activities to which considerable commitment
had been made.

Many of these activities were supported by the
federal government and especially the provinces
of Ontario and Quebec. However, the impetus
for change slowed when the provincial
government directed energy to other concerns.
The world was on the edge of a recession and

concerns were emerging about maintaining
financial commitments to new programs.

Corrections development continued and new
programs were initiated. There were continuing
and consistent exchanges of information
between provinces. British Columbia, for
example, had bilateral discussions on justice and
corrections issues with the federal government.

Developing regional administration

Reorganization of corrections administration
was approved in April 1976 by the attorney
general’s executive management committee.
Instead of centralized management, there
would be six regions within the province, each
headed by a regional director. After the regional
directors were hired in October 1976, there was
a three-month training program organized by
the staff development division.

The senior management training program
(1976-1977) had a number of distinctive
features. One was the attempt by senior
management to directly experience the effects
of corrections programs on offenders. In a
highly publicized component of the training,
senior managers were admitted to the Lower
Mainland Regional Correctional Centre
(Oakalla) as inmates:

Ekstedt, the Provincial Commissioner of
Corrections, emerged Tuesday from a
24-hour experimental term as an inmate of
the 65-year-old institution. The experience,
in which he was accompanied by six senior
corrections officials, reinforced Ekstedt’s

opinion that the facility should be torn
down and replaced.

He said the overworked staff is spread so
thin scheduled work programs have been
curtailed. “With the loss of programs, the
inmates end up stacked on tiers most of the
day and their boredom creates tension,’

Ekstedt said.

By coincidence, the commissioner added, he
is meeting the cabinet’s human services
committee today for a discussion on
corrections facilities. ‘Clearly, our
experience was tempered by who we are,’
Ekstedt said, “We were treated differently
by the inmates and the staff.’

But the point of the exercise, according to
Ekstedt, was for senior officials to see the
system from the inmates’ point of view.26

Under regionalization, the title of the “head” of
Corrections was changed from deputy minister
to commissioner. A new management group,
known as Branch Management Committee, was
formed in January 1977. This administrative

26 Vancouver Sun, Jatwaary 26, 1977.

Era of Reintegration (1970-1979)

137