GNWT has no comment over future of jails ahead of budget

The NWT government has declined to comment on possible jail closures as cabinet prepares to introduce its 2024-25 budget later this week.

For years, the territory’s jail system has been less than half full according to figures provided by the territorial government.

Multiple Fort Smith residents have contacted Cabin Radio to report speculation locally that staff have been told the town’s male corrections facility will close later this year. So far, the GNWT has not confirmed that this is the case.

The NWT’s Department of Justice passed a Cabin Radio enquiry about the future of that facility to the Department of Finance.

Asked if a plan to close the facility exists or, alternatively, if there is no plan to close the jail, the Department of Finance stated on Tuesday: “The GNWT does not have a comment at this time.”

The department implied some form of announcement will follow when the territory’s budget is unveiled later this week.

“The Minister of Finance will deliver the budget address and table all departmental business plans and the main estimates on May 24,” the department’s statement continued.

“Media will be invited to a technical briefing in advance of the budget address and you can follow up with the Department of Justice once again after the budget is tabled for answers to any questions concerning the operations of correctional facilities in the NWT.”

Low jail numbers

The territory has previously said Fort Smith’s men’s jail is designed to hold a maximum of 21 people. The town’s women’s facility, opened in 2019, has a capacity of 23.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which slowed the court system and also changed some approaches to sentencing, led to greatly reduced numbers inside the NWT’s jails.

By late 2021, the territorial government was reporting a total of 74 inmates – both adult and youth – in a territory-wide system built to safely hold 253.

Figures provided to Cabin Radio by the GNWT show the situation hasn’t significantly changed since.

By March 31, 2022, the overall number of adult inmates had reached 84. Of those, eight men were being held in Fort Smith’s 21-bed facility.

A year later, at the end of March 2023, the number of adult inmates in the NWT system had dropped by one to 83. Twelve men were being held in Fort Smith. Those are the latest available figures.

Fort Smith’s women’s facility had six inmates in March 2022 and three inmates in March 2023.

What should change?

Sentencing guidelines and the broader operation of the justice system are primarily federal matters. The GNWT cannot directly decide to send more people to jail or hold them there longer, even if it thought those options were the way forward.

However, how the NWT’s jails are run and how many spaces are available are the territory’s responsibility.

In March 2022, the GNWT said a working group had been formed to examine what to do about so much jail space and so few inmates.

Rylund Johnson, the Yellowknife North MLA at the time, recommended working toward eliminating some of the need for jails, given the numbers.

“When I look at the $40 million we’re spending on corrections, with a concerted effort we could put that into diversion and we could basically empty out our jails and be leaders in this,” he said.

RJ Simpson, the justice minister of the day and now the NWT’s premier, told Johnson in 2022: “Sometimes a victim does want whoever victimized them to not victimize them, for at least a short period of time, and there are serious concerns about just not remanding anyone.

“But that being said, I hear the member’s concerns. I think he’s an idealist and we need some idealists always bringing those ideas forward.

“I would like to keep the numbers low. The lower the better. So I will continue to work down that path, and I think that desire is shared by the department as well.”

How a man managed to escape from Fort Smith’s jail

Since then, the NWT government has more recently embarked on a mission to save $150 million a year by either increasing revenues or cutting expenditures.

Revealing that ambition in February, Simpson said it was “anchored in the very simple idea that every dollar we spend on programs and services supports the needs of residents and communities across the territory.”

A government-wide review has been taking place since, which included giving employees a means of directly recommending areas where revenue could be found or cuts made.

This week’s budget is likely to contain the first major results of that initiative. Unlike this year’s federal budget, much of which was selectively announced ahead of time, no detail of the NWT budget has so far been made public.