Whitehorse Daily Star

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Al Lucier and Liz Hanson

Inmates’ phone costs may be detrimental: Hanson

The Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) was the subject of debate Wednesday,

By Palak Mangat on November 15, 2018

The Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) was the subject of debate Wednesday, with one MLA wondering if the Yukon government is creating revenue from phone calls made by inmates.

NDP Leader Liz Hanson rose in the legislature to point out that the centre’s contract with Texas-based company Synergy can sometimes come with administration fees.

The number she provided ($2.40 for a local call) was a flat one. A Department of Justice official provided more of a detailed breakdown this morning.

Al Lucier, an assistant deputy minister, told the Star a new contract with the American group had been reached earlier this year.

An inmate’s local call costs about $1.35, while long distance ones require a connection fee of $1 plus a rate of $0.30 per minute.

Collect calls amount to about $1.85 because of a processing fee, Lucier said.

The contract with the previous company ran out around last July, and Synergy stepped in to provide services since then, Lucier explained.

“The price or cost of the phone system is cost-neutral,” he said, echoing Hanson’s remarks that it does not cost the government nor the centre anything to have it in place.

“It is run by Synergy and then paid for in part by the charges of it,” he added, assuring that many of those funds go back into the site.

But for Hanson, it’s something that may stand in the way of enhancing “ongoing connection between inmates, their families and their communities.”

That’s something “critical to rehabilitation,” she added in the assembly, suggesting it can create a barrier to contacting loved ones.

Referencing a portion of Synergy’s site, which in part reads “correctional facilities must find new sources of revenue to help fund operations,” Hanson worried the government is ultimately creating money “on the backs of inmates and their families.”

Lucier maintained that of the little that is generated, it goes back into the facility.

“Does it generate revenue? It generates a small revenue that goes back to funding programs at WCC,” he said.

Because the new system itself has not been active for a year yet, figures were sparse on exactly what that number could be, he added.

Lucier explained that the funds go into two places. One is the centre’s revolving fund, which is used for programming at the site.

Another portion is transferred from the revolving fund into the crime prevention victim services trust fund.

The latter has provided funding to community groups in the territory for a number of grassroots projects that aim to prevent crime and support victims.

Past recipients include the Blood Ties Four Directions Centre Society, Boys and Girls Club Yukon and the Yukon Status of Women Council.

Hanson acknowledged this in the assembly Wednesday.

“We do appreciate that some of the funds generated are going to the victim services trust,” she said. However, charging for a call “prevents inmates from contacting their families, their counsellors and other supports,” she said.

Meanwhile, as per its 2015-2016 annual report, the revolving fund made up about three per cent of the total funding source for the crime prevention victim services trust fund.

“I think we have to weigh the benefits of the totality of a phone system with the individual’s ability to make calls,” Lucier said.

More work needs to be done to protect victims who may not wish to be contacted by inmates, he added.

“There is a requirement to manage calls of inmates so that we don’t put witnesses in impending proceedings,” including those who are ordered to not make contact with certain individuals outside the centre.

That’s why having an open phone line may not be the best option, he said. “It really is a balance of that.”

The recommendation to stop charging inmates for local or long-distance calls was made as recently as earlier this year in an inspection report by David Loukidelis. He had been appointed by Justice Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee in late 2017.

The minister mentioned in the assembly Wednesday that the department is looking at how they provided the phone service at the centre.

For his part, Lucier said it was too early to tell whether that recommendation would be accepted.

In a matrix provided at a media briefing on Aug. 15, the suggestion was listed as “under consideration,” and noted the system provides discretion to offer free phone cards to those unable to afford calls on their own.

Lucier, a one-time RCMP member who worked in the Yukon, also serves as the chair of the implementation working group that will provide input on how to fulfill the recommendations made in Loukidelis’ report.

Comments (15)

Up 2 Down 2

Dr Who was tarded on Nov 20, 2018 at 6:05 pm

@ Woodcutter - If you are going to assail someone for a perceived lack of sophistication you may want to know when to use “you are” and when to use “your”.
You also commit the common grammatical error of the comma splice. Perhaps you meant to use a period instead?

Then there is the convoluted sentence structure suggesting either an emotionally dysregulated state or an unstated need to be heard. It detracts from your intended message which now just sounds deliberately mean-spirited.
This would suggest that your [note proper usage of your] misrepresentation of Martin’s words was intentional.

Woodcutter - You have the right and the obligation to clarify others words, not define them. Unless you possess the ability for clairvoyance you have no clue... As to what was intended.
It is always preferable to assume the most respectful interpretation.

Up 2 Down 4

Woodcutter on Nov 19, 2018 at 9:54 pm

@ the cognitive polluted

Your showing a lack of sophistication and demonstrated a limp posture on your reading comprehension. Try sounding the words out loud to get an understanding of the words. I know you can do it, After 3 or 4 times you could understand how simple his sentence structure is and how only you could understand something else.

Up 23 Down 3

Sunset on Nov 19, 2018 at 3:26 pm

Newsflash for Liz: They are in jail, they have forsaken many rights that those of us on the outside take for granted as part of their sentence. That's the whole point of jail. It's to reflect, to try to right a wrong, make yourself a better person.

Anything beyond '3-hots-and-a-cot' is a bonus.

These inmates, should they desire, can be on work crews (making money, learning skills) can take programming of various sorts to understand how to curb addiction and domestic (or otherwise) violence. They can take college courses. Their food is made for them. Their laundry is done for them. There is a roof over their head. They have a workout room. There is various First Nations programming. Satellite TV in their cells. Visitation rights are available and yes, they can use the phone and buy snacks from the commissary.

They are not hard done by any means. Many people on the outside don't have a fraction of these opportunities at their disposal, your faux outrage is getting tiresome.

Up 17 Down 5

Had enough of this on Nov 18, 2018 at 12:57 pm

In addition to footing the bill for incarceration, why should taxpayers bear the cost for an inmate to make phone calls??!?!?!?! Seriously! The world is going insane!

Up 11 Down 5

Ivy piper on Nov 17, 2018 at 4:06 pm

Geez why don’t we keep jobs in the Yukon? Liberals do something about that.

Up 10 Down 10

The Cognitively Diluted on Nov 16, 2018 at 8:37 pm

Response to WoodNutter - Martin was talking about the phone system at WCC and not the Yukon more generally.
But thanks for letting us know who is partly responsible for the unreasonably high cost of communication services in the Yukon.

Go you!
You are probably one of those herbalists who frequents the government store to get some perspective. A little oblivion.

Up 26 Down 4

Killing Fields on Nov 16, 2018 at 5:53 pm

@ Edie rue - Because people beat, rape and murder their own family in the Yukon it is important to the administration of justice that they not be allowed to phone their family members and harass them into silence, threaten them with more harm or even death if they testify, and arrange to have drugs brought into jail etc.

It would be dangerously stupid to allow unrestricted telephone access to wife beaters, child molesters, rapists and murderers. Heck - It’s difficult to get them into jail in the first place to keep victims and society safe - Now you want to provide them with telephone access to make it even more difficult?

You running some sort of healing lodge for child killers?
The Gladue Games are already traumatizing people with open unchecked violence on Yukon streets! End the violence now...

Up 14 Down 3

Woodcutter on Nov 16, 2018 at 12:45 pm

@ Martin
The Yukon phone system is owned by Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) on the Toronto stock exchange. I've had this stock in my RRSP self directed plan for decades. It pays a good solid dividend for decades. I can assure you it's a profit making venture. if this is an example of socialism, in your mind, then I am all in.

Up 9 Down 43

Edie rue on Nov 16, 2018 at 6:27 am

I don’t understand why a simple and vital task such as phone calls are in any way restricted for inmates. They have children, spouses, parents and friends, all of which could make it bearable. I feel this is another component of an oppressive regime we call “corrections”.

Up 18 Down 7

Martin on Nov 16, 2018 at 3:11 am

Our phone system outsourced to a Yankee company? Because they're business oriented and not-socialism oriented.

Up 16 Down 7

Hmm on Nov 15, 2018 at 6:59 pm

Outsourced? Perhaps the 37 other Canadian Correctional facilities (on their website) choose this company for a reason as well.

Up 20 Down 9

Mike H on Nov 15, 2018 at 6:07 pm

@PSG If it wasn’t being outsourced to the lowest bidder you’d be here whining about the cost and YG wasting money on having to hire staff to build and maintain it. Do you ever get tired of complaining?

Up 24 Down 7

Jack Handy on Nov 15, 2018 at 5:54 pm

Nothing in this article is true. Did you know that outside of the police and the military the family is the most violent institution in the world.
Although society echoes the idea of stranger danger you are most likely to be victimized by someone in your own family or someone who is known to you.

The fantasy that families are sources of healing and rehabilitation is a “stupid” assertion as a general rule. This belief comes from a position of relative privilege.
You are at less risk with strangers.

Stick to the biz Liz because you are “wrong” and as someone with some influence in the community you are putting people at risk. Shhhh!

Up 59 Down 14

Bill ball on Nov 15, 2018 at 4:26 pm

Liz Hanson does not have a clue. Inmates in years past could make as many calls as they wanted on the taxpayer dime, one inmate made 30 calls before lunch, that’s a lot of family Liz! It’s about time they were charged for calls - why should it be free?

Up 45 Down 10

ProScience Greenie on Nov 15, 2018 at 3:27 pm

Why is the phone system being outsourced to a Yankee company??

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