Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre/via Radio NL Archives
A renewed call is mounting for the BC Government to utilize the Kamloops Regional Correctional Center (KRCC)—and other underutilized provincial jails—for more than just housing inmates.
A letter will go before Kamloops City Council Tuesday, alongside municipalities throughout the southern Interior, urging the province to repurpose space at KRCC as a facility for the involuntary care of individuals with severe mental health and addiction issues who are struggling on the streets.
The push is being spearheaded by Kamloops Councilor Bill Sarai, who is acting in his new role as the President of the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA).
Representing 37 communities across the interior, Sarai is hoping to send a unified message to the Premier: utilize existing jails to house and treat those deemed in need of help but incapable of asking for it themselves.
Sarai, who sits on a panel that conducts regular reviews at KRCC, argues that the Province simply doesn’t have the time or money to build massive new mental health care facilities from scratch.
“The infrastructure that they need to build to make another Riverview…that’s just going to be years away,” suggested Sarai.
Kamloops councilor Bill Sarai at the 2026 SILGA annual convention where he was named President of the regional grouping/via Instagram
“We are under siege right now in every community in the interior, if not the province, and we need mental health and complex care now,” he added. “We don’t have time to do studies of where it could be located, what infrastructure is needed.”
“These buildings are already here underutilized,” added Sarai.
He points out that facilities like KRCC and the correctional center in Oliver have empty wings due to a combination of staffing challenges and lower incarceration rates for minor offenses.
“The Crown prosecutors and the judges are not charging these small instances and vagrant mischief charges and broken windows,” contends Sarai. “They’re not ending up in jail, so those beds are already empty, so why not utilize something that’s already there that isn’t being used for what its purpose is?”
The concept being pitched by Sarai is straightforward.
“Make one of the wings in our correctional facilities into a health facility,” floated Sarai. “Take the locks off the door, staff them with health professionals, and the hospitals are already in there.”
“It’s secure, and it can get the help they need for each region,” he suggested.
Sarai prepared to push back against negative stigma narrative
Sarai says he is fully prepared for the blowback from critics who might argue that repurposing correctional facilities equates to jailing the mentally ill.
He firmly rejects that notion, emphasizing that the focus is entirely on healthcare and recovery.
“It is irrelevant of what the building is called and what it is used for,” suggested Sarai. “It is one part of that building.”
He likened the intervention to making difficult decisions for aging family members.
“When you have your senior parent losing his license for driving, nobody has an outcry… When you have your elderly parents being told that they need assisted living, that they need to be placed in a home with 24-hour care or moderate care, nobody starts screaming and saying that’s a bad idea,” argued Sarai.
via Jae C. Hong, The Associated Press
Ultimately, Sarai says he believes that providing involuntary care to those who are a danger to themselves and their communities is the most responsible and compassionate course of action.
“If we get those people the help they need, and we clear their head, and we get them healthy, to me that is giving them their rights back, not taking them away.”
The letter from SILGA is circulating to municipalities across the Southern Interior this week, with Sarai planning to champion the concept at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention in September.
The idea of putting people struggling with mental health challenges in close proximity to those serving time for criminal offenses is not likely to sit well with certain mental health advocates.
However, this latest call could find a more sympathetic ear in Victoria.
The renewed push by Sarai comes on the heels of a major announcement by the Premier on Friday, unveiling 132 new beds for involuntary care — a move that somewhat aligns with Sarai’s suggestions.
The province announced Friday that a former youth corrections facility in Prince George will be recommissioned into a 72-bed treatment center, while a site in Surrey will be renovated to provide an additional 60 mental health treatment beds.
While those facilities won’t have inmates in adjoining wings, there appears to be little in the way of pushback against the plan by mental health and addiction advocates in the wake of Friday’s announcement.
