Remand Centre on lockdown after attacks

After a daylong lockdown instituted by correctional officers concerned for their safety, which began at 7 a.m. on Friday and lasted nearly 12 hours, the Edmonton Remand Centre returned to normal operation following a resolution between involved parties late Friday.

A meeting will be held early next week with the office of the justice minister and solicitor general, correctional officers and Occupation Health and Safety staff to discuss long-standing workplace health and safety problems, said Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, on Friday.

“There’s been a number of serious assaults on correctional officers at the remand centre, up to even including last night and officers this morning felt the building wasn’t safe and they locked down, and the inmates are contained in their cells,” he said.

Normally inmates are out of cells in a common area, he said. During a lockdown inmates are confined to their cells to protect the safety of officers and other inmates, Smith said. Because of facility’s design, a high number of inmates are able to congregate outside of their cells at the same time, thereby increasing the risk to both inmates and staff for injury or violence, he said.

“The parties agreed Friday that inmates will be released on a rotational basis, reducing this risk,” he said.

In a statement, Marlin Schmidt, acting justice minister and solicitor general, said safety in correctional centres is of the utmost importance to the government.

“Correctional centres, by their nature, can be difficult and sometimes volatile environments to work in,” Schmidt said. “Our government takes the safety concerns raised by staff at the Edmonton Remand Centre extremely seriously.”

Officers are facing unprovoked attacks including punches to the head and one case when an officer was knocked unconscious. Incidents have especially increased over the past week and a half, Smith said.

A single shift has 140 officers on duty from an overall workforce of 800 personnel, he said.

Most of the assaults happen when officers open an inmate’s door or are alone with the inmate, Smith said.

“I guess that’s the concern here is that they’re coming out of the blue,” Smith said. “And officers are at risk of serious injury, possibly death.”

Things came to a head on Thursday when a correctional officer was knocked out and officers are not willing to put themselves at risk anymore, he said.

“It’s partly because inmates think they can get away with it,” he said. “That there’s not enough consequence for it ... somehow it’s open season on officers.”