'Someone is going to get hurt': Staff fear for safety in N.W.T. corrections centres
Sara Minogue | CBC News | Posted: December 11, 2020 1:30 PM | Last Updated: December 11, 2020
‘Safety’s a huge concern in that building,’ says worker at Yellowknife jail
A man who works in the territory's corrections system says "there's a good chance someone is going to get hurt," due to the poor staffing, training and morale that's documented in a workplace assessment report produced last month.
The man is one of two who came forward following a CBC story about the leaked internal report. CBC has agreed not to name the people, because both have been instructed by their employer not to speak to the media and fear for their livelihoods.
The report is unusually candid. The man confirmed its finding that there is "a sense that the power dynamic has shifted and that inmates now hold more power in the facilities than the frontline staff do."
He said poor training and high turnover make for dangerous working conditions.
"It takes a good five years for a person to know what they're doing and be able to handle themselves," the man said.
"When you have a whole bunch of untrained people, or people who haven't used these skills in a long time, and they come into a situation where they have to go hands-on with somebody ... there's a good chance someone's going to get hurt."
The job, he said, can be highly personal, and it favours those with more experience, something that he feels is threatened as people frequently quit.
"The inmates have respect for longer serving officers because they've dealt with them for years. Newer ones have to kind of cut their teeth," he said. "When you start losing staff at the alarming rate that it's going, you lose a lot of knowledge and a lot of ability to handle the inmates."
That gives the advantage to the inmates: "They know how the system runs and they know who to push."
Major assault unaddressed
A second man who works on the floor of the North Slave Correctional Complex in Yellowknife said that while staff are not frequently assaulted, there's always a risk.
"Safety's a huge concern in that building."
He referenced what is "probably the most serious incident in the jail since it's been opened," the assault of an officer who was escorting an inmate in a high-security area in May 2019.
Video footage of the incident shows the corrections officer being subject to a sudden and brutal attack. The officer was not seriously injured and the inmate was later convicted.
Warning: This video shows violence
But the matter was never addressed with staff, according to the corrections officer.
"Something should have been done about it," he said. "There wasn't even a meeting between senior management and staff."
The Justice Department disputes this. Kim Schofield, assistant deputy minister (solicitor general) said in an email that "reviews and operational debriefs, including critical incident stress debriefs, were completed with staff after the incident in question."
The man said there was a lack of engagement and that it's indicative of a "gulf" between uniformed staff and senior management, which is amply documented in the report. That gulf, the report said, leaves staff with the feeling that "if something happened, there is no one to have my back."
The anonymous officer said management often fails to communicate with staff, either through meetings or even informal conversations. For example, he said staff sometimes learn about new policies and procedures via email at the same time that inmates are reading the same memo posted on a bulletin board.
"Staff should be informed first," he said.
Department acknowledges 'failings'
CBC attempted to interview the Justice Minister R.J. Simpson, but was referred to the department instead.
The report found many staff felt programming for inmates was "no longer a priority," and that youth programming in particular had been "compromised."
Schofield pushed back against concerns raised in the report that inmate programming had been compromised. In an email she said core programming continues in each facility, though some may look different due to COVID-19.
She offered a reminder that the report was commissioned internally, precisely so the department could make improvements. "We can't improve if we don't know what our failings are," she wrote.
Schofield said corrections and union leadership will be meeting with staff throughout the regions "over the next few weeks," and she said, having heard the criticism, that they intend to include staff in finding solutions to some of the issues raised.
The corrections officer said he's hopeful that means change is coming.
"It's a shame cause you are a big family because of the job that you do. We're not the police force, we're not the emergency services, but we are dealing with difficult people in a very difficult, challenging and dangerous environment.
"The whole department needs to be able to function as one."