Nova Scotia’s justice system has turned into the “punch line” of a bad joke, the New Democrats said Thursday.
“It’s a comedy of errors, and not one single Nova Scotian is laughing,” Bill Estabrooks, MLA for Timberlea-Prospect and his party’s justice critic, said in a news release. He was responding to a series of mistakes made by the Justice Department, including two prisoners who were accidentally released from custody this spring and most recently, a man was kept behind bars for two months too long.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sherri Aikenhead told CBC News last week that a paperwork error is to blame for a mentally ill prisoner serving 60 extra days inside the Burnside Correctional Facility.
“The Rodney MacDonald government can’t keep prisoners in jail who should be there, and keep(s) those who shouldn’t (be) longer than they should,” Estabrooks said.
Although the man has reportedly received an apology, he hasn’t asked for any compensation.
