Violent inmates blamed for riot; Joyceville bosses warned months ago, union official says
Posted By Rob Tripp
Kingston Whig-Standard Police Reporter
April 4, 2008
[Kingston, Ontario]
Senior prison bosses in Kingston were warned months ago that Joyceville penitentiary, where a riot erupted Monday, was a simmering trouble spot.
Internal prison reports show that there has been a spate of violent incidents since the beginning of this year.
“We’re getting an influx of inmates coming into institutions like Joyceville that really shouldn’t be there and this seems to be the trend at all our mediums,” said Jason Godin, a senior official in the union that represents prison guards.
Godin said the prison service is improperly reclassifying maximum-security prisoners as medium-security because of overcrowding in maximum-security prisons.
“They’ve got nowhere to put them,” he said.
It means Joyceville is bursting with “extremely violent inmates” who can’t be properly managed, Godin charged.
Corrections Canada spokeswoman Janine Chown said prison service policies permit overrides of security classifications.
“It does allow overrides, but not for overcrowding,” she said.
At 9:30 p.m. Monday, Joyceville inmates began smashing furniture, flooding cells, setting fires and attempting to smash through walls and barred barriers.
Prison bosses handed out shotguns to staff and called in a prison riot squad. Heavily armed and protected emergency response team members fired gas to bring the riot under control.
It took roughly five hours to quell the uprising and get inmates back into cells. Corrections could not provide an estimate of how many of the prison’s 486 inmates were involved in the disturbance.
Seven prisoners were identified as key participants and they were transferred to maximum-security prisons.
Corrections estimates damage at $25,000.
The incident came just days after a riot at a medium-security penitentiary in British Columbia in which 60 rampaging inmates armed with baseball bats and fire hoses seized control. Two inmates died, including a child molester who was beaten to death. The other inmate died of a drug overdose.
In the incident at Mountain Institution, 22 prison staff fled to the roof of the open-concept prison.
Godin said that at a meeting Feb. 7 with top Ontario prison managers, he noted the concern of the union about increasing violence in area prisons, particularly Joyceville.
“There’s been warning signs conveyed to the [guards] that there’s more to come and it’s going to be a long, hot summer,” Godin said.
Internal reports show that several times in January an inmate told staff that “a major incident will happen.”
Internal prison incident reports document violence, including:
The death of an inmate Jan. 23 and hospitalization of three others who drank from a batch of toxic home-made alcohol.
Three stabbings of inmates including one on Jan. 27 that sent a prisoner to hospital with wounds to the head and hands.
An attack on a female guard Feb. 28 by two inmates who were attempting to get to a locked cabinet of tobacco.
“More violent inmates are currently residing there,” Godin said.
He said the union has repeatedly warned managers that it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage violent inmates who seem unconcerned about internal discipline or rules.
Godin noted that a .22-calibre bullet was found recently at medium-security Fenbrook institution in Gravenhurst. Godin described it as an open-concept prison, like Mountain Institution, with fewer barriers and other security measures.
Newly renovated, open-style living units will open soon at Collins Bay Institution in Kingston.
The union opposes the open-concept design and has suggested it may have been a factor that allowed the weekend riot at Mountain Institution to quickly spiral out of control.
“We’re seeing in these mediumsecurity institutions an inmate that really is unmanageable based on the structure of these facilities,” Godin said.
Godin said the government has continued to build the open-concept prisons despite warnings from the union.
Joyceville is not an open concept prison, but it is an aging facility.
Visits to Joyceville are scheduled to resume today, but the prison’s full routine will not be restored until Monday.
Guards are conducting a prison-wide search for weapons and other contraband.
No inmates or staff were injured in Monday’s incident, but an inmate was taken to hospital more than four hours before the uprising began. Corrections has said it does not know if the two events are linked.
Rioters were based on three cellblocks that adjoin the cellblock where the injured inmate was found.
Confrontation 
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