Fencing around unit inside Saskatoon jail will boost security

The province is spending $187,000 to build a four-metre-high fence around the “A” unit inside the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.

It’s the first of four fences that will isolate units inside the jail, limiting inmate movement between the buildings and improve security.

Corrections officials are reluctant to talk about trouble inside the local jail, and the executive director of Custody Services said the fence is not a response to increased violence.

Rather, Heather Scriver said the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the jail’s “A” unit are getting upgraded. As part of that work, the fence has been built around the unit to keep inmates separated from the contractors.

But the fence will not be taken down after the work is done.

It will stop people going back and forth.- Heather Scriver

Scriver says the fence was not intended to be a long-term security upgrade.

It just worked out that way.

“Currently, it will stop people going back and forth," she said.

Scriver says the fence will have a gate so that staff will be able to more effectively control movement between the four units in the jail. Three of the units – A, B and C – house low-risk inmates. The D unit is where higher risk inmates are kept.

Eventually, she said all of the units in Saskatoon will be fenced. Similar work will be taking place in other jails around the province.

While management may be reluctant to talk about violence in the jail, the union representing correctional officers has no such qualms.

Escalating gang violence

In a newsletter to members, the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union (SGEU) says escalating gang-driven violence, chronic overcrowding and understaffing in all the adult correctional centres is moving the corrections system closer to a crisis point.

SGEU president Bob Bymoen said a fight between two rival gangs in the Saskatoon jail on June 29 resulted in two inmates being sent to hospital with stab wounds, put staff safety at risk, and triggered an institutional lockdown.

A new direction called ‘gang sprinkling’ — the merging of gang members within the institution — is one of the factors leading to unpredictable and potentially explosive situations, he said.