Proposed site for new Windsor jail: Walker and 401
Craig Pearson
The Windsor Star
Friday, September 26, 2008
Windsor's growing big-box area on Walker Road will soon have another neighbour to go with its groceries and home supplies: a new jail.
The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services announced Friday that its preferred location for the new South West Detention Centre, a 315-bed facility to house male and female inmates in the Windsor area, is north of Highway 401 and east of Walker Road.
Mayor Eddie Francis, however, was quick to question the long-awaited announcement.
"There is no question that a new facility is required," Francis said. "So we welcome that there's going to be a new facility. But from a policing perspective, we had recommended another site."
Francis said the city had suggested the Brighton Beach industrial area near the Detroit River since it's closer to the courts and in a less commercial area - which might make for easier transportation of detainees back and forth.
"From a logistics perspective there are better locations than to pop it into a heavy commercial area like that," said Francis, chairman of the Windsor Police Services board.
"It's going to cause problems for us and it's going to come at a cost. From a police perspective, we prefer a more direct route."
The site selection is not yet final and must clear an environmental assessment process, including public information sessions, starting in November.
But local MPP Sandra Pupatello (L - Windsor West) called the site the best choice, considering many complex criteria, and noted that any site not next door to the courthouse would have transportation costs.
"Looking at where it could go, there are many considerations for a jail," said Pupatello, who has worked to land Windsor a new jail for a decade. "When we first talked about a new jail way back when, I suggested Brighton Beach as a potential for the ministry.
"But when they got into the details, they realized the site would have been far more costly for the province because the site the mayor was offering had no service - and the cost to service it was much more substantial than other suitable sites."
Pupatello said the main goal is to build a new facility that will bring jobs to the region and will provide better working conditions for jail staff and living conditions for inmates who are currently stuffed into an overcrowded facility in the west end.
"It's great news," Pupatello said. "We need to get it out of the community where it's surrounded by residential houses. We're in an overcrowded, aged facility today, which makes it unsafe for the workers and unsafe for the people who are in jail.
"The new facility will be state-of-the- art."
The ministry says construction will translate into $30 million in salaries for about 150 Windsor-area construction workers, though no overall price tag has been given since the project still has to be tendered.
Construction of the South West Detention Centre should start in mid-2010. Phased-in occupancy of the facility will begin by the fall of 2012, while Windsor Jail is expected to close by the end of 2013.
The building will use "detention-grade construction," according to a ministry release, and will feature a high-resolution video surveillance system, touch-screen security control and contraband-detection technology.
Paul Petroni, president of CUPE union Local 135, which represents more than 110 jail staff members, welcomed the news - especially since the McGuinty government first committed to a new Windsor jail in 2005.
"The morale is up today and everybody is very excited," Petroni said. "We're just looking forward to getting a shovel in the ground and getting more information."
Windsor Jail was built in 1925 and was designed for 80 inmates, Petroni said. Though it was retrofitted for up to 130 inmates, he said it regularly houses between 160 and 180 - and that at times it overflows with more than 200.
Petroni predicts that not only will the new facility be safer for workers and inmates, but that it will end up keeping criminals in jail longer.
As a provincial correctional facility, inmates serve sentences of up to two years there, or spend time awaiting trial or transfers to penitentiaries.
Given Windsor Jail's notoriously poor conditions, judges often award criminals two-for-one time - and even three-for-one time - for the period incarcerated there.
"That practice will be done altogether," Petroni predicted. "They'll have to do more of their time behind bars now."
© The Windsor Star 2008
Here is a conceptual drawing of the proposed building:
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