Sleepy Hollow Jail Faces Overcrowding, Especially On Weekends

CHARLOTTETOWN - Sleepy Hollow isn't so sleepy these days, it would seem.

The Charlottetown jail has been seeing steady increases of inmates over the past several years, which has been causing overcrowding and security concerns.

That's why tenders are about to close on a 100-square-foot unit soon to be constructed adjacent to the current jail facility, with an adjoining pedway to connect the two units.

This new unit will create an additional 48 beds and will create a separate space for lower-risk inmates who only serve intermittent sentences -- known as 'weekenders.'

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Will P.E.I. get a long-term residential treatment facility for young people struggling with addiction?

The Island's youth substance use and addiction project co-ordinator says it's too soon to say.

"We are not able to answer that... because we need better programming in the province to indicate that need," said Rod Stanley.

Government identified two main priorities for its youth addiction strategy with input from public consultations, an advisory committee and several working groups.

Stanley explained two main gaps were found: the need to beef up prevention, education and early intervention in communities and a day-treatment program.

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On April 1, a program that for five years literally helped save lives of injection drug users on the Island will cease to exist.

AIDS P.E.I. is getting out of the needle exchange program.

It's not by choice; the non-profit organization can't afford to keep it going.

AIDS P.E.I. approached the Province for $40,000 to defray program costs and to hire a full-time administrator. The request was denied.

Now, the few remaining syringe kits are being handed out and officials at AIDS P.E.I. are left with the task of informing clients they'll have to go elsewhere for clean, safe needles.

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The Province's decision to start its own needle exchange program, rather than fund one operated by AIDS P.E.I., deeply concerns Mark Hanlon.

The AIDS P.E.I. executive director fears injection drug users that rely now on the "harm reduction" program for sterile syringes will be intimidated, even fearful of using a government-run service.

"They trust us but they may not trust the government," said Hanlon. "Now what happens with those people? Is the government honestly prepared to handle an influx of people with HIV or hepatitis C?

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The New Criminal Intelligence Service Bureau Should Foster Better Information Sharing Among Police Agencies.

P.E.I. police agencies have fired a warning shot across the bows of organized and major crime elements on the Island. The warning is clear: take your sleazy business elsewhere. Otherwise you will be tracked down and prosecuted. There is nowhere to hide anymore.

Provincial police agencies launched P.E.I.'s Criminal Intelligence Service Bureau on Wednesday, described as the final link in a national law enforcement network committed to combating organized crime. We are the last province to connect into this link, which co-ordinates a provincial bureau with a national organization dedicated to fighting major and organized crime. Criminals are getting a lot smarter on how to avoid detection and police have to respond accordingly.

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The Province has announced plans in its recent capital budget to invest $2.5 million in a facility for youth at risk, earmarking $500,000 in 2009-2010 and $2 million in 2010-2011 for such a facility.

One official says the money be used to establish a 30-bed facility to provide a host of services for youth. Services could include psychology, psychiatry, mental-health services, addictions and education.

But just what exactly the project will include has yet to be determined. Planning is said to be in the initial stages and decisions yet to be made.

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Potatoes are not the only things growing on Prince Edward Island, according to an article in a Boston alternative newspaper.

The weekly Boston Phoenix says in a feature article that what it calls "Pot Edward Island" is a haven for marijuana growers, fuelled by inexpensive electricity from Quebec.

Writer Alan Earls says that beneath the island's bucolic image of golf courses, white sand beaches and red clay roads, there is a gritty rural backwoods full of hopped-up criminals.

The province is "the fertile centre of an underground marijuana explosion," opines one headline.

Mr. Earls cites a 2008 government survey that nearly half of the province's high school and middle school students use drugs and notes that so far in 2008 the RCMP have seized 2,608 grams of marijuana, almost double the amount in 2007.

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Prince Edward Island's Anne isn't the only thing that's green, according to an article in a Boston alternative newspaper.

Writer Alan Earls charges that "Pot Edward Island" is a haven for dope growers and that inexpensive electricity from Quebec fuels its grow-ops.

"Canada's most picturesque province is surprisingly also the fertile center of an underground marijuana explosion," opines the sub-head for the feature-length piece.

In the weekly Boston Phoenix, Earls writes that beyond the "Pollyanna disposition" of Anne of Green Gables, "islanders have discovered another way to smile through the summer and avoid the blues during the bleak local winters."

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Prince Edward Island's Anne isn't the only thing that's green, according to a new article in a Boston alternative newspaper.

Writer Alan Earls claims "Pot Edward Island" is a haven for dope growers and inexpensive electricity from Quebec fuels the island's grow-ops.

Instead of the bucolic island of golf courses, white beaches and red clay roads, Earl seemingly uncovers a rural backwoods full of hopped-up criminals.

"Canada's most picturesque province is surprisingly also the fertile center of an underground marijuana explosion," the article states.

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Canada's Most Picturesque Province Is Surprisingly Also The Fertile Center Of An Underground Marijuana Explosion

In 2004, a newspaper report appeared in the Guardian - the biggest daily newspaper on Prince Edward Island (PEI) - that was at odds with the outside world's image of the idyllic Canadian province. Two bullets had hit local resident Kenneth Rae MacFarlane while he was home alone in the midst of a blizzard. With the help of snow-plow operators, an ambulance and a police team eventually reached him. He survived the attack, but ended up in court with some explaining to do. It seems in the course of investigating the shooting - so rare on the island that emergency-room physicians are routinely sent for training to Baltimore, where such injuries are a dime a dozen - police made an unexpected discovery. MacFarlane's home housed an elaborate indoor pot-growing operation, with two rooms dedicated to cannabis cultivation and a third undergoing conversion.

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SUMMERSIDE - The government of Canada has made a major investment in addiction programs for P.E.I.'s youth.

Federal Justice Minister and Attorney General Rob Nicholson and the Island's Attorney General Gerard Greenan were at the Summerside Youth Centre, Tuesday, to announce over $300,000 in funding will be provided over the next three years to improve addiction support programs and services for youth in conflict with the law.

The federal minister said, "We remain committed to the goals of making our communities safer, protecting our youth from a life of drugs and crime, and showing compassion for those who fall victim to illicit drugs."

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It's a step in the right direction, but is it really enough? Tuesday, federal Justice Minister and Attorney General Rob Nicholson announced more than $300,000 over three years would be allocated to improve addiction support programs and services for youth in conflict with the law.

The funding will be go to the Community and Correctional Services division of the Office of the Attorney General and used to implement the P.E.I. Youth Substance Use and Addiction Strategy.

Referral and assessment procedures, as well as post-treatment relapse prevention programs, will be developed for the addicted who are in trouble with the law.

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ELMSDALE - As he signs autographs for students following his presentation at Westisle composite high, George Chuvalo asks questions: How are you doing in school? Do you get along with your Mom?

Here is this tough-as-nails former Canadian heavyweight boxing champion who has just poured out his life story to more than 700 students, chatting with teenagers as if they are close relatives.

There's George Chuvalo who was never knocked off his feet in the ring. It's told by video.

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Former Canadian Heavyweight Boxing Champion Lost Three Sons, Wife, As A Result Of Substance Abuse

It still tears George Chuvalo up to talk about the tragedy that his filled his life.

The former Canadian heavyweight boxing champion - he carried that title from 1958 to 1979 - was at Bluefield High School Tuesday to talk to students.

Since 1996, Chuvalo speaks to students, parents and other groups about drugs and how they have impacted his life. He lost three sons and a wife as a result of substance abuse.

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Three evenings of public consultation are scheduled across P.E.I. this week to discuss the draft P.E.I. Youth Substance Use and Addictions Strategy.

The P.E.I. Department of Health has been working closely with a number of government agencies and the public over the past year to research and prepare the report.

The draft strategy is now available online for Islanders to review. This week's meetings begin tonight and continue Tuesday and Wednesday.

Health Minister Doug Currie says finding a long-term solution for Island youth struggling with addictions is a top priority for government.

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A 42-year-old Charlottetown man described by police as a key figure in an operation that imported large quantities of cocaine and other drugs into P.E.I. from Nova Scotia for sale by a network of street-level dealers has been sentenced to over five years in a federal correctional facility.

Derreck Dean Huggan was sentenced Tuesday in provincial court to serve 6 1/2 years behind bars for conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.

Provincial Court Judge Nancy Orr sentenced Huggan to a further 6 1/2 years for conspiracy to traffic in the painkiller Hydromorphone.

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SUMMERSIDE -- Drug raids are up considerably this year in Prince County thanks to the addition of a new officer to the Prince County Joint Forces Operation drug unit.

That extra position was funded by the provincial government, said East Prince RCMP Cst. Scott Lundrigan and a member of the JFO.

The unit has expanded from two officers, to three, and so have searches.

The number of drug raids more than doubled from 11 as of July 2, 2006 to 26 by July 2 of this year, said Lundrigan.

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Crime Stoppers provincial co-ordinator Paul Stetson says anonymous calls could also help turn around lives of wayward peers in junior and senior high schools.

Prince Edward Island students are being urged to pick up the phone to help curb crime in their schools.

Paul Stetson, provincial co-ordinator for P.E.I. Crime Stoppers, wants to see this tipster vehicle have a strong presence in Island high schools and junior highs.

"What we want to see from those (schools) is they keep the programs out and running in front of the new students as they come in,'' he said of active Crime Stoppers school chapters.

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Editor,

Your May 6 editorial made the common mistake of confusing drug-related crime with prohibition-related crime.

Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

The good news is that Canada has already adopted many of the common sense harm reduction interventions first pioneered in Europe. The bad news is that Canada's southern neighbour continues to use its superpower status to export a dangerous moral crusade around the globe. The United States provides tragic examples of anti-drug strategies that are best avoided.

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First the good news: Police are continuing their crackdown on illegal drugs. Police conducted more raids last week, seized drugs and laid charges.

The charges, of course, still have to go before the court and the persons charged may or may not be found guilty.

Now the bad news: Even if those charged are found guilty and sentenced to prison, there will be new dealers taking up the trade.

And why? Because of greed or desperation.

Greed -- they want money and they don't care where it comes from as long as it makes it into their pockets.

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