Razors, shanks among weapons seized at jail
Workers turn up 70 items at Regina facility in one-year span
Correctional workers seized 70 weapons at the Regina Correctional Centre between June 2015 and June 2016; a large number, but still well below the 127 seized from the Saskatoon jail.
“It’s unclear at this time if that’s what’s sort of driving some of these numbers, and that’s something we need to look at and consider as part of the bigger picture,” Ministry of Justice spokesman Drew Wilby said of the high number in Saskatoon.
The kinds of weapons seized at the correctional centres are varied.
Of the 70 weapons found between June 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, at the Regina facility, there were 34 razors, 19 shanks, two wood weapons, five plastic ones and 10 made out of metal, according to numbers obtained by Postmedia News through an Access to Information request.
A shank is an attempt to make a homemade knife or cutting object, and whether the homemade weapon is a shank is defined by corrections staff, said Wilby. It’s usually a piece of metal or wood fashioned into a knifelike object, sometimes with a wrap around the handle. An actual knife would fall under the metal weapons category.
Within that same span of time, 127 weapons were seized in Saskatoon Correctional Centre, including 26 razors and 39 shanks.
Twenty-two weapons were seized at the Prince Albert Correctional Centre over that year. At the Pine Grove Correctional Centre, one metal object was seized during that year time frame.
Wilby says the safety and security of staff and offenders is the province’s primary concern. He adds that after some recent incidents inside the jails, the ministry launched what it calls a contraband status review.
The province is looking at how inmates are obtaining things like weapons, drugs and other banned items. It’s been rolled into the overall adult corrections review. Part of the review will include a comparison of correctional centres.
“Individuals are getting quite clever in the ways that they are either having contraband come into the facility for them or they’re attempting to bring it in themselves,” Wilby says.
“So, it’s making sure we stay ahead of those that are trying to do that.”
There currently is no timeline for when the results of the review will be released, but Wilby says it will likely be in the new year.
The weapons are usually found through routine and targeted searches, but sometimes inmates turn in items they find that could be used as a weapon.
Bob Bymoen, president of the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union, says corrections officers and inmates have been injured and threatened with makeshift weapons.
“They need to be able to have enough people there so they can do proper searches, timely searches,” Bymoen said.
Bymoen said the government needs to take a new look at occupational health and safety at the correctional centres, and he questions how many of the weapons have come in as a result of the contractors now doing work in the jails.
He said he isn’t putting the blame on the contractors. He does say the security checks on them have to be as stringent or more stringent than for employees. All tools that could be used for weapons have to be accounted for, he adds.
“These inmates are very creative, as well. You have to pay attention to it.”
Bymoen said members have raised concerns about security and staffing levels at the jail in Saskatoon.
“We get more issues raised about those types of things at Saskatoon centre than all of the other centres combined as well,” Bymoen said.
Wilby says there are security protocols in place and ways of identifying what is entering and leaving the facilities. He says the contractors are treated the same way staff is treated, and they are expected to leave with what they bring in and if this is not happening, the province will deal with it “accordingly.”
There are other security measures in place, such as metal detectors and having “security intelligence officers embedded on the ground,” Wilby said.
“Our corrections officers are our best resource on this front. They’re our front lines against contraband and in particular against weapons that may be in the facility.”
And to prevent found items from being repurposed into a weapon, Wilby says they work to make sure the facilities are cleaned and free of objects that could potentially be used.
“If we do see there’s maybe a breakdown in the structure of a certain unit where there’s something that could potentially be used for these purposes, obviously we’ll secure that unit and fix that issue.”
An inmate found with a weapon would be guilty of violating the rules of the facility, Wilby says. Criminal charges could be laid, depending on the circumstances, and under the Correctional Services Act, they could be moved to a more secure unit or have an extension of their time somewhere.
Bymoen says the union’s concerns have been raised with the government, especially the security measures after the kitchens were privatized. He thinks the situation is getting better. The province, Wilby says, has regular discussions with the SGEU and the union could raise those concerns at any time.
But the fact that corrections workers are finding the weapons bodes well, Bymoen said.