Lakeshore Advance, 2012-04-11, Page 9Wednesday, April 20, 2011 • Lakeshore Advance 19
Sarnia council to officially oppose jail closing
Cathy Dobson
QMt Agency
Zia Mayor Mike Bradley is expected
o ask city council to officially
oppose the closure of the Sarnia
jail this week.
Bradley wants council to
request a meeting with the pre-
mier to get the province to review
its decision to close the jail in
2013.
Bradley and t► large delegation
went to Queen's Park this week to
request the business case justify-
ing the closure, but returned
empty-handed.
Shock and disbelief over an
Ontario government decision to
close Sarnia Jail in 2013 is mobi-
lizing the community to fight
hack, says Mayor Mike Bradley.
"The key is to make the govern-
ment justify the decision," he said
Monday. "It's obvious there's been
no financial analysis of the
impacts."
Bradley is appealing to groups
throughout the community
affected by last week's budget
announcement,
An April 11 meeting at city hall
has been organized to "pull all the
facts together" and develop a
strategy to reverse the decision,
he said.
lint Bradley, Minister of Com-
munity Safety and Correction
Services, has said jails in Sarnia,
Walkerton and Owen Sound will
close and Sarnia's inmates will be
housed ata new "sumer jail" to be
built in Windsor.
The minister told The Observer
the daily cost of accommodating a
prisoner will drop to $125 from
$180 as a result of the closure, and
pointed out the 50 -year-old Sar-
nia jail is in need of $1 trillion in
renovations.
On Monday Andrew Chomenky,
an assistant to Ontario Finance
Minister Dwight Duncan, said the
province believes it will save $8
million a year on an ongoing basis
by closing the three Jails.
Chomenky said the cost of
transporting inmates between
Windsor and Sarnia was taken
into consideration when the num-
bers were crunched, but he
couldn't offer any details.
Mayor Mike Bradley said local
officials want to know a lot more
about the cost analysis.
Approximately 4,300 people
went through court security lust
year and 869(1 came from the jail,
he said.
".Those are big numbers. 1t
doesn't snake sense to transport
so many instates by bus from
Windsor when the Sarnia jail is
connected to the local courthouse
by a short tunnel.
"If their defence is that they're
going to transport them on a
chain gang bus Monday to Friday,
you'd think they'd know the costs,"
Bradley said. "It's huge."
And the buses won't run on
weekends, the mayor added,
As many as 140 inmates are in
Sarnia jail every weekend, he said.
"We only have four to six cells at
Sarnia station. What are we going
to do, especially during busy festi-
val weekends in the summer?"
Ile has called on the local law
association, Sarnia Police Serv-
ices, the Sarnia Police. Associa-
tion, the jail guard's association,
business groups and Aatnjt-
wnnang Chief Chris Plain to speak
at the April 11 meeting, which gets
underway at 11 a.m.
"It's my hope that a grassroots
organization will take control of
the issue and our fight will he
community-based and non parti
sant," Bradley said.
On Monday, the Sarnia -Lamb
tun Chamber of Commerce asked
for input from its membership to
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try to assess how much business
is done with the local jail.
Once as much information as
possible Is collected, Bradley said
he wants to see a strategy develop
to take Sarnia's case to Queen's
Park.
"'That means asking for a meet-
ing with the premier and the two
opposition leaders and getting all
this on the table as soon as
possible"
A provincial election will take
place in six months, Bradley
noted. "'This will he a significant
issue here"
The finance minister's office
directed The Observer to the Min-
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Correctional Services for details
about what led to the decision to
close Sarnia jail.
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