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The Whitespruce Provincial Training Centre has officially opened. Formerly the Orcadia Youth Centre, the facility can now house up to 39 male offenders in a minimum security environment.

Corrections and Policing Minister Christine Tell says that the facility is an example of a focus on rehabilitation and education for the province鈥檚 inmates.

鈥淲e will always have to look after people who are incarcerated, so while they are incarcerated lets do something so they don鈥檛 come back into our system. The difference is that we are now using evidence and outcomes for what we are doing within our correctional facilities, because we don鈥檛 want them to come back.鈥�

The main programs on offer at Whitespruce at the moment are a 12 week Saskatchewan Polytechnic food services certificate program, a 12 week Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology Construction Worker Preparation Program and a community work crew where offenders provide community service in the area. The two programs were selected as two areas with high demand for workers.

鈥淟et鈥檚 really give them an opportunity where there are lots of jobs out there, where these inmates can access.鈥�

The facility is for men with a low risk to reoffend, and staff is trained to help in areas such as addictions and education in order to lower the risk factors and help inmates prepare to transition back to society.

鈥淚t is very much an environment where people at a low risk to reoffend can come back here, be secure, be safe and be comfortable, and they鈥檒l go out the next day. It鈥檚 conducive to what we want to have happen, which is that they go out in the world and become taxpayers,鈥� Tell says.

The reason for the switch to an adult facility is a steady, consistent decline in youth incarceration in the province, which has lead to an overcapacity in young offender focused facilities. Tell says this is part of an overall amalgamation and readjustment of youth facilities, because many of them were operating at under fifty per cent capacity.

鈥淲e do have some vacant facilities, and hopefully we鈥檒l have more, because that鈥檚 a good thing when we don鈥檛 have people in our institutions and they鈥檙e better served in our communities.鈥�