Shuttered Walkerton jail reopening to deal with prison overcrowding

Brockton’s mayor says the province will be reopening their local jail. With the details, here’s CTV London’s Scott Miller.

In 2011, seven jails in small town Ontario were closed in favour of using more cost effective ‘super-jails.’ But prison overcrowding has prompted the re-opening of one, possibly two, of those jails, including one in Walkerton.

“It’s been a 15-year journey, 15 year fight. In 2011, the government of the day shut down the jail to save money. And maybe they saved money, but certainly the residents of Brockton and Walkerton did not save money,” said Municipality of Brockton Mayor Chris Peabody.

Following the closure of Walkerton’s jail, the province said they’d cover the cost of transporting prisoners from the closest jail to the Bruce County courthouse in Walkerton. They backed out of that deal in 2016.

Last year, Bruce County spent $400,000 to transport prisoners from the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene to Walkerton’s courthouse.

“Right now, there’s 72 people awaiting trial here in Bruce County over in Penetanguishene. To get here for trial each day when it’s held, they have to be driven here, and it’s a six-hour route because they go to Owen Sound first and then they come down here, and then there’s stops,” explained Peabody. “So, it’s quite a long route, quite an expensive route.”

Peabody said Ontario’s Solicitor General Michael Kerzner has been looking for ways to ease Ontario’s prison overcrowding issues and instead of building new jails, he’s going to reopen Walkerton’s jail, and another one possibly in Brantford.

“He’s doing a similar thing in a county south of here, closer to Lake Erie. And he knows that it’ll cost one sixth the cost of doing a new build. So, that’ll open up approximately 70 spaces in the Walkerton Jail, so it’s definitely great news for Bruce County and Brockton,” said Peabody.

At least some of the 32 jobs that were at the Walkerton Jail will return, surmises Peabody, but he’s not sure how many or when Walkerton’s jail will re-open.

It will certainly require some updates and renovations, he said, because it has sat largely empty and unused for last decade and a half.

The construction and operational jobs, as well as righting a wrong in the community’s mind is welcome news, said Peabody.

“Never made sense when it happened 15 years ago. As a councillor back then, I fought it really hard. I knew it was the wrong thing to do, and I’m just very grateful to this current government for listening to municipal mayors. They really do listen to what’s going on in rural Ontario. There’s some ups and downs of course, and there’s always some disagreements, but, at the end of the day, I find those disagreements can always be worked out,” said Peabody.