Canadian Safety Reporter - sample

3 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 News | March 2018 | CSR Corrections Canada, officers disagree on potential danger from missing tool Tribunal supports work refusals by 37 officers after B.C. institution opts not to conduct special search of inmates for bladed tool BY JEFFREY R. SMITH THE CORRECTIONAL Service of Canada has been directed to do more to protect its correc- tional officers to mitigate the danger brought on by the pos- sibility of a missing cutting tool making its way into the posses- sion of inmates. On Oct. 30, 2014, a pair of thread snips — a tool with two flip-out blades about eight inch- es long when unfolded used to trim threads and strings from chairs and cushions — went missing from the upholstery shop at the Mountain Institu- tion, a medium security incar- ceration facility in Agassiz, B.C. The tool was classified as a "re- stricted tool" by Corrections Canada (CSC), which meant they were tools "most likely to be used in an escape attempt or in any dangerous or illegal way" and use by inmates required intermittent supervision — as opposed to constant, direct su- pervision for "prohibited" tools. None of the six pairs of snips in the shop could be passed hand- to-hand by inmates and staff but rather had to be placed on a table and then picked up by the next person to avoid the risk of injury. The upholstery shop was part of a compound of buildings sep- arated from the rest of the facil- ity by a fence. All inmates arriv- ing at and leaving the compound were subject to a frisk and metal detector search. The correctional officers on duty in the upholstery shop at the time were concerned as they felt there were opportunities for the snips to be passed out of the fenced compound and into the general inmate popula- tion, where they could be used as a weapon. Adding to their concerns was the fact that had been an attempted murder of an inmate by another inmate two weeks earlier with a sharpened butter knife. Such an incident wasn't common at a medium security institution, so it was considered an "elevated" behav- ioural and security issue. There were also recent concerns re- lated to possible violence against sex offenders by other inmates and six weapons had been seized in the past month in a facility where the average was nine per year. CSC prepared a risk assess- ment, which found the snips were last accounted for about two hours before they were no- ticed to be missing and two in- mates had left the upholstery shop since that time. In addition, one inmate had taken recycling from the shop to an adjacent building through an unlocked gate and the fence line behind the compound didn't have video surveillance. A modified routine was put in place at the facility, where inmates were subject to frisk- ing and searching upon exiting their cells and one living unit at a time was allowed access to the kitchen. Once inmates from a unit were done eating, they were returned to their cells and locked in. Later than evening, about seven hours after the snips were last accounted for, correctional officers performed non-routine frisk and cell searches on select inmates, including those who left the upholstery shop early. The searches didn't turn up any- thing. Not enough done to find potential weapons: Officers The next morning, the uphol- stery shop and surrounding ar- eas were searched thoroughly in case the snips had fallen out of sight into a small space or nook. Inmates from the shop were interviewed and none said they had used the snips, and in- telligence gathered from the in- mate community didn't reveal any specific threats. Managers and union representatives met to develop plans to return to the normal routine at the facility, but this didn't quell the concerns of many correctional officers. One officer invoked a refusal to work due to danger under the Canada Labour Code in the early after- noon of Oct. 31, and most of the officers on duty that afternoon followed suit soon after. A total of 37 correctional of- ficers refused to work due to the concern over the missing thread snips. As one officer's statement said: "It is my belief that it is very possible that (the snips) made their way down to the com- pound via through the fencing and pass-offs from the inmates... Compile this with all the home- made weapons that have been found over the last week and half I believe that there is reasonable grounds to believe that there is a source of harm or risk to an em- ployee that has been introduced to the inmate population." The refusing officers said that not everything was done to re- duce the danger, as CSC had the ability to conduct a search under s. 53 of the Corrections and Con- ditional Release Act — a frisk or strip search of all inmates where there is a reasonable ground to believe that there is "a clear and substantial danger to human Employer > pg. 7 Credit: Shutterstock/Ken Felepchuk Cutting tool wasn't found after frisk, cell searches and inmate interviews

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