A Correction Canada Review Panel Report has put the spotlight back on the location of the Ottawa parole office and its proximity to Elgin Street School, recommending Corrections Services Canada ensure stricter guidelines in order to protect vulnerable communities when locating parole offices.
“The minister has asked for solutions to be found related to locating potentially dangerous offenders in facilities that are closer to vulnerable populations,” saidMelisa Leclerc, spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.
The panel undertook the task of reviewing a series of Correctional Services of Canada’s priorities, strategies and business plans by the federal government.
The report entitled “A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety,” was written in October, but not released until last December.
The report states that more attention should be paid to strengthen the CSC’s guidelines to include more extensive community consultation when selecting locations for correctional facilities and parole offices.
The second portion of the recommendation is to ensure a request to the department of public works for site acquisition.
Full consideration of amendments to municipal bylaws for “no-go zones” will be needed to help protect potentially vulnerable communities.
Albert Galpin, chairman of a Centretown neighborhood safety committee, has been fighting to have a parole office removed from his neighborhood since it was moved to Elgin Street from the downtown core in 2004.
“It’s about time the report was released,” he said.
“The community wants to find out how (parole offices) just snuck into our neighborhood. If Corrections Services Canada talk to people and consult with the community maybe the same blunder won’t happen again,” said Galpin.
Rob Sampson, chair of the CSC Review Panel, said he believes the government is still unsure of the exact plan of action that they will take, but insists he does have confidence in the government.
“They asked for an independent review and we are hoping the will act on the recommendations in the report,” he said.
More consultation and consideration by the CSC and the government is needed to decide where not to place these facilities.
Sampson said it is important to remember that most people will not be in jail for the rest of their lives and they will in fact be back in the community.
“It’s best to have them back in a supervised format," he said.
"We must be mindful of the places you would not want to have parole offices, like next to a school for instance,” he said
Galpin said he hopes the recommendation will result in municipalities amending a proposed bylaw to help create safe zones around these areas.
The CSC has not decided where the new parole office will be located, something that continues to fuel speculation.
“The only thing that will convince me that they’re gone is when I see the moving trucks in front of the parole office,” he said.
The government has promised to move the Elgin office in 2009.