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Tensions are mounting in one of Canada’s most dysfunctional federal prisons after corrections officers fired their service weapons for the second time in a matter of weeks. Since reporting on a chaotic brawl that sent two inmates to hospital and wounded a third, VICE World News has been contacted by a number of inmates, corrections officers, and advocates to raise the alarm on worsening conditions inside the maximum-security Edmonton Institution. Multiple sources described the situation as a powder keg, with warnings that violence could flare if things don’t improve. According to those sources, a fight broke out between two inmates on Jan. 8. After verbal warnings, officers intervened by firing multiple rounds from their carbine rifles—sources estimate that between four and seven rounds were fired. While the Correctional Service, Canadian’s federal prison agency, confirmed that “warning shots” were fired, one corrections officer, speaking under condition of anonymity, claimed one round was aimed at the inmate who instigated the fight, but it missed. VICE World News is not identifying the corrections employees because they were not authorized to speak to the media and feared consequences from their employer; nor are we identifying the inmates and their families, who feared retaliation from the corrections officers. VICE has also been given Access to Information documents, court records, and audio tapes that corroborate the toxic, violent, and dysfunctional state of the institution. Inmates have also spoken to the Edmonton Journal, describing how the current climate inside the prison makes them fear for their lives. The Correctional Service confirmed that one inmate remains in hospital “as a result of serious injuries he sustained in a physical altercation with another inmate.” They specified that his injuries “are not a result of the action taken by the Correctional Service of Canada to end the altercation.” The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO) said that neither of the inmates was hit by a bullet. The shooting set everyone in the prison on edge. Inmates say firing live rounds in the relatively small enclosed space was reckless. On Thursday, another shooting happened after an inmate was taken off suicide watch and returned to his cell, on the same unit where the shooting had taken place less than two weeks earlier. Within 10 minutes of him returning to general population, the inmate attacked someone in the unit, multiple sources say—it’s unclear if they attacked a guard or another inmate. “When that happened, they started shooting,” said an inmate who was sitting in a nearby cell. “They’re shooting live bullets right at us,” he said. Given that the area is “wall-to-wall metal,” he said, the risk of a ricochet is very real. He said officers fired two live rounds, then dispatched tear gas. There were no reported injuries as a result of the shooting. The Correctional Service confirmed to VICE World News that officers fired their weapons again on Jan. 21. They wrote in an email that the officers tried to resolve the conflict “using the most reasonable interventions” and that “munitions are a last resort when someone’s life may be threatened.”The Service would not confirm how many rounds were fired in either incident.
‘We don’t feel safe’
Things inside Edmonton Institution have been getting steadily worse for months. The environment goes in a vicious cycle: A lack of programming, services, and family visits have made the inmates bored, frustrated, and angry. Invariably, that frustration explodes into violence. Corrections officers respond to that violence, which provokes further tensions. Overcrowding and understaffing exacerbate those problems. The temperature continues to rise, however. The corrections officer says that the unit in question is a “Gong Show.” The inmate on that unit says inmates are growing increasingly frustrated with the conditions: “On a good day, we get one hour out. We’re locked up like 23 hours a day.” He adds: “You can’t even get to see a doctor, or psychiatrist, or anybody to talk to for your mental health.” Numerous court rulings have found that keeping inmates in their cell for more than 20 hours a day constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, causes significant psychological and mental harm, and is unconstitutional. Federal law is supposed to forbid that practice. But everyone who spoke to VICE News says those limits are not being respected inside Edmonton Institution.“This is very simple,” one former Edmonton Institution corrections officer told VICE World News. “When you push an inmate, they [can only] get pushed so far. They can't get their mail. They can't get on the phone to their loved ones, they can't get a shower: They start to eat themselves, they start to stab themselves. They start to banter back and forth between their cell doors because they have no coping strategies.” It’s a struggle just to get inmates access to the recreation yard, they said. “There's no library. There's no schooling.”In Canada, security designations are not static; inmates can be classified higher or lower based on their behavior inside the prison. Inmates in maximum security can be moved down to a medium-security facility if they can show a commitment to rehabilitation: Taking classes, working in the prison industry, or participating in programming for addiction can all contribute to an inmate being classified down. But without programming, those moves become more difficult. “You need inmates cascading down to medium. That's how you have more control over the inmates,” the ex-officer said. “You want an inmate to go from a max, to a medium, to a minimum, to a halfway house, and to have control mechanisms in place to protect the public. “What does the public want? An inmate that was just involved in a group stabbing, and released the next day?” the former officer continued. A family member of a current inmate at Edmonton Institute agreed. “Inmates are being released from max, which is unacceptable—some who are dangerous,” they told VICE News. “There's a reason why a maximum-security inmate is in a maximum-security penitentiary. OK? So if you really want to see what a maximum security inmate can do, you take everything away from them,” the former officer said. As tensions mount, the job of managing the prison falls onto corrections officers, who are often left with few mechanisms to respond. “The reality about the maximum-security population is that it is so, so difficult to manage,” Bloomfield says. While many in the prison may be trying to do their time peacefully and transition out of maximum security, others are gang-affiliated and looking to cause trouble.
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