NEW GLASGOW – The new regional jail is going to have a few significant differences from the two it's going to replace.
For starters, it's going to have room for 200 inmates; currently there are beds for 50 inmates in the Cumberland Correctional Facility, in Amherst, and the Antigonish Correctional Facility in total.
The jails being replaced do not house higher-risk offenders but the new one will have that capability.
"Right now higher-risk offenders are housed at Burnside or Sydney, " said Jennifer Gavin, communications adviser for the Department of Justice.
Another notable point for the new jail is the creation of new jobs – 70 of them. Currently there are 19 people employed in Antigonish plus another 28 in Amherst.
That all has to wait, though, until a site is selected. At this point there are three on the shortlist that the provincial Department of Justice is mulling over. The three sites are: Thorburn, north of Hwy 104, near Exit 26; Addington Forks, in Antigonish County; and Debert, in Colchester County.
"They are completing phase one of the environmental assessment on the three sites," Gavin said. "Depending on what they find and don't find the depth they have to go into could change."
Gavin said recommendations from phase one could prompt the initiation of another phase of the assessment.
"It could proceed to phase two of the assessment with archeological testing. Or it could be enough, it would be complete."
She said the assessment is "mainly research of the land" which is being conducted by a third party contracted by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, which is working with the Department of Justice.
Gavin said that depending on factors that may crop up it could be a few more weeks before the assessment is complete.
