The BC Civil Liberties Association hopes the province’s children’s rights advocate will push for changes to the government’s plan to centralize services for female young offenders.
It was announced last week that two such units in Prince George and Victoria would be shut down and moved to Burnaby.
BCCLA executive director David Eby says he’s concerned about girls having to spend many hours shackled in sheriffs’ vans while travelling to Burnaby and that they’d be away from their families.
“Manitoba tried something like this where they shipped girls long distances from their communities to a centralized facility, and they had two very tragic suicides that arose from these girls being so detached from their communities.”
Child and Youth Representative Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond has responded to Eby’s request, saying she will look into it.
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