Reynolds, the principal of the group, is well known in the Lower Mainland for his work with many different jazz groups and especially for his seven year stint with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. But for Waack, one of the more memorable performances will be the return of Jenni Driscoll Holmes, a former Douglas College student, to the New Westminster stage on February 19. This superb local soprano will perform a program of Henry Purcell, Brahms, Menotti, Granados and contemporary French works, with piano accompani- ment by Waack. ‘The interesting thing about this performance is that Jenni will be performing several pieces which were specifically written for her voice by composer Ramona Luengen,” Waack says. With five other concerts, including the Douglas College Student Showcase concluding the series, Waack says there will be lots to hear on stage this year. All performances for Noon at New West are presented in the Perform- ance Theatre. JAILS When Premier Bill Vander Zalm announced in October that British Columbia's most notorious provincial jail - Ookalla Prison in Burnaby - would be closed and replaced by three new jails in the Lower Mainland by 1991, he signaled the end of an era and a new direction in the province’s prison system. Hard labor, corporal punishment, death row, and the gallows were the order of the day when Oakalla was built in 1914. But the attitudes and philo- sophies governing prison management have long since chan- ged. The old stone and brick peniten- tiary does not fit the mold of a modern correctional institution. How today's prison system works, the goals and strategies of the B.C. Corrections Branch were the topics of a special two-evening course held re- cently at Douglas College in New Westminster. Open to the general public, participants were given an in- side view of the jails that included tours of Oakalla and its sister jail on the same grounds - Lakeside Correctional Centre for Women - as well as a tour of B.C.'s newest custodial facility, the Vancouver Pre-trial Services Centre. “The course provided members of the public a rare opportunity to get past prison walls and see from the inside how jails really work,” says Bob Kissner, criminology instructor and justice coordinator for Douglas College's Community Programs and Services. "This is particularly im- portant in light of the high costs associated with the building and operating of institutions and is parti- cularly cogent now that the province is considering replacing Oakalla.” “For example, | think few Canadians are aware that the U.S. rate of violent crime - is approximately five times the Canadian rate of violent crime - yet the Canadian Jail rate which you might expect to be 1/5 of the U.S. rate is only |\/2. This suggests we may be incar- cerating ao higher number of nonviolent offenders than we might need to. When you consider other community- based alternatives for non-violent offenders.” Participants observed first-hand the inner workings of the province's oldest penitentiary, and learned that with its cat-walks, iron bars, tiny cells, rank and dingy corridors, Oakalla does not provide the kind of positive and con- structive environment required to bring about the rehabilitation society demands of its offenders. B.C.’s largest maximum security pri- son “is basically a warehouse,” says Joe Verhulst, a principal officer who has worked at Oakalla for the past ten years. “This environment is conducive to warehousing inmates.” One of two instructors from the B.C. Corrections Branch which co- sponsored the Douglas College course, Verhulst says that in the early years at Oakall, “staff were trained on how to lock up prisoners - guards were hired by the pound.” Prison staff are no longer just keepers of the kept, but “professional correc- tions officers trained to assist inmates in taking the initiative to do something constructive for themselves,” says Verhulst. The old regimen of hard labor and penal servitude - “do your time and get out” - was abandoned following World War Two. Inmates have since been provided with opportunities to learn practical vocational skills by working at a trade in the prison’s greenhouse, or carpentry, canoe-building, and sheet metal shops. Offenders are committed to correc- tional institutions as punishment, not for punishment. Says Glen Angus, program analyst for the B.C. Correc- tions Branch and head instructor for the course at Douglas College: “We don’t get paid to punish people. We get paid to operate an open, fair and car- ing system.”