The Chronicle received a hand-written letter purportedly from one of the new inmates at the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
He wrote: “We all understand that we have broken the law, but we would also like to make sure that the next lot of guys do not have to experience what we have had to go through.”
The inmate claimed to have witnessed verbal abuse (and the threat of physical abuse) among staff members.
“We believe that it will only be a matter of time before this place explodes between staff and inmates,” he wrote.
The Chronicle finds it hard to believe that correctional officers in a new facility would be abusing each other as alleged. Why would they, especially when they only started working there? Maybe after 10 years working in a stressful environment, but not after one month.
The inmate also claimed that they were being denied family visits on weekends, which they are entitled to.
“Today we are locked up in a unit and our outside time is in a 20 by 20 foot cement room.”
The inmate reiterated that they broke the law, “but our crimes are very minor and we are treated like murderers and rapists.”
He stressed that the inmates need to be heard.
“I’m begging you to please help us.”
The inmate said he would like to discuss the issue with the Chronicle and would put us on his visit list.
“Please come see me. I’m sure the community would love to know what is going on in here.”
We contacted the Ministry of Public Safety regarding the inmate’s allegations and received the following response:
“All inmate complaints are reviewed at the warden level and inmates receive a response from centre management.”
In addition, inmates can file complaints to the Investigation and Standards Office, an independent body of the Ministry of Justice.
“Correctional officers are accountable for their behaviour towards each other and inmates. The Corrections Branch takes all concerns regarding officer conduct extremely seriously and investigates accordingly.”
The Chronicle made a request to visit the inmate who wrote us the letter and was told we could do so if the newspaper was on the individual’s visit list. We called the booking line but were told we were not on the list. Then we were given a number to call in order to leave the inmate a message. But we were told that the inmate’s birthdate was required. We didn’t have it, so we couldn’t leave a message.
The Chronicle ended up writing the inmate a letter, requesting that he make sure we were on the visit list and to give us his birthdate, which is required in order to leave him a message. We haven’t received a reply yet.
The government certainly isn’t making it easy to contact this inmate, which is no surprise. They don’t want us talking to inmates about their concerns.
But we want to address these allegations to ensure the new prison doesn’t “explode.”
Lyonel Doherty, editor
