MAYOR DOESN'T WANT ANY MORE PRISONS IN EDMONTON

Dealing With Parolees Costs Too Much: Mandel

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel demanded Tuesday that the federal
government stop building prison cells in the city because dealing with
ex-inmates costs police too much money.

"We have more than our fair share of prisoners in our city. We don't
want any more," Mandel said. "If the federal government wants to
expand prisons, do it elsewhere. . . . We have done our share."

Mandel is concerned the federal and provincial governments don't
sufficiently reimburse cities for the costs of dealing with justice
issues, which can include everything from "tough on crime" laws to
processing bail applications.

"They need to start paying for those things, for the challenges of
municipalities they put upon us," he told reporters.

"It always winds up being downloaded on cities. We don't want any more
prison space here. We have enough, that's quite clear. . . . We bear
that cost for the entire region."

The issue came up as council looked at the 2012 police budget request,
which includes $4.8 million to hire an extra 65 officers and three
other staff to carry out Chief Rod Knecht's violence-reduction strategy.

One factor in the growing police workload is the expansion of local
federal prisons. Edmonton is home to about 400 paroled inmates, Knecht said.

Last January, Ottawa announced plans to add 90 beds to the
maximum-security Edmonton Institution by 2014, part of a $2-billion
national prison-expansion plan.

As well as the 298-inmate Max, police say, there are four other
federal facilities in Edmonton with a further 201 prisoners: the
Institution for Women, Stan Daniels Healing Centre, Grierson Centre
and Buffalo Sage Healing Centre.

Local inmate numbers could grow under an omnibus crime bill being
debated in Parliament that includes mandatory minimum sentences for
some drug offences.

"There might be some savings, there might be some costs," Knecht said,
adding he hasn't finished analyzing the implications of the bill.

"People that are on parole or in the community, they might cause some
stressors. We haven't looked at that . . . in the simplest terms, it
might be the requirement to transfer a person from point A to point B
for court."

A spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada couldn't confirm
how many parolees live in Edmonton or other cities.

"We assist them by encouraging them to live pro-social lives and to
achieve safe reintegration at appropriate times. Release destinations
for our offenders can be as a result of numerous factors such as
family and employment."