Citizen advisory committee groups have become a strong arm in the community, reaching out to local penitentiaries, helping to understand why resocialization of inmates is important for the community and the inmate. The following extracts from a story in the Gravenhurst News portrays an incisive picture of a citizen committee working to help correctional endeavors. Author Michael Cole is a member of the citizen's advisory committee working with inmates and staff at Beaver Creek Correctional Camp, Ont.
I am becoming more and more aware of a very special, valuable, and unique relationship between Beaver Creek Correctional Camp and the community in which it is situated. This article explains why I feel we are "lucky" to have Beaver Creek in our midst.
I say lucky because Beaver Creek affords us — the citizens of Muskoka — an unparalleled opportunity to help the residents of Beaver Creek help themselves get back into the mainstream of Canadian life, and in return, we are fortunate in reaping the rewards of the many and varied projects the fellows from Beaver Creek have undertaken in this community — most of them at no cost to us whatsoever. Our relationship with Beaver Creek is a two way — give and take — affair. But for us to give, we have to fully understand what Beaver Creek is all about.
Briefly, for those who are unfamiliar, or are new to the community, Beaver Creek Correctional Camp is a minimum security penal institution situated between Gravenhurst and Bracebridge off Hwy 11, with a resident population of about 100, and a staff of 20. There are no bars, no gates — nothing to prevent somebody getting out — or in — at any time. The only barrier is a bond of understanding that exists in the minds of the residents and the administration.
There are rules, to be sure, but on any given day quite a number of the residents travel into nearby towns to work, go to the doctor or dentist, do volunteer jobs, or go to a movie. Many of them get day or weekend passes enabling them to spend a few days with their families at home.
Residents of Beaver Creek are given something rather incongruous in a penal institution — freedom. But freedom implies responsibility. At Beaver Creek the residents learn to discipline themselves — they work together collectively trying to maintain as good an image as possible in the community. Granted, there is the odd unfortunate incident — usually blown far out of proportion by a sometimes unfair and ill-informed public — but by and large their percentage of good deeds to bad is no worse (and sometimes even better) than what exists in any office, school, or large group of people here, or anywhere else.
In 1961, when it was announced that Beaver Creek was to be established in this area, some people felt that the lives of those who lived near the camp would be in danger. Others looked at the whole project with some concern, but luckily these fears quickly faded as people began to learn more about the camp, and as they realized that their preconceived notions about the camp had little or no basis in fact.
The Citizens Advisory Committee, of which I am a member, is composed of 12 men and women chosen from all over Muskoka. It meets regularly at Beaver Creek and acts as a liaison between the camp and the surrounding community to identify the needs of both groups, to try to fill these needs by creating the situations and opportunities for the Beaver Creek residents to involve themselves in the community.
As Rev Jim Thompson, another member of the committee put it, "How can a person who has been artificially separated from society for a period of time be expected to function as a responsible citizen on release without a graduai reintroduction into society.
"This requires mutual cooperation between the institution and the society surrounding it, and it is in this area that we, as citizens, can help, if only by changing our own attitudes toward Beaver Creek."
Examples of the many volunteer community projects that Beaver Creek has done are too numerous to list, however here are a few examples. They do a variety of work at the Ontario hospitals in Gravenhurst and Orillia. Some of the residents form a band which plays free at The Pines in Bracebridge, during the winter carnival, and for other local functions. Over 40 Beaver Creek men were involved doing volunteer work during the winter carnival maintaining the fire in front of the opera house, refereeing hockey games, marshalling the opening night snowmobile parade, building up the trail for the snowmobile races, and many more jobs. They do free maintenance for the Children's Aid at Longhurst House in Bracebridge, and at their summer camp. They do work for the boy scouts and girl guides, chopping wood, and preparing campsites for them. During the recent renovations of the Gravenhurst opera house, an entire crew from Beaver Creek spent hundreds of hours working on the floors and ceilings of the auditorium.
And they provide assistance to individuals, many of them elderly, who are unable to do needed repair work on their homes. All of this is strictly on a volunteer basis, and while there are problems providing transportation and supervision, Beaver Creek volunteers are available for this type of work on an individual basis in either community.
I hope the preceeding will give the reader at least a small insight into what Beaver Creek is all about. Again, I will repeat that I feel we are very fortunate to have Beaver Creek in our midst. Not only do their many community assistance projects help us, but it affords us a rare opportunity to help a lot of people that are eager for our understanding and assistance. They don't ask for anything really tangible - simply a thank you when they do something worthwhile, a smile now and then, and more than anything, they want an opportunity to prove themselves. Let's all of us give them this chance at every opportunity. Let's replace suspicion with understanding.
- Michael Cole, “Prison Camp Offers Community Helping Hand.” Discussion, Vol. 2, no. 3, Sept. 1974. pp. 23-25.
