In a move union negotiators characterized as a "blindsiding" intrusion on contract discussions, the B.C. government has announced the closure of two youth detention centres for female prisoners in Prince George and Victoria.

The Jan. 18 announcement also drew fire from some human rights advocates, who said the closures breach human rights with dire implications for underage female prisoners, especially those from First Nations.

The detention centres serve a dual purpose, holding accused youth in pre-trial detention and incarcerating young offenders sentenced to serve time in custody after trial. With the closures, girls between 12 and 18 will now be detained at a facility in Burnaby.

"We have fewer and fewer youth incarcerated in B.C. -- a credit to our system and our services," Children and Family Development Minister Mary McNeil said in a statement. "This now allows us to enhance rehabilitation services for youth at all three centres in the province."

McNeil told the Vancouver Sun's Jonathan Fowlie that prisoner numbers were down at all three facilities, so it made sense to consolidate female inmates into the province's Burnaby facility. She said girls often feel isolated in centres with only a few prisoners in residence, and said the changes would allow the province to offer the girls more gender-specific programs and services.

The ministry statement claims that savings realized by consolidating the three underused facilities will allow the province to "enhance" services for the primarily First Nations girls held in Prince George, and expand mental health and addictions counselling and treatment services at the Victoria centre.

It also notes that B.C. currently spends $28.5 million annually on Youth Custody Services, that B.C.'s total per capita youth crime rate has been progressively decreasing -- a 59 per cent decline between 1991 and 2010 -- and that B.C.'s youth crime rate was the third-lowest in the country in 2010, while the violent crime rate in B.C. was the lowest in the country.

"In total, we will be saving $2.5 million in this redesign," a ministry spokeswoman told The Tyee. "About $900,000 of that will be redeployed to enhance rehabilitation services for youth in custody -- where services are needed most -- more programs and services that are sustainable and gender-specific for girls, and enhanced addiction and mental health programs for both boys and girls. 

"The remainder of the savings ($1.2 to $1.6 million) will enable the ministry to sustain program services in other areas that show increasing demand, such as services for children and youth with special needs."

Closures 'upset the apple cart': union

However, the union representing staff at the centres, the BCGEU, sees the closures as an ill-advised and ill-timed cost-cutting measure that eliminates six union jobs in Prince George and 17 in Victoria, while also moving incarcerated girls farther away from their families and communities.

"They have really upset the apple cart this time," the BCGEU's Dean Purdy said on Jan. 19. "They keep wanting to run social services like a business, and this decision is just wrong. It will cut girls off from their parents and communities, and further burden an already bogged down court system. The government keeps saying this is all about the kids, but this is going to be bad for everyone."

Purdy was also critical of how the government timed the announcement.

"They blindsided us with this decision at the negotiating table," he said. "If they had to make these changes, they could have consulted with us six months ago and we could have made the staff reductions through attrition."