Correctional officers stood in the heavy snow halfway up the mountain in Maple Ridge Friday, in front of Fraser Regional Correctional Centre, calling for better working conditions.
The number of inmates and the type of inmates crammed into B.C. jails, is threatening the safety of guards, said Dean Purdy with the B.C. Government Employees Union.
He said the inmate-to-staff ratio is now as high as 72:1. He said in a release Friday that before 2001, that ratio was capped at 20:1.
鈥淯nless changes are made, B.C.鈥檚 will continue to be put at high risk.鈥�
Recently, a prison guard had his finger cut off while another had his head stomped on by inmates while he was unconscious. A female officer had feces thrown in her face. The number of attacks on officers is skyrocketing, he added.
鈥淲e could easily have had a death on the job,鈥� Purdy said. The union is meeting with the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General soon to discuss the issue.
Maple Ridge resident Verity Howarth said she has friends who work in the Maple Ridge prison and worries about their safety. 鈥淲hen you look at the staffing ratios, it鈥檚 same thing I see in health and education.鈥�
鈥淏ut these guys, when they go in there with these ratios, they鈥檙e in danger. If something happens and they don鈥檛 even have support lose their jobs, I think that鈥檚 very dangerous.鈥�
Two officers recently have been disciplined for use of force in an altercation with an inmate but the process is being grieved by the union.
An auditor鈥檚 general report in said that Fraser Regional racked up the highest number of safety and security incidents, nearly 1,200 year, by 2012. That鈥檚 about 50 per cent more than the next-most violent prisons in the B.C. Corrections system in Nanaimo and Prince George.
That also represented a 33-per-cent increase at Fraser Regional over the previous year.
Purdy added that Fraser Regional was built with a capacity for about 300 inmates but now has more than 500.
