Montreal Detention Facility | Neighbors fear the construction of a second prison next door

Already neighbors of the largest prison in Quebec, citizens of Ahuntsic-Cartierville denounce the government’s idea of ​​building a new one right next door, a project for which they deplore not having been consulted.

“We have given enough,” breathes Martin Chapdelaine, a resident of Tanguay Street whose courtyard overlooks directly the site of the future detention facility for women in Montreal, a large grassy area where large trees have grown.

An invitation was left in his mailbox last Friday to invite him to a “citizen meeting” on the project, as well as to his neighbors and the residents of rue Poincaré, to the west.

The document mentions that the project of “reconstruction of the detention facility for women in Montreal” will be discussed. However, it is in fact a question of building a new prison, a third, on this immense land in the north of the island of Montreal.

Until 2016, two detention establishments coexisted there. The Montreal detention facility, known as the Bordeaux Prison, in the north, for men, and the Maison Tanguay detention facility, in the south, for women.

Then the latter establishment was closed in 2016 due to its obsolescence, and its inmates were transferred to the Leclerc women’s prison in Laval.

“With respect for neighborhood considerations”

Since then, the Public Protector, who is investigating detention conditions in Quebec, has repeatedly denounced the unsuitable and dilapidated nature of this overcrowded building.

In December 2022, he recommended that the Legault government “commit, through a firm decision, to building a new detention facility as soon as possible”.

A few weeks later, the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, announced the construction of a new detention facility for women in Montreal “on a portion of land located between [la prison] Tanguay and [la prison de Bordeaux]. »

The project also provides for the deconstruction of the disused buildings of the former Tanguay prison.

The document also mentions that the project will be carried out “with respect for neighborhood considerations” and mentions “meetings with citizens […] on this subject “.

“One is enough”

However, several neighbors met claim that they have never been consulted since this announcement before receiving the invitation to the citizens’ meeting last Friday. They also denounce the fact that they must register in advance to participate, while only residents of the streets adjacent to the site have received it.

For them, it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

“We have life experiences with Bordeaux that make us say: one is enough,” says Martin Chapdelaine.

Among these experiences: the incessant presence of drones used to deliver drugs and weapons within the walls of the facility. A rather slight inconvenience if it weren’t for the individuals who sometimes wander around residences and even in their yards to recover precious escaped cargo, according to Mr. Chapdelaine.

“My friend already saw one in his neighbor’s yard and wanted to call 9-1-1, but his friend convinced him not to for fear of having problems with these people,” says Alexandre Daoust, another neighbor of the planned site of the new women’s prison.

However, the number of these lost packages risks increasing if the construction of the new 237-place prison comes to fruition, many fear.

Not to mention the cries of inmates, the intercom which can be heard well beyond the walls of the Bordeaux prison and the headlights of the patrol cars which sometimes roam the site and disturb the neighborhood, deplores Martin Belhumour, another resident. of the sector.

“We understand, we have to put these people somewhere and we are sensitive to their situation, but we already have a lot,” argues his partner, Joëlle Chatel-DeRepentigny, referring to the Bordeaux prison, considered the largest provincial detention center with its 1,357 places.

The group of citizens argues that other options could be studied by Quebec. He takes the case of the new Minto prison in New Brunswick as an example. First planned in Fredericton, where a significant citizen mobilization opposed it, the establishment was finally built in this small municipality and will be surrounded by a wooded buffer zone.