The government's strategy for dealing with chronic drunks in the downtown area drew poor reviews from Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell during the spring sitting's first question period last Thursday.

While lodgings for those picked up by the RCMP for public intoxication will be moved from the Whitehorse police detachment to the new jail, Mitchell said that ignores recommendations in a recent report by the Task Force on Acutely Intoxicated Persons at Risk.

"The task force specifically called for a comprehensive downtown facility where people can sober up and, if they want to, stay for longer-term detox services,” said Mitchell, who asked why this item was not included in the 2011-12 fiscal year budget.

"The report's recommendations specifically said the facility should not be located at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre, but the government decided to build one there anyway,” continued Mitchell.

But Health and Social Services Minister Glenn Hart defended the decision to move the drunk tank to the $70-million-plus jail when it is completed in the spring of 2012.

"Although not the ideal situation, (it) will meet the requirements of the task group and will provide the much-needed medical facilities when the facility is completed,” said Hart. "It ... will also reduce the pressure on our ER.”

While Dr. Bruce Beaton, co-chair of the task force, said as much when the plan was unveiled at a Jan. 11 press conference, the doctor stopped short of declaring it a panacea.

"It's a great first step,” said Beaton, who worked with Champagne-Aishihik First Nation Chief James Allen on the report on acutely intoxicated people, and recommended a downtown sobering centre for people detained under the Liquor Act.

Currently, the responsibility for dealing with addicted people "is pegged on law enforcement ... (and) we need to swing that pendulum toward health care,” Beaton added.

In addition to a policing review, the task force was prompted by the deaths of Raymond Silverfox and Robert Stone.

Silverfox died in 2008 after being held more than 13 hours in RCMP cells, where he was violently ill the entire time he was in custody, but was never given any medical attention.

He was dragged from his cell when an officer noticed he was no longer moving or breathing and had no heart beat. Silverfox, 43, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Stone died in the Sarah Steele Building detox centre in May 2010.

He was first picked up by paramedics, became violent and was arrested, then taken back to emergency and released. He died a few hours later after checking into detox.

A coroner's inquest into his death has been called, but not scheduled. 

The new holding centre, or "secure assessment centre”, will offer 24-hour medical care in the form of registered nurses and specially trained guards, and will draw on the jail's resources such as the kitchen, laundry, interview rooms and secure medical wards.

It will also allow corrections officers to keep women and youth completely separate from male prisoners, which the police cannot do in their current cell block.

There is no word yet on how many people the new secure assessment centre will be able to hold.

Once built, the secure facility will house almost all those who are now going into RCMP cells after being arrested.

Although the so-called secure assessment centre was inspired by the problem of chronic, hard-core alcoholics who draw heavily on police and hospital resources, it will also house sober prisoners.

– With files from Justine Davidson.