Problems found at Canada youth jail

BRAMPTON, Ontario, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Staffers at a new, $93 million Canadian youth offender superjail have deprived inmates of food and aren't delivering promised programming, an official says.

A review by Irwin Elman, Ontario's advocate for children and youth, turned up cases of excessive force used by staff members at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre in Brampton, as well as questionable body cavity searches and the absence of much-publicized "state-of-the-art" recidivism prevention programming, The Toronto Star reported Monday.

"If it's because of lack of staff or lack of good planning, I don't know," Elman said. "But whatever ... (the programming is) not there."

Elman told the Star that young inmates spoke of a lockdown and a "full-cavity strip search" because of a missing DVD.

His report comes after a Star investigation focusing on problems in Canada's youth detention centers in the wake of the death a mentally ill 14-year-old girl jailed for throwing apples at a postal worker. The teen spent four years in segregated isolation.

Laurel Broten, Canada's Minister of Children and Youth Services, told the Star, "I'm not in a position to speak to any of the specifics with respect to any of the investigations that are ongoing, suffice to say that I take every incident and allegation very seriously."