I went to the public info propaganda at the trade and convention centre on having a prison in Penticton instead of tourists. Great sales pitch on safety within the walls of the prison, but I am sorry I wont buy the rest of it.
After further research there seems to be a lot of missed information and lack of actual negatives. They are on a mission to put a prison here, so I never expected any negatives. Seems not only are they in short supply of provincial prisons in the interior, but a larger shortage of federal prisons as well. Few would accept a federal prison right off the go, but with an established provincial prison, that opens the door to a federal prison. It happened in Prince Albert and the Lower Mainland cities.
Once as prison is here, we have zero say in what happens after that. We have sold the soul of our city to an unforgiving sector of the government that only cares about building their prisons as cost effective as possible no matter what the consequences to our way of life and tourist/retirement industry that we now love and cherish. Penticton offers the best infrastructure and cost-effective location for a prison.
As far a safety in prisons, they are overloaded to the point of more than 50 per cent double bunking in federal prisons (similar figures for provincial prisons). www.dailymotion.com/video/xfv0zx_federal-prisons-expanding-in-b-c_news.
They also forgot to mention that a prisoner slated to go to a federal prison can “request” to go to a provincial prison instead. www.pssg.gov.b.c.ca/corrections/in-bc/details/exchanges.htm.
Previous misinformation on prisoners being bused out is also false. As soon as the prisoner walks through the gate he is free to go where he wants. They also attempted to compare releasing prisoners in Surrey/Abbotsford to Penticton. If I was released in Surrey or Abbotsford what paradise is outside the gate to even consider staying in? They also try to compare tourist impacts of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland to Penticton. The majority of tourists on Vancouver Island and the Mainland are international tourists where prisons are not mentioned on the travel brochure, whereas in Penticton the majority are from North America, specially Alberta where news of a Penticton prison is readily available. Initially most of the high-paying jobs will be trained personal brought in. If you think you are going to be on the top pay list on opening day, forget it.
Basically it boils down do you love the way of life you have here, do you love having tourists here? Do the seniors break in to your home, assault or rob you? Option two is risking losing all that for a few jobs and risk future development /tourism for a prison?
Would you bring your business to a prison town? Eventually with a prison, the tourist industry will falter, and then we are just another city — not the paradise of Western Canada. It’s your choice ... choose with foresight.
Clifford Martin
Penticton