Sarnia Jail's No Luxury Hotel
Local leaders should keep fighting the Ontario government's blockheaded decision to close Sarnia Jail.
Corrections Minister Madeleine Meilleur says replacing two old jails in Sarnia and Windsor with one brand new one in the Essex County city will save taxpayers a bundle of cash.
But that's nonsense.
For a while, it looked like she might be reasoned with. But last month she closed the door on saving Sarnia Jail once again.
She insists that transporting local prisoners to Windsor will only cost half a million dollars or so a year.
But others dispute that figure, suggesting it will be much higher. History shows that government spending estimates are almost always wrong. I suspect the actual cost will be double or triple what Queen's Park is telling us.
Besides that, anyone who has sat in the Sarnia courthouse for any length of time will tell you that many prisoners make multiple appearances before their cases are resolved. They make a quick appearance, their case is put off until a later date and they are sent back to jail. Fortunately, that only entails a short walk through a tunnel before they're back behind bars.
The Sarnia Jail is located adjacent to the courthouse, which is the way it should be.
Then there's the cost of the new jail itself. It has been pegged at more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Assuming this number is correct, it's still far too much money to be spending on criminals.
The province points out the Sarnia Jail is 50 years old and often overcrowded. But that shouldn't be viewed as a big deal.
In Canada we're much too quick to tear down perfectly good buildings just because they're getting old. Fifty years is nothing for any facility that is still structurally sound.
In Europe, buildings serve for hundreds of years without being exposed to the wrecking ball.
And the fact that Sarnia Jail is overcrowded should not be a concern. It isn't supposed to be a luxury hotel.
Besides all that, a government swimming in red ink should not be spending a small fortune on any jail of any kind.
Then we come to the safety aspect. Transporting prisoners for two hours over icy winter roads does not sound like a good idea to me. It is, in fact, a recipe for disaster.
If in the end, the government insists on building a new jail for southwestern Ontario it might want to consider a location other than Windsor. It is, after all, at the end of the line for this region.
If it has to be built, why not put it half way between Sarnia and Windsor. Perhaps, say, in Chatham.
It's not the best solution, but it would be better than the one the Liberals are pushing now.