Prisoners riot at Mountain Institution in B.C.

Rioting prisoners were armed with gym’s aluminum bats

Globe and Mail
ROBERT MATAS
April 2, 2008

Two lone, unarmed correctional officers in charge of as many as 40 prisoners fled for their lives when inmates armed with aluminum baseball bats from their B.C. prison’s sports equipment room went on a rampage on the weekend that left two men dead, one of them beaten to death.

The riot at Mountain Institution in Agassiz erupted so suddenly in the gym and spread so quickly to the living areas and health-care unit that several more officers, concerned about their own safety, fled to the roof without ensuring that security cameras – which would have caught the inmates’ activities – were turned on.

The inmates remained in control of the institution for several hours, until officers from a nearby high-security prison and an emergency-response team arrived with shotguns, according to interviews yesterday with those familiar with the events.

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Those familiar with events said the riot turned violent after rampaging inmates broke into a locked room in the gym containing baseball bats, volleyballs, and floor hockey and other sports equipment. After the two officers fled the gym, a core of 10 to 20 rioting inmates led others into the health-care centre and living units.

At the health-care centre, the prisoners broke through two heavy metal doors and grabbed medicine stored on the shelf, including as many as 80 bottles of methadone from the drug-addiction treatment program.

In their living areas, the roving inmates smashed computers and the panel that controlled cell locks. They roamed through cells, bashing toilets and sinks, damaging at least 20 cells.

Michael Gibbon, a borderline mentally retarded man convicted of assaulting young girls and making and distributing child pornography, was assaulted in his cell and was pronounced dead shortly after the riot ended.

Trevor O’Brien, serving a three-year, nine-month sentence for robbery and property offences, died of a drug overdose. He was one of 12 inmates taken to the hospital after the riot for suspected overdoses.

More than 20 officers abandoned their posts. “Of course, when the inmates came in with baseball bats, and staff had nothing to defend themselves with, the staff [left],” Mr. Robertson said.

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Second B.C. inmate dies after weekend riot

UNNATI GANDHI
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
April 1, 2008

VANCOUVER — A second inmate from Mountain Institution, a federal penitentiary east of Vancouver, has died after a weekend riot in which about 60 prisoners armed with baseball bats, clubs and fire hoses from the gym forced their way into several of the institution’s buildings.The situation quickly spiralled out of control, a union official said, when the 22 prison staff on duty were forced to flee to the roof of the building around 9:45 p.m. Saturday. Michael Andrew Gibbon, a borderline mentally retarded man who was serving an indefinite sentence for sexually assaulting young girls, was attacked and killed during that time. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is probing his death.

Meanwhile, several prisoners also broke into the on-site health centre and got hold of several drugs, said Gord Robertson, Pacific regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

A total of 12 inmates were taken to hospital for overdosing, he said, while one was transported with non-life-threatening injuries after being assaulted.

One of those inmates, whose identity had not been released as of last night, died in hospital Sunday evening from a drug overdose, Correctional Service Canada spokesman Dave Lefebvre confirmed in an interview yesterday.

Mr. Lefebvre would not say whether the health centre was one of the buildings to which inmates were able to gain access, or that drugs were stolen, but stated that Corrections Canada is conducting an investigation to “determine every aspect of this disturbance.”

Mr. Robertson said UCCO has made it clear to Corrections Canada on several occasions that open-concept, medium security facilities like Mountain Institution, where inmates are allowed to move freely within the walls, make it easy for them to gain control.

Mountain has been forced into extended lockdown-mode three times in recent months because of assaults and rioting.

Although it is still unclear what triggered Saturday’s incident, it is by far the most extreme to date, he said.

“They went into different buildings, different units, breaking into cells. They smashed computers, they smashed appliances, there was flooding because they pulled the fire hoses out, smashing the control posts,” Mr. Robertson said. “The staff had to flee because the inmates were armed and the staff aren’t.”

Mr. Robertson said barriers need to be installed so that staff have the chance to lock down certain parts of the prison if there is a security breach. Movement restrictions, like one enforced last week that forced inmates to be confined to their cells after every meal, aren’t enough, he said.

Glen Flett, a former Mountain Institution prisoner who runs an outreach program called Long-term Inmates Now in the Community, said it is these tighter restrictions, like the lockdowns after meals and the new smoking ban that will go into effect at the end of the month, that are agitating inmates.

“The pressure’s mounting.” he said.

Further, he said, the death of Mr. Gibbon, whom he’s known since 1998, resulted from more than Saturday night’s chaos. He believes Mr. Gibbon, who he said had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old, was targeted because he was a convicted child sex-offender. He said he had been threatened before.

“I remember for one thing, it’s double bunk at Mountain, and the bottom line is very few people wanted to live with him because of his status. And people who lived with him were often threatened or encouraged to beat him up or to treat him badly.”

Mr. Flett said Mr. Gibbon was killed in his unit, about 200 metres away from the gym where the riot began.

Mr. Lefebvre would not confirm where Mr. Gibbon’s body was found, but did say that Mountain is a mixed-population institution.

“We have sex offenders living in the same living unit as people who have committed murder living in the same unit as people who have committed property offences.”

Mr. Gibbon’s lawyer, Martin Peters, said in an interview that his client, with whom he had been in frequent contact, should have been segregated from the general population.

“It’s hard for me to say he wouldn’t have had more protection if he was segregated because that’s the very purpose of that exercise,” Mr. Peters said.