The first phase of the new $181-million Nanaimo Correctional Centre has opened at Brannen Lake, with more space and support programs to help inmates better integrate into society once released, the province says.
The facility, which has 190 cells and is next to the existing correctional centre, includes a new 12-room unit for short-term custody for women from Vancouver Island, something that had been identified as a shortfall.
It has space for educational, vocational, trades and rehabilitative programming, as well as areas for food services, health care and working with inmates with complex mental-health needs, the province said.
The new facility is 180,296 square feet, up from 132,934 square feet in the old centre.
The transition began April 30 from the existing correctional centre, which opened in 1953 as a reform school. It was converted to a correctional centre in the 1980s and can house up to 221 inmates serving sentences of less than two years who do not require higher levels of security.
The centre offers programs such as the 52-bed Guthrie residential addiction therapeutic program, which combines work, addictions treatment counselling and behavioural modelling.
The Guthrie program, which started in 2007, accepts residents from throughout the province.
At the end of their sentence, residents transition into the community, with support to find work and housing and up to six months of monitoring.
“While they’re in custody, we want to support people to make meaningful change so that they can have a different life after prison,” said Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson, minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.
In the second phase of the project, which runs until the spring of 2025, the old buildings will be taken down.
A traditional Indigenous programs building, called Lelum, is planned, along with a horticultural centre and more programming space.
Cultural programs were created through collaboration with the Snuneymuxw and Snaw’Naw’As First Nations, the province said.
Natural lighting and building materials were used in construction of the secure facility to provide a positive environment, the province said, adding traditional Coast Salish plank houses inspired the architectural design of the centre.
The new centre will earn LEED environmental certification, said Citizens’ Services Minister George Chow.
