The Chatham Daily News - April 14/09

Delays affect court process
By Erica Bajer The Daily News
Long waits at a London detention centre are causing some delays at the Chatham-Kent Courthouse. “It’s ridiculous,” local defence lawyer David Jacklin said of recent prisoner delivery backups from the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre. “The problem is you have people in custody, usually females, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. court and not arriving until after 1 p.m.,” he said. “The whole court system comes to a halt while we wait for these people to arrive.” Jacklin said he’s heard that the delays are a result of job action at the detention centre. Rick Kennett, vice-president of the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union (OPSEU) Local 108 that represents guards at the London jail, denied suggestions last week's delays were an intentional display by OPSEU members unhappy with recent changes to overtime compensation. Kennett said overcrowding at the London jail, a building designed for 300 inmates, caused the delays. The overcrowding means five inmates often share a cell designed for three, he said. Though the courts expect inmates to arrive promptly, Kennett said it takes a significant amount of time and "a lot of manpower" to get the prisoners to the courthouse, causing the backlog. "Our process is safety first," he said. "As far as I can tell, everyone who was scheduled to go to court went to court. Whether they went there early or late, they got there." Frequent remands also crowd the facility, Kennett said. "If the lawyers keep remanding the inmates into custody, the jail gets more and more crowded, and everything takes that much longer. "The reality is it takes time and we do what we can." Sgt. George Vieira, head of security at the local courthouse, said his officers started noticing the delays on April 2. He said delays of two-and-a-half hours picking up and dropping off prisoners have been fairly consistent since then. He noted local police don’t attend the EMDC daily but do transport prisoners a few times a week. Vieira is documenting when the delays occur and said local judiciary and Crown attorneys are aware of the situation. “We’ve made every effort, when we know we are going to be late, to contact our partners at the courthouse,” he said. “We have no control over it, it’s a corrections issue, not a police issue.” The sergeant said the issue results in overtime costs when there are long waits when prisoners are returned to the facility. Jacklin said clients have expressed frustration with the waits. “It causes a great deal of anxiety for the accused people because they don’t know why they are being held up,” he said. Defence lawyer Gudrun Mueller-Wilm said waits at the detention centre have only impacted one of her clients so far. She’s concerned about the issue, hoping it is resolved quickly. Mueller-Wilm said a local justice of the peace announced last week that delays should be expected because of job action involving EMDC. Ontario's Attorney General Chris Bentley, who represents London West, said he's aware of the issues locally and has passed them on to Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci. "I'm concerned about any delays in the courts and hope that any issues between parties get resolved as quickly as possible," Bentley said.