Correctional officer claims coverups and bullying at RPC

Officer shines light on assaults inside RPC An officer at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon says he fears the situation inside the federal prison is only getting worse.

It’s a situation that correctional officers employed at a federal prison in Saskatoon say is only getting worse.

Over the last year, there were more than 100 assaults on guards at the Regional Psychiatric Centre, according to the union representing correctional officers.

Currently, about 25 of the facility’s 160 staff members are on leave. At one point, 55 were off work, due to stress or injury.

“If you’re going home and you’re not assaulted, or if you haven’t had a run in with management about something, then it’s a good day,” said an RPC correctional officer, who CTV News has chosen to remain anonymous.

“Things happen fast there, and so you have to be smart in your decision making and do a lot of praying, because you’re always outnumbered.”

RPC first opened in 1978 and was designed to function as a mental hospital with the security to also function as a correctional institution.

According to numbers provided by the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, RPC is the most dangerous Correctional Service Canada institution on the Prairies for its staff — a situation that many have attributed to CSC’s decision to no longer use segregation as a common punishment for inmates with mental illnesses.

“An inmate can basically do something very serious and they’re usually locked up for maybe hours. It could be the next day and they’re released,” he said.

“It’s kind of like a vicious cycle, because they’re not accountable for their actions — and it’s not just on staff, it’s other inmates. There are other inmates who are maybe just there to do their time and do their programming and so it’s making it tough for them — these inmates who are continuously assaulting people are let back out right away without consequences.”

Allegations of false reports

The guard said while the numbers are troubling, they only paint part of the grim picture. He tells CTV News bullying and coverups exist behind RPC doors.

“I think they’re trying to minimize what’s actually going on within the jail,” he said.

“Certain managers have told new officers to rewrite a report, because that’s not the way they think it happened, even though the officer thinks that’s what’s happened.”

He claimed management falsifying reports is a common occurrence. In one case, he said they even downplayed an attempted escape.

“It makes the job that much harder, if you don’t have the support by management, or if you just can’t trust management.”

CTV News asked CSC about these allegations. In an email response, the organization said it does not tolerate any breach of its policies and allegations are thoroughly investigated regardless of the source. It also said measures are in place to protect the integrity of officer reporting.

Emotional toll

The guard tells CTV News some officers have simply stopped reporting minor assaults. He blames that on a long history of what he describes as corrupt prison guard culture and bullying.

“They’ll [managers] make a joke like, ‘Oh you poor thing. Oh, you got kicked in your ankle?’ They actually make a joke out of it, even though it’s still technically an assault,” he said.

He said his workplace not only takes a physical toll, but an emotional one. According to the federal government, 36 per cent of male corrections officers within federal penitentiaries report being affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. RPC is no exception.

“You can see it every day in people’s faces and in the way people react,” he said.

“There are definitely people who are turning to alcohol, substance abuse — just trying to escape. There are definitely a lot of serious issues, a lot of mental health problems going on.”

He said many guards — and good ones, too — quit or retire early. He tells CTV News he plans to stick it out in hopes it will get better, but isn’t all that optimistic.

“It will probably take a death there before things will change.”