Manitoba’s justice minister says there are no current plans to build a new jail in Dauphin, despite a recent inquest report stating that the ageing facility could have been a factor in an inmate’s death.
In 2013, the then NDP government announced plans to replace the more than 100-year-old Dauphin jail. The City and RM had donated land to the project, and in 2014, a request for proposals was issued.
After the PC government was elected, then-justice minister Heather Stefanson had said that the proposal for a new jail was being looked at in a review of capital projects in the province.
Justice Minister Cliff Cullen has now said that the province and community can do without the new building.
“We can accommodate our inmate counts on the correction side with our existing facilities,” said Cullen.
An inquest report, released this week, into the 2016 death of inmate Freeman Zong, said that the Dauphin jail is the oldest facility in the province. It added that, compared to the other eight correctional facilities in the province, the design of the Dauphin jail is outdated.
The jail has undergone some changes since Zong’s death including renovating the bathrooms to make them more “open concept,” and new security vents have been installed.
A new desk and a new closed-circuit TV monitor have also been installed, to make sure staff can look at the cells at any time.
The union that represents the workers there said that while there have been some changes, more work needs to be done.
When speaking about the 61-inmate facility, the president of the Manitoba Government and General Employee’s Union, Michelle Gawronsky, said that it’s in desperate need of repair.
“The jail is one of the largest employers in Dauphin,” said Gawronsky. “The folks that are working there, the families that have loved ones working there, they deserve to know what their future holds.”
Minister Cullen stated that the age of the facility has been taken into account, and the government is aware that there have been issues about access to the courthouse. He added that the department is looking at some options there.
The 2014 request for proposals said that the province had planned on building a 180-bed facility, meant to ease pressure on jails in Brandon and The Pas.
