The Yukon government is spending over $1.3 million to find out what Yukoners think about the territorial corrections system.

On Monday, members of the corrections office will be headed to Faro to begin meeting with the public.

'We'll be asking people to think about the challenges that victims and offenders are facing,' Joanne Lewis, a government policy analyst involved with the project, said at a news conference Thurday afternoon. 'We'll be asking them to tell us what works and what doesn't work.'

The five-member committee will be visiting almost every community in the Yukon twice over the next 15 months, before the suggestions are eventually drafted into an action plan.

It was noted during the press conference, that by 2006, a new government could be elected and shelve the plan, which has happened in the past with other consultation projects.

Barb Joe, a member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation who co-chairs the corrections project, has heard that concern before.

She says the committee can only hope that any new government will carry the plan forward.

Joe recalled a recent story about a Gwitchin woman who told her a new government couldn't do that to the committee.

That woman had said: 'This is a Yukon document. This is owned by Yukoners. This document that is something that all Yukoners came up with,' Joe recalled.

The action plan will include new programs to deal with a number of inmate problems.

With 70 to 80 per cent of the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) inmates being of first nation descent, new programs might include helping offenders get in touch with their traditions and deal with the effects of residential schools, said Joe.

A large number of inmates in the WCC also suffer mental illnesses or cognitive disabilities, such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Just providing programming for one of these problems could cost the government millions, as was mentioned yesterday.

Sharon Hickey is the Yukon's director of community and correctional services and co-chairs the committee. She said that when dealing with FASD, there needs to be long-term support for those offenders.

To keep people with FASD out of trouble, individual lifelong 24-hour supervision is usually needed, as most with FASD do not have a sense of right or wrong.

Joe said once a plan is finalized by the government, programs, like those related to FASD, will be implemented, or at least 'as far as we know the government is committed to following through with everything that we recommend.'

Hickey said most people who are even remotely familiar with the territory's justice system would not say the Yukon is getting optimal results.

'We have too many people that keep coming back over and over,' said Hickey. 'People get into trouble quite often because they have problems in their lives. We hope that by helping them appropriately with those problems that they can turn their lives around.'

The corrections committee is particularly interested in hearing from former inmates, victims and first nations people.

The committee will be spending two days in each community so people can have a chance to approach them privately with their concerns if a person does not feel comfortable speaking at a public committee.

'We're going out with an open heart, open mind,' said Joe. 'And we have no preconceived ideas of what we'll end up with.'

Hickey said: 'I have great hope that this is a process that is going to let us find a true path if one is there.'

The committee will also be touring other prison facilities across Canada, although it is not known yet which ones they will be visiting.

It may be that, in the future, the Yukon will take inmates out bush camping to get in touch with their traditions, as is done in the Northwest Territories, said Joe.

'We're also researching across Canada to see if there are programs and services that we can benchmark to, but at the end of the day, we need a solution that's going to work in the Yukon,' said Hickey.

'It can't be something that we can cookie-cutter into the Yukon,' agreed Joe. 'It has to be something based on the inmates and the victims.'

The consultations are only focused on programming, not around building a new prison, although Hickey said she expects that concern will be brought up.

'We're several years away from a new facility, and there's people still here and now that need to be helped here and now,' said Hickey.

The jail opened in 1967.

Over the past two years, the government has spent close to $300,000 maintaining and repairing the current correctional centre, according to government records.

The correctional consultations were first announced last November by Justice Minister John Edzerza.

The committee has since done preconsultations with each community to figure out the best way to set up a successful meeting in each town.

Information from their first public meeting next week will be posted on their website by April 20.

For more information about the consultation process, visit www.correctionsconsultation.yk.ca