EDMONTON- City council has voted to increase the Edmonton Police Service’s (EPS) budget by $1 million this year, to cover the cost of transferring prisoners to the new Edmonton Remand Centre.
“Given that the new Remand Centre, which many of you may have had a tour of, is substantially further out, we have to transfer our prisoners… from our facility downtown, to take them out to the Remand Centre, and that’s going to cause us to have more cost to do that particular transfer,” Mayor Stephen Mandel said Wednesday.
EPS was initially denied the funding in this year’s budget, because at the time Mandel said he believed inmate transportation was a provincial or federal responsibility.
“I misunderstood that it was transferring prisoners… from the courthouse up to the Remand Centre,” Mandel said.
However, Mandel said after further discussion, he realized the funding was being requested for the transfer of prisoners from EPS headquarters to the Remand Centre.
“We have a legal responsibility to transfer our prisoners to the Remand Centre,” Mandel added.
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The money will come out of the city’s Financial Stabilization Reserve (FSR).
The EPS says if Sheriffs are hired to perform prisoner tranfers, it will cost about $800,000.
“If it’s the EPS officers who are performing this duty, the cost goes up to about $1 million,” added EPS Spokesperson Patrycia Thenu.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Police Chief Rod Knecht said EPS has “created a temporary contingency of nine fully-trained police officers to employ these duties.”
“Our mid to long-term strategy is to contract these duties to a third party, as soon as possible, which will be a less costly option,” Knecht said.
Knecht says the money will go towards purchasing specialty vans and other equipment needed to perform the prisoner tranfers, as well as pay for wages.
Mandel says the funding will be a short-term need, and EPS will have an easier time funding prisoner transfers in the future.
“It’s one of those things that’s going to stop when we build our police station on the north end of the city, because that will be the main transfer position then, and they’ll be right across the street. So, it’s a short-term need.”
The new $580-million facility, located on 127th Street just north of Anthony Henday Drive, opens next month.
Transferring prisoners who are in the current Remand Centre is the responsibility of the Solicitor General’s Office.
With files from Shane Jones.
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