'Good fences make good neighbours': N.W.T. justice minister gives update on Yellowknife jail upgrades

The N.W.T.'s justice minister has provided an update on the plan to add new fencing to the North Slave Correctional Complex this summer. 

In the legislative assembly on Thursday, Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart asked Minister Louis Sebert for an update on the security upgrades needed at the jail.

• Denecho King exploited 'pre-existing' gap to escape from Yellowknife jai
• Denecho King arrested in Yellowknife, 3 days after jailbreak

After inmate Denecho King escaped from the facility last August and was apprehended three days later, the department said he had exploited a "pre-existing gap in the physical security" of the complex to get to the roof.

Nothing was said of how King — who is accused of second-degree murder and attempted murder — escaped from the rest of the compound. 

"We are very interested in making corrections so that this will not happen again," said Sebert on Thursday, though he added, "it is turning out that this is a more complex and expensive matter than we anticipated."

'Good fences make good neighbours'

Pressed for more details by Testart — whose riding includes neighbourhoods very close to the jail — Sebert said, "The courtyard, if I can put it that way, from which the escape took place is no longer accessible by the inmates.

"The issue is what type of fencing may be required."

Sebert's deputy minister of justice, Martin Goldney, said the department is "a little constrained in talking about the details of the security measures that will be... put in place in a public setting."

But he added that the report into King's escape highlighted more than one area of the jail where improvements could be made.

Then Sebert said, "It appears that improvements that are needed will involve perhaps considerable capital costs, but as Robert Frost said, 'Good fences make good neighbours.'"  

The capital budget for the jail, passed last fall, called for the west side of the complex's perimetre fence to be extended in order to separate the complex from a nearby residential subdivision and for the installation of security cameras in the yard. 

However, it is not known if those projects are tied to the upgrades deemed necessary after King's escape. 

Work could begin this summer 

Though reticent to "preempt the approval process," Goldney said work on the upgrades could begin this summer.

"You have my support, 100 per cent of it. Whatever you need, make it happen," said Testart. 

King was the first inmate to escape from the correctional centre since it was built in 2004, according to the justice department.