No evidence inmates released from Okanagan Correctional Centre remain in the area: Penticton RCMP commander

PENTICTON – Okanagan Correctional Centre is not contributing to Penticton’s criminal population, the city's top cop says.

Penticton RCMP detachment commander Supt. Ted De Jager told reporters at a media briefing today, June 6, in his opinion the new prison north of Oliver is not adding criminals to the region upon their release.

“We’re doing a study on that, and working with the correctional centre to determine exactly what the impact is,” De Jager says, adding provincial prisons have catchment areas, with the Okanagan Correctional Centre’s catchment area extending through the southeast portion of B.C.

“When someone gets arrested in Nelson and convicted, they are returned to the area where they were convicted. Once they’ve left the jail and are free again, they are free to go wherever they want… In the majority of cases, they go back to where they’re from, just like anybody else who’s away from their family for a year,” he says.

De Jager says people frequently feel released inmates are lingering in the area, but there is little evidence to support the theory.

“I’m not saying we haven’t had people who were released and then showed up on the streets of Penticton, but we don’t seem to see that,” he says.

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