressed out by overcrowding that some would rather plead guilty and go to a federal prison than await trial at the territorial jail.

Last month, as many as 96 inmates were at the Baffin Correctional Centre which has a capacity of 65 but often houses at least 70 with up to 25 inmates having to sleep on mattresses in the jail's gym. The Nunavut Justice Department has attributed the overcrowding to more long-term sentences and longer wait-times before trials.

Lawyer Chris Debicki, director of the Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik Society, said he has spoken to inmates who had trouble sleeping in the gym due to a lack of privacy and the fact that the gym's lights were left on for security reasons. As a result, Debicki said, an increasing number of them have said they would rather serve federal time than stay at the jail.

"Because of the stressful situation in the correctional centre, individuals are expressing a desire to get through the process as quickly as possible irrespective of some of the procedural rights that they have guaranteed to them, such as trials," Debicki said.

"There's even a perception among some inmates that even federal time, which is normally reserved for more serious types of offences and it comes along with a longer prison term is more attractive than conditions in the correctional centre presently."

But Deputy Justice Minister Markus Weber said he hasn't heard of any inmates saying they would prefer federal time to the territorial jail.

"We'll look into that when those concerns are brought to us," Weber said. "At this point, what we hear is inmates by and large requesting to stay at Baffin Correctional Centre.We're not hearing from inmates that they want to be transferred out."

Weber said that on Wednesday 84 inmates were staying at the Baffin Correctional Centre, and corrections staff were assessing those inmates' security status and programming needs. Staff hope to send seven inmates to outpost camps, three to the Ilavut Centre in Kugluktuk, and some others to institutions in Ontario and the Northwest Territories.

As there is no ombudsman for inmates in Nunavut, Weber said inmates concerned about overcrowding can raise their concerns with corrections staff or the John Howard Society.