Provincial jail loosens rules on inmate phone calls after OmbudsPEI questions
CBC
People being held at P.E.I.'s provincial jail will now be able to make phone calls to anyone they want, as long as they are not blocked by court orders, after an intervention by the Island's ombudsperson's office.
OmbudsPEI sent out a statement about the new policy on Tuesday.
The office, led by Ombudsperson Sandy Hermiston, said it had been receiving complaints for more than two years about the Provincial Correctional Centre allowing inmates to call only a few approved telephone numbers, with requests for additions taking more than a week to go through screening by provincial Probation Services and Victim Services staff.
"During the resolution process, we learned that P.E.I. was the only province in Canada to limit inmate telephone contact in this way," OmbudsPEI said in the news release.
"Every other province permitted inmates to call anyone they wished — except for numbers blocked by the centre for safety and security reasons or when there was a legal requirement to block contact."
The news release noted that the correctional centre typically limited calls to the inmate's close family members, their lawyers, and offices like OmbudsPEI.
"The inmates complained that limiting telephone contact made it difficult to arrange pre-trial release plans," the watchdog's office said. "It also prevented inmates from maintaining personal and professional relationships which would help them successfully reintegrate into society and establish support systems prior to their release."
The federal correctional system also has approved contact lists for its inmates, the office noted, but "contacts are not limited to close family and the number of contacts permitted per inmate is considerably higher."
The Prince Edward Island policy had been in place because of "numerous cases where inmates had breached court orders and/or contacted victims or witnesses to threaten or coerce them," provincial jail officials had told the ombudsperson's office, according to the news release.
The OmbudsPEI statement said anyone receiving an unwanted call from an inmate has the power to decline or block future calls coming from the inmate phones at the correctional centre.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.