The $2.4-million final report from the Yukon government's consultations on corrections in the territory has been tabled in the legislative assembly.

The 236-page document places an emphasis on healing as opposed to jail time.

Sharon Hickey, the co-chair of the consultation's project team for the government, told a news conference Tuesday it is hoped the report will help the territory work toward creating a restorative justice system.

'If you have an emphasis on prevention, if everybody pulls together, if we can get agreement on what the problems are, then there's no reason we can't hope to see a change,' she said.

A restorative justice system is just as much about the people who are out of the correctional system as it is those who are in, she said. It focuses on healthy families, children and creating productive citizens, she said.

Yukoners should expect to see a reduction in crime rates as the system is implemented. Those who do find themselves in jail should expect to get help, but also to make some lifestyle changes, said Hickey.

Andy Carvill, grand chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN), said a key priority for the CYFN coming away from the consultation will be to stress the need to build capacity in communities and at existing healing camps.

'As it stands now, in order to help people on their healing path, they have to take advantage of programming outside of the territory. That's difficult because that leaves their families behind,' he said.

The report's recommendations are built around 19 issues ranging from justice system processes to family needs to the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

Suggestions in the final document include the need to build a new jail, a separate facility for people suffering for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the need for hands on training and cultural programs for those who are Incarcerated.

Justice Minister John Edzerza said the underlying theme to the public meetings, which visited all Yukon communities and spoke to approximately 1,000 people, was the need for community capacity building.

The current jail was built in 1967 and has seen $1.4 million in repairs and renovations in just the last three years.

'Not only is the building deteriorating, but the spirits of the people,' said Carvill.

The consultation process made it very clear there needs to be strong programming within the correctional centre and in communities for healing, he said.

'The focus of correction reform must be based on rehabilitation and healing and not be punitive in nature.'

The former Liberal government under the leadership of then-premier Pat Duncan had completed a consultation process on the establishment of a new jail and had even begun turning dirt for the facility before the Yukon Party took office and halted the project in 2002.

Edzerza said the consultation process under the Yukon Party's government has gone above and beyond what was done by the Liberals.

'In order to have this change that citizens are looking for, you need this report.

'The real difference is the fact that this government didn't just want to build another jail. We wanted to see correctional changes,' he said.

Duncan said the Yukon Party government, however, did not want to build a new jail and used the report as a delay tactic.

'The problem that we have with the corrections consultation report is that it should not have been used as an excuse not to replace a facility that is a danger both to staff and inmates, that successive governments have known about for a very, very long time,' Duncan told the legislature Tuesday.

'When the Yukon Party came to office, a new design for the correctional facility was complete,' said Duncan. 'Dirt had already been moved. Money was set aside in the capital budget. Community consultations on the new facility had been completed.

'The Yukon Party simply didn't want to allocate the funds. Concerns raised by inmates, staff and the fire marshal about the facility simply had to wait.'

The 2006/2007 budget has included $1 million for the development of new correctional infrastructure as per the findings of the report.

There will be a need to move away from the 'warehouse syndrome', said Carvill.

Edzerza agreed, saying if a 200-bed facility was built, the tendency is to fill it rather than focus on other options.

A jail clearly won't be built in the eight months remaining in the Yukon Party government's mandate, said Edzerza, but at least officials can get started on the blueprints.

Hickey said the consultation process found many imprisoned individuals indicated a preference for individual cells with their own bathrooms. There were also requests for facilities for programming, such as carving, welding and horse packing and cultural space, she said.

But the general perspective on architecture, as found under the $2 million invested by the former Liberal government, was still fairly consistent, she said.

The framework for moving forward has been agreed upon in the Yukon Forum of the government and first nations, said Dennis Cooley, the deputy minister of Justice.

Two advisory committees will now be struck within the forum, he said. One will be looking at the jail facility while the other will be working on correctional framework and community programming, he said.

'(We're) trying to develop a continuum of programming that reflects what is contained in the report itself,' he said.

NDP Justice critic Steve Cardiff said this morning he believes it's important the consultation happened and all the recommendations and individual comments are contained in a single document.

But moving forward, Cardiff added, the government needs to provide the resources to actually implement the recommendations.

'Everything in here needs to be done,' he said. 'We can't delay any longer.'

Cardiff said he hopes the minister provides specific rules, guidelines and deadlines for the advisory committees so the jail facility and the programming recommended in the report become a reality as quickly as possible.

As it stands, the government probably could have started building the jail and creating programming already, but it will now just be another project left by the Yukon Party for the next government to complete, he said.