Build new prison if you want, but new study is a waste

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

I read with interest your editorial of May 5 “MLAs ignore house of horrors” and wish to take issue with some of the points raised.

While I have absolutely no doubt that the conditions at the Baffin Correctional Centre are as bad, if not worse, than what you describe, I wonder what another study would accomplish.

Since the Nunavut Corrections Planning Committee reported in 1999 that BCC, its inmates and staff suffered under “unacceptable conditions,” and since anyone that is even peripherally aware of penal issues in Nunavut since that time also knows that things have only deteriorated since the report was issued, what’s the point of another study, unless you are a consultant?

Even at my distance from the situation, I can understand that we need about $250 million to get the job done. Why study it?

If the $300,000 that was proposed for the study had instead been earmarked to purchase or lease land for the new building or to get work started on blueprints, then I say fine, go for it.

But another study? I think not.

Also, I take exception to your description of my MLA as “ignorant and uninformed.” I consider him to be intelligent and thoughtful — if a bit naïve.

When he doesn’t understand an issue, he askes questions — but we all know where that got him.

Frank May
Arctic Bay


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