City wants halfway house meeting

By RICHARD ROLKE Morning Star Staff Jun 13 2007 Vernon Morningstar

Vernon’s politicians are keeping up the pressure when it comes to a proposed halfway house for parolees. On Monday, council directed staff to set up a meeting with Corrections Canada within the next month. “There’s still a lot that we need clarification on,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert.
The federal agency is interested in establishing a 14-bed facility in Vernon. And while a non-profit agency has been identified to operate the facility, the process is on hold because the city is demanding to see a report into the Bill Abramenko case.

Vernon’s former halfway house closed after the murder of 75-year-old Abramenko in 2004. Eric Fish, who has been charged with the death, was missing from that facility at the time of the incident. Council also wants internal investigation reports from the RCMP and Parole Board of Canada. Corrections officials recently met with a citizens advisory panel that made several recommendations about any future halfway houses in the community. “They are looking at pulling together audit reports,” said Coun. Buffy Baumbrough, who was at the meeting.
“They are working on our requests.” In the past, Corrections officials have indicated a halfway house will not proceed if the city opposes the move.
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Council Still Needs Answers on Halfway House .(Pete McIntyre) June 13http://www.1075kiss.com/news/headlines/

The plan for a new halfway house in Vernon remains in a holding pattern.The city of Vernon is still waiting for final reports into the handling of the Eric Fish case by the RCMP and Corrections Canada.Fish is accused of murdering two men in separate incidents while he went missing from his halfway house in 2004.Councillor Buffy Baumbrough met with Corrections officials last week who are looking into the questions raised by council. 'The parolees that currently reside in the area, where they're from, they're looking at that and are also looking at pulling together the audit reports and would like to set up a meeting with the city to discuss those.' Council will ask for another meeting with Corrections within the next month. Once the city's questions have been answered, Corrections plans to announce the successful bidder for a new facility; either the Salvation Army or the Okanagan Halfway House Society.

Don Quixote Note: Most of the history and data can be found in the categories halfway house and Corrections Canada info .

• The original CAB (Community Advisory Group) according their report of Oct. 5 ' After Oct 11,2005, the CAB group will disband. This must be a new citizens advisory panel that Coun. Baumbrough and Corrections Canada met with. (Might be some of the original 16 members that disbanded but it is an un-appointed Citizen's group at this time unless Council reappointed at a recent in-camera meeting ?)
• The terms of reference news release re CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF CANADA AND NATIONAL PAROLE BOARD ANNOUNCE BOARD OF INVESTIGATION INTO THE RELEASE AND SUPERVISION OF ERIC FISH dated Aug 17/ 2004 can be found at:
  http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/releases/04-08-18_e.shtml#1
• Community Advisory Board that had been set up to visit other facilities in B.C. and produce a report on the 'The Future of a Community Residential Facility (Halfway House for Federal Parolees) '. (This report was produced Oct. 5, 2005) (See a copy of report at COW AGENDA BACKUP (p.100-110) How the Council handled report can be found at Oct.24/05 Council Minutes & Oct 11/05 Council Minutes