FILE PHOTO - Okanagan Correctional Centre
(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)
November 13, 2022 - 3:33 PM
A Penticton councillor wants to see the stats on the number of people released from a South Okanagan jail that wound up in the community.
Coun. Helena Konanz is proposing that city council sends a letter to the Minister of Public Safety to “provide the number of individuals in custody who have been released in the last 12 months from the Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver and dropped off in Penticton,” according to a notice of motion on the council agenda for Nov. 15.
If a response is not received in a timely manner, she is also asking staff to file a Freedom of Information request.
Years ago, then Penticton RCMP detachment commander Supt. Ted De Jager said there was no evidence that the prison was adding to criminals in the region and that if a person is arrested and convicted, they are returned to the area they were convicted upon release. The prison first opened in 2017.
READ MORE: No evidence inmates released from Okanagan Correctional Centre remain in the area: Penticton RCMP commander
De Jager said people frequently feel released inmates are lingering in the area, but there is little evidence to support the theory.
“I’m not saying we haven’t had people who were released and then showed up on the streets of Penticton, but we don’t seem to see that,” he said.
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