Union raises safety concerns at new Truro prison for women - General - Union of Canadian Correctional Officers - Brief Article

Community Action, August 19, 2002

TRURO -- The decision to reduce the number of correctional officers on duty when the Nova Institution for Women opens a maximum-security unit in September raises a serious safety concern, according to the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

Bruce Asselstine, president of the union's Nova local, said the 10-bed unit is set to open with only two correctional officers on duty during the day and evening shifts. The current minimum at Springhill Institution and Saskatchewan Institution is three officers. As well, the entrance will be staffed with one correctional officer during the day, no staff from 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and a commissioner on the overnight shift.

Management expects that clinical staff such as the nurse or behavioural counselor will defuse problems before they arise, Asselstine said. However, those staff do not receive the same training as correctional officers, he said. Inmates at Springhill and Saskatchewan have been responsible for 47 documented assaults on staff ranging from vicious physical attacks, stabbings, hostage takings and throwing objects as well as 13 attempted assaults and 56 verbal threats, including death threats, according to the union.

As for the changes to staffing the main entrance, prisoners at Nova have already escaped simply by walking out the front door, Asselstine said. He called on management to review its staffing policies.

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