Escapee 1 of 10 dangerous offenders at minimum security prison

Corrections Canada has confirmed there are nine other dangerous offenders housed at the same minimum-security federal prison a convicted rapist and murderer walked away from over the weekend.

Blane MacDougal was serving a life sentence for rape and murder at the minimum security Ferndale Institution in Mission, B.C., when he escaped.

Corrections Canada spokesman Dave Lefebvre told CBC News that dangerous offenders have sometimes been in prison 25 years or more, and corrections officials look at many factors when deciding whether to move someone into minimum security.

"Those would include National Parole Board documents, but also of course the risk to public safety, the risk to the offender, as well as the adjustment to the offender within the instruction," said Lefebvre.

But MacDougal's parole documents released earlier this week show that he had been convicted of three rapes committed while previously out on parole, and that he was assessed at a high-risk of reoffending, if he was released again, because of his deviant sexual fantasies.

On Saturday the 60-year-old walked away from the Ferndale Institution where he was serving a life sentence for a number of charges, including murder, indecent assault, sexual assault with a weapon and kidnapping.

Ferndale is an open facility that is not surrounded by a secure fence or wall. Five days after his escape MacDougal remains at large.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has reportedly ordered a review of prisoner classifications in Canada, the process by which inmates are transferred to lower-security institutions.

Federal Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh told CBC News on Thursday he was shocked to hear there are nine dangerous offenders serving time at Ferndale, and he wondered how many other prisoners classified as dangerous offenders are being held at minimum-security institutions across the country.

"Dangerous offenders — serious, violent, dangerous offenders — should not be allowed to serve time in minimum security, unless they have become the model of civility over time, which is rare in these situations," said Dosanjh.

A dangerous offender designation, which can only be applied by a court, means that a prisoner can be held in prison indefinitely.