Correctional officers concerned at the high number of assaults by inmates staged a lockdown at the Edmonton Remand Centre on Friday morning.
“There’s almost been one [assault] every day for the last couple of weeks, from what I understand,” said Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union Of Provincial Employees, the union that represents the officers.
“Some obviously more serious than others. But the ones that are serious, they’re very serious, where officers have been knocked unconscious and put in a very vulnerable position.”
That includes an alleged assault on an officer that happened overnight.
“We haven’t specifically seen any report from the incident, but I do understand that he was knocked unconscious by an inmate,” said Smith.
The officers are meeting Friday with management to discuss their demands.
‘Conditions need to be met’
“We do have senior levels of management aware of what conditions need to be met, and I’ll let them discuss that behind closed doors,” Smith said.
If those conditions are not met, Smith said it’s up to the officers to determine if they’ll take further action, including possibly waking off the job.
“That’s their decision. They’ve been working well as a team there, supporting each other. And they’ll make decisions based on what they do as a group. Whatever decisions they make, I’ll support them.”
Smith said he doesn’t know why assaults have spiked over the last couple of weeks. But he said they first began increasing when the new remand centre opened in 2013.
“Certainly there’s a number of conditions in that facility, being that it’s so-called open concept, where there’s a lot of inmate population out of their cells at once, where there’s a lot of interaction with officers,” said Smith.
“Also the fact that there’s really no retribution against inmates for attacking a correctional officer. They seem to do it with impunity, and that is a huge concern.”
Smith said he agrees with the officers that changes are needed.
“Inmates feel that they have the ability to attack frontline staff, so I don’t know what’s in the culture there that’s allowing this. But we need to put a stop to it.”