Staffing, safety concerns as B.C. prison outbreak infects 51 guards, 41 prisoners

Nearly one in four correctional officers who work at B.C.’s only maximum-security prison has tested positive for COVID-19, and about 10 per cent of inmates are infected. Both the union representing guards and an advocate for prisoners say the outbreak at Kent Institution in Agassiz is a significant concern.

By Friday, 51 of the prison’s 223 guards had contracted the virus, according to the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. Thursday’s data from the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) shows 41 positive tests among prisoners, in an institution with a capacity of 421. So far, 88 tests have been administered to inmates.

51 correctional officers at Kent Institution in Agassiz have tested positive for COVID-19 as of today, the union rep tells me. That's out of 223 officers, doesn't include other staff. 41 prisoners have tested positive as of Jan. 6. Outbreak began Dec. 29. https://t.co/xPnOYYlWSw

— Lisa Steacy (@lisa_steacy) January 8, 2022

The outbreak began on Dec. 29 and was announced by the Correctional Service of Canada on Dec. 31. At that time, there were 18 cases among staff, and two among those incarcerated.

The sheer number of infections is raising the specter of shortages.

RELATED: COVID-19 outbreak declared at Kent Institution in Agassiz

Derek Chin, the Pacific region president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says burned-out staff were being mandated to work overtime even before COVID-19 case counts skyrocketed. He says too many of his members are working 12 or 16-hour shifts without enough rest days.

“There’s a safety concern. We don’t want our officers to work longer hours than they should, because we need to be at our best. We need to be alert with a lot of the activities going on within the prison system, with the inmates. We don’t have the opportunity to work from home based on the nature of our job. So we do have a lot of tired, fed-up correctional officers,” he says.

“We’ve got to be at our best when it comes to observing the inmate behaviours to make sure they fall in line. It’s very difficult when you have tired staff, and it’s going to be a dangerous situation if that is the case.”

For federal employees, vaccines have been mandatory as of Nov. 15.

“That’s another reason why we’re a bit short-handed as well,’ Chin says.

RELATED: Canadian prisons reporting COVID-19 outbreaks, dozens of new cases among staff

Rapid tests are being used to confirm cases, and Chin says anyone with a positive result has to stay home for 10 days. However, amid looming shortages in Quebec’s federal prisons, Mario Guilmette, the union’s vice president for that region, has said CSC is working on a protocol to be used if the province’s federal prisons hit staffing shortages. The protocol would mean workers who are considered close contacts of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 may be asked to come back to work after isolating for eight days instead of 10.

Pressure to return to work sooner is another issue Chin raises.

“When we do have staff that have tested positive for COVID, they do want them back as soon as possible, but that’s not exactly the smartest thing just because there’s that potential for infection rates going up higher amongst the group and further crippling our complement of staff.”

Further, he says maintaining full staffing levels is crucial at this facility.

“In minimum, the inmates — they’re one step away from entry back into society, whereas the maximum inmates — you need a full complement of staff.”

Advocate fears lockdown as response to outbreak 

Jen Metcalfe, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services, the key concern is the impact of an outbreak on those serving their sentences in the facility.

“We’re really concerned about the outbreak at Kent, and we’re concerned that it’s going to result in prolonged lockdowns,” she says.

“With that number of staff infected too, I think it increases the concern that people are just going to be locked in their cells all day with no meaningful human contact or activities to keep their minds occupied.

RELATED: Basic needs not being met at COVID-19-afflicted prison in Mission: wife of inmate

In April of 2020, there was a COVID-19 outbreak at Mission Institution. By the time it was declared over, 120 prisoners had tested positive, one of whom died from the virus. A coalition of activists demanded an inquest into the inmate’s death, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Correctional Service of Canada, and the guard’s union slammed both the response to the outbreak and the investigations into members’ COVID-19-related safety complaints.

“We’ve heard reports from the lockdown during the COVID outbreak at Mission in 2020 of people self-harming because they were so impacted by that degree of isolation. We’re really worried about what this means for the people who are incarcerated at Kent,” Metcalfe says.

A November 2020 report by Prisoners’ Legal Services details the conditions for inmates during that lockdown.

“The entire institution was locked down beginning on April 1, 2020, with no time out of cell for the first eight days. From April 9 until May 26, 2020, every prisoner was locked in their cell for all but 15 to 20 minutes once every two or three days. This extreme isolation continued for almost two months,” it reads.

PLS shares prisoners' experiences of ongoing isolation, despite Canada's promise to end segregation: https://t.co/SbgRuxvf5Y #spotlightonsolitary

— BC Prison Justice (@BCPrisonJustice) November 16, 2020

During the lockdown, all access to programs and supports was suspended. Visitors were banned. Prisoners told the organization they did not have enough food, were not given access to showers, and were not allowed any phone calls either to lawyers or loved ones.

“There were reports that Mission descended into chaos and the mood grew tense after going into lockdown. Healthcare workers tussled with management over access to PPE, while prisoners screamed and banged on their metal doors,” the report reads.

“Prisoners reported bedsores from lying in their rooms all day doing nothing. By early May, there were reports that people were ‘flipping out regularly.'”

Metcalfe says these conditions constitute solitary confinement, which the UN defines as being deprived of meaningful human contact for 22 hours or more per day and defines as torture if it persists for more than 15 days.

“It’s a very, very isolating experience, and really psychologically harmful for people.”

More time in cells ‘definitely an option’: union 

Chin says keeping inmates in their cells for longer periods of time is not something the union would be opposed to during this outbreak at Kent Institution.

“That is definitely an option,” he says. “It’s by no means to punish the inmates, it’s just we have no other avenues sometimes with what we have left for staff.”

As of Jan. 3, the rate of vaccination among inmates at Kent Institution is 67.2 per cent, according to data from CSC. The provincial average at federal prisons is 81.2 per cent. The relatively low rate is something that both Metcalfe and Chin say is troublesome given the transmissibility of the Omicron variant and the number of people already impacted by the current outbreak.

The national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers is pushing for additional compensation for members.

“Our members have battled each and every wave of this virus and continue this battle with the current variant. When staff shortages occur as a result of mandatory quarantine, our members have faced unprecedented amounts of forced overtime, which itself has a negative impact on mental health contributing to further burnout,” writes Jeffrey Wilkins in a statement.

“Given the sacrifice and the continued decline in morale our membership is facing, it is time for our employer to step in and recognize these unprecedented sacrifices in the form of an allowance.”

CityNews has reached out to CSC to ask how many staff who are not correctional officers have tested positive, as well as whether any additional measures are being taken or considered to stop the spread of the virus.

With files from The Canadian Press