Prince George, BC – As of today, any girl ordered incarcerated in Youth Custody Services from this region, will be sent to Burnaby…a lengthy transfer that has three advocacy groups calling for a review by the BC Representative for Children and Youth.

Prince George no longer has the facilities to accomodate them, after a decision last month by the provincial government to centralize all girl prisoners from here and Victoria to the Burnaby youth prison –  a cost savings of $2.5-million dollars. (click here, for previous story)  There were, on average, two girls in custody in Prince George at any given time.

Justice for Girls Director, Annabel Webb, says, "Some of these girls will be enduring 11 or more hours of transportation in shackles, and many before they have been found guilty of a crime." 

"The consequences of this kind of displacement on girls can be dire," says Webb.  "Two Aboriginal girls committed suicide in 2010 while incarcerated in Manitoba; both girls had been displaced many kilometres from their home communities."

David Eby, Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association concurs, saying, "We can’t understand how the government reconciles goals of re-integrating these children with their home communities and proposals of ‘video-conferencing’ with families."

The Legal Director at West Coast LEAF says Aboriginal girls are vastly over-represented in BC facilities and the cuts to regional facilities will harm them and their families most of all.  Laura Track says, "Separating girls from their families and communities is bad policy and will be especially damaging to girls from isolated and remote parts of the province."

The groups are calling on Children and Youth Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond to intervene in this centralization.