MAD HATTER 7 Angus organized the jail tours which made up the second session of the two-evening course. Understandably, the Oakalla tour drew the greatest in- terest. Almost half of the course’s 30 participants walked through B.C.’s oldest prison. Known formally as the Lower Mainland Regional Correctional Centre, Oakalla is a large comples of old buildings housing approximately 440 male in- mates. Shaped like a cross tronee, the main jail has four wings running off a core area that serves as a transit corridor. The north wing contains the prison's administrative offices. With 250 small cage-like cells enclosed by iron bars, the south and east wings currently hold about 200 of the worst offenders in the B.C. prison system. Identical in con- struction to the east wing, with 180 cells stacked on five tiers, the west wing houses the prison’s ‘intermittent’ population of about 150 men serving weekend sentences. Razor wire on top of 30-foot-high walls enclose the ex- ercise yards, located on either side of the east and west wings. The prison hospital stands across from the main jail and can accommodate up to 48 infirm prisoners. Lately, it has been the subject of much controversy following the suicide there of a 23- year-old inmate who hung himself from the overhead bars in his cell. Westgate was the last custodial facility built on Oakalla grounds. Originally planned to house the prison’s work shops, it quickly became a ttemporarythousing unit to handle the prison's burgeoning population in the late 1940s. The terraced structure now holds about 160 inmates, but can accommodate as many as 260. West- gate A holds rewarded prisoners, as well as inmates under punishment in segregation cells; B section houses 120 men and contains the tailor, carpentry, and sheet metal shops. The entire prison complex was inten- ded to house less than 700 inmates in sparse quarters. But the population burst to the horrendously unmanage- able number of 1700 souls 20 years ago. It is not surprising that the gross level of overcrowing led to some of the worst riots at Oakalla during the 1960s and '70s. Today, the entire provincial prison system holds approximately 1800 offenders serving sentences that do not exceed two years less a day. Federal prisons house inmates sentenced to more than two years’ in- carceration. At the same time one group toured Oakalla, another group toured Lake- side Correctional Centre for Women, while the third group was downtown touring the Vancouver Pre-trial Services Centre. Following the tours, the groups returned to Douglas College where they discussed what they had seen. The participants agreed that the course imparted a bet- ter understanding of the prison system. In the first session of the course, held in a classroom at Douglas College, the participants learned that two funda- mental changes have occurred in the B.C. prison system over the past 20 years: the proliferation of open and community-based correctional centres. While 50% of the adult prison popula- tion serves time in the province's five maximum security institutions - Oak- alla and Lakeside in Burnaby, Wilkin- son Prison on Vancouver Island, and the jails at Kamloops and Prince- George - 45% of all inmates are held in ten ‘open’ correctional centres. The forest, farm, and fishery camps located around the province provide a healthy, outdoor climate in near resort-like settings. They are sensible alterna- tives to the claustrophobic atmosphere of jails like Oakalla, which breed hosti- lity and resentment among inmates. Seven community-based centres house the most innocuous inmates, serving less than four-month sentences. Living in a residential set- ting that does not separate the inmate from the real world to which he or she will shortly return, makes the transition back into society more successful. “We don't approach people as if they were sick and we're going to heal them,” says Angus. “What we know for sure is that people will take the oppor- tunity to rehabilitate themselves when the time is right. For those who want our assistance, in whatever form it may take, we attempt to put together individual programs that help them when they get out on the street to become responsible citizens.” Oakalla prison is not conducive to the new goals set out in the mission of the B.C. Corrections Branch. So, the old, dilapidated institution will be closed and new facilites will take its place. Provincial Secretary Elwood Vietch, who represents the riding where Oak- alla now stands, heads the committee which will oversee the prison move. Three new facilities will be built at a cost of $108 million, a staggering sum especially when compared to the less than $300,000 it cost to build the main Oakalla jail back in 1914. Slated for construction: a 250-bed facility in Maple Ridge to house sentenced inmates only; a 150-bed centre for remanded prisoners await- ing trial (location yet to be deter- mined); and a combined federal- provincial correctional centre for women that will replace Lakeside and house up to 130 inmates.