Photo: Oliver Chronicle

After a rocky opening year marked by several inmate lawsuits, the Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver is getting rave reviews.

No, not on Yelp. Without the internet, inmates have taken to writing to the local newspaper, the Oliver Chronicle, about their choice of accommodation.

“As far as institutions go, OCC is one of the best,” inmate Mike Harfman wrote to the Chronicle. “The food is second to none, the guards (although new) actually seem to care, and except for a few of the more jaded ones, they even try and help whenever possible. Healthcare is for the most part on top of things, and our units are all in working order.”

Harfman goes onto say he’s spent time in both provincial and federal prisons and finds OCC “above average.”

He disputed a letter from a different inmate last year that declared the prison “sucks,” and blamed that inmate's bad experience on not being able to “work with others.”

“He seems to have forgotten that if he can’t do the time he shouldn’t have done the crime! LOL,” the letter reads.

Another inmate, Jeremy Royer, wrote to the Chronicle from the prison declaring “this is one of the best jails I have ever been in.”

He wrote about being selected as a candidate for a “Right Living Community” unit in the prison.

“For the first time in jail it feels more like a correctional centre than just a housing centre,” Royer said.

“I believe in second chances and here at RLC in the OCC I have been given one. Thank you for listening and hope for a greater future.”