MGEU calls for review of correctional facilities after two guards attacked by inmates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/11/2019 (1624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union is calling on the province to do a sweeping health and safety review of its correctional facilities, in the wake of guards being injured in separate incidents this week.

Early Friday, a correctional officer was allegedly assaulted by an inmate at the Winnipeg Remand Centre. MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky told reporters the guard’s punchwand (a 30-centimetre metal stick) was obtained by the inmate and used as a weapon.

On Sunday, an incident occurred at the Brandon Correctional Centre, where one inmate allegedly distracted a guard, making room for another inmate to attack him.

Both guards were taken to hospital and diagnosed with concussions. They’ve since been released.

Gawronsky said correctional officers believe the attacks were premeditated and indicative of a pattern of escalating violence in local prisons and jails.

“These two brutal attacks are more severe in nature, but every day our members are dealing with violence, whether that’s getting punched, kicked, spit on or verbally assaulted — these officers are beaten every day,” she said, adding the approximately 2,000 such staff MGEU represent are on high alert, “looking over their shoulder three times as much as they ever were in the past.”

“The inmates themselves are cockier in the jails then what they were in the past, and they’re feeling emboldened. So we need to figure out why,” Gawronsky said. “We need to put a stop to it.”

MGEU is asking for a meeting with Manitoba Justice Minister Cliff Cullen to determine immediate actions the province can take to make its facilities safer for both guards and inmates. (Gawronsky acknowledged a health and safety review could also include interviews with prisoners about how to improve conditions.)

Cullen wasn’t made available for an interview Friday, but his press secretary sent an emailed statement on his behalf. The statement didn’t directly address the union’s call for a system-wide safety review.

“We strive to maintain the safety and security of Manitoba’s correctional facilities, but we recognize that correctional officers have difficult and dangerous duties,” the minister said.

“We consider the safety of corrections officers in our decisions and, as we do in situations involving an assault on staff, senior correctional officials will carefully review each case and make any relevant recommendations for systemic improvements.”

Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, said the MGEU’s call for a review reminded her of lobbying by the Canadian Union of Public Employees to upgrade security at the downtown Winnipeg Millennium Library, “under the guise of defending workers’ health and safety.”

“So these strategies on the part of unions to kind of advocate for securitization reforms are not new or surprising, but they are limited and losing strategies,” she said.

Dobchuk-Land underscored prisons and jails are far more unsafe for inmates than they are staff. Conflicts between the groups will exist so long as prisons and jails exist, she said.

“Prisoners are not safe in jail and they won’t be. And so for MGEU to suggest that they are interested in the health and safety of prisoners, I think is disingenuous,” she said. “But I do think there are ways that they could show solidarity with prisoners. I don’t think that they have to pose their interests as guards in opposition to the interests of prisoners.

“Prison is a dehumanizing place for prisoners and it’s also dehumanizing for guards. And I think that the MGEU and other unions could think about a broader political strategy in which they’re arguing for divestment from jails and policing for the health of our communities.”

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu