MONTREAL – Two groups are asking Premier Philippe Couillard to intervene to allow them to visit a mixed-gender Quebec prison.

A civil liberties group and Quebec’s main women’s federation say Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux has denied them access to the Etablissement Leclerc near Montreal.

They want to visit the detention centre because there have been reports of problems since the women first began arriving last winter.

Lucie Lemonde, a spokeswoman for the civil liberties group, says Coiteux has cited security concerns in not allowing them to enter the facility.

Lemonde says she doesn’t understand that argument because she has often taken entire classes to penitentiaries in her capacity as a professor of prison law.

She adds that support groups and nuns have access to the establishments.

The Etablissement Leclerc is a former federal institution that was closed because of its dilapidated state. The province later acquired it to help ease overcrowding in its own facilities.

Melanie Martel, a lawyer who often meets with female inmates at the prison, said contact between men and women is frequent and that there is also “visual contact” when women go to the gym and men see them.

“I’ll let you imagine the comments,” said Martel.

Melanie Sarrazin, president of the Quebec women’s federation, said the province’s austerity measures were to blame for having men and women in the same detention centre.