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Convicts threatened my kids

MONTREAL - Alice English smuggled drugs into Bordeaux jail inside coffee cans because inmates threatened to harm her family if she didn't, the ex-prison guard told police in a video shown at her trial yesterday.  (Montreal Gazette)

 

Con man to stay behind bars

CALGARY - An "incorrigible" con artist who bilked women, seniors and terminally ill cancer patients of thousands of dollars has had his day parole revoked and will stay behind bars until at least November - when he is eligible for full parole.  The National Parole Board decided against day parole for Bryan Andrew Casavant, 46.  (CanWest)

 

SCC cuts award to prison victim

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has awarded $140,000 to a BC man who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a jail guard - reducing the amount awarded by a lower court by almost half.  (CP)

 

Inquiry hears guards told to limit protective custody

CALGARY - Prison staff were simply following a national directive to restrict granting inmates protective custody to discourage them from crying wolf, a fatality inquiry into a jailhouse riot death heard Tuesday.  Inmate Jarrett Jabs, 21, was killed Nov. 13, 2001, by a group of prisoners who stormed his locked cell during a riot inside Drumheller Institution.  (Calgary Herald)

 

Prison guards fired

KITCHENER - Three Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) officers and a supervisor, all facing criminal charges in connection to the death of 19-year-old Ashley Smith, have been fired.  Four other employees have also been suspended without pay for 60 days.  All eight employees have been under suspension since Smith died on Oct. 19.  (CTV)

 

Criminal legal system being asked to provide what it can't

VANCOUVER - BC Attorney-General Wally Oppal in his year-end interviews emphasized the need for reform and change to the legal system.  Many judges, some his former bench mates, say they agree wholeheartedly.  (Vancouver Sun)  PREVIOUS:  BC attorney general says public confidence in justice system low   Cell doors open too easily

Baby in jail raises safety issues

VANCOUVER - The safety of an 11-month-old child who will live with her mother in an Abbotsford prison must be addressed, a spokesman for the federal prison guard's union said.  (Vancouver Sun)   PREVIOUS:  Killer to raise baby in prison

 

It's never their fault

WINNIPEG - Daniel Roy, 37, is a repeat, violent offender who beat the crap out of his girlfriend so badly, she had to spend five days in hospital.   At the time of the attack, he was on probation for an earlier assault against his girlfriend and had a court order to stay away from her.   Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonsen handed down a conditional sentence - or house arrest - to Roy for his brutal attack.   (Sun Media)

 

Prison in lockdown

VANCOUVER - A prison in suburban Abbotsford was in lockdown Saturday after inmates set fires in the exercise yard to protest several issues, including press coverage of a story about the facility.  (CBC)  PREVIOUS Prison guard investigated   Babies being used to smuggle drugs   Skip whistleblower and focus on prison drugs   Day wants to tighten prison drug-search policy   Children used as drug mules

 

Attacker released

VANCOUVER - The man who choked a young Korean student into a permanent, severe disability is getting out of prison early, to the horror of the victim's family.  Robert Gary Wallin is slated for release Jan. 18 after serving two-thirds of his sentence, in accordance with federal law.  (Vancouver Province)   PREVIOUS:  Attack on Stanley Park jogger sends shiver around the world

 

Treatment jam-up delays parole

Long waiting lists for federal inmates to receive treatment for their violent behaviour and addictions has meant more and more prisoners are walking out free without getting help for their problems, says the union representing Ontario's prison guards.  (CBC)   PREVIOUS:   Correctional officers and their working conditions   Tough job as prison guard getting tougher   CBC Indepth: Getting out of prison   Prison guard union says charges are unjust

Driver in fatal street race arrested

VANCOUVER - Kwok Kei Victor Tang,  31, was sentenced in 2001 to four years in prison and banned from driving for 10 years after he struck and killed pedestrian Jerry Kithithee.  (Vancouver Sun)

Prisoners more violent than in the past: report

OTTAWA - A new report finds that Canada's prison population is more violent and requires more intervention and rehabilitation strategies than in the past.  (CTV)   REPORT:  CSC Review panel

     

Morris turns himself in

VANCOUVER - Escaped murderer Ralph Whitfield Morris has turned himself in.  Morris, 73, walked away from the boundary-free Kwikwexwelhp Healing Village, a federally run minimum-security institution in Agassiz, on April 30. He returned to the facility of his own accord Friday.   (Vancouver Province)

Killers, rapists not minimum risk

Another killer walks off

Another convicted killer escapes

Review of prisoner policy

Dangerous offenders at Club Fed

Club Fed was a mistake

Convicted killer escapes

Escape highlights system flaw   At risk

 
     

Prison term for carjacking

CALGARY - Provincial court Judge Gary Cioni cited Catlin Cory Callahan's 49 prior convictions and the fact he was released from jail for breaking and entering just two weeks before the Feb. 17 carjacking as the primary reasons for imposing a 21/2-year prison sentence.    (Calgary Herald)

Jail didn't know Hyde was tasered

HALIFAX - Corrections officials likely were not aware Howard Hyde had schizophrenia or that he had been Tasered the day before his death.  (Halifax Day News)   MORE:  Corrections officials say staff acted properly    Report exonerates staff in prison death

 
     

Escaped prisoner enjoys privacy rights

DORCHESTER, NB - When a convicted murderer walked away from a New Brunswick prison Thursday, officials refused to release his photo, citing privacy rules. Under privacy rules, a photo of a convict can't be released unless he gives permission and signs a release form, said Corrections Canada, even if he breaks out of jail.  (CanWest) 

Prison funding puts citizens at risk

OTTAWA - The safety of Canadians is at risk because convicts leaving prison are increasingly likely to reoffend, thanks to a cash-strapped federal prison system that fails to deliver the programs inmates need to reintegrate into society, according to a new government report on the Correctional Service.  (Edmonton Journal)   REPORT:  Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator of Canada 2006-2007

 
     

Que. reverses ban on smoking

QUEBEC CITY - The Quebec government reversed a decision Friday to ban prisoners from smoking outside, hours after a riot at one of the provincial detention centres.     (CTV) 

Police quell prisoner uprising at BC jail

Illicit smokes spark hazards in jails

Nicotine patches banned

 
     

Province defends remand centre

CALGARY - Crowding inmates three at a time into cells built for two is an unfortunate but necessary upshot of a spike in offenders putting stress on the province's remand facilities, officials said Friday.  (Calgary Herald)   PREVIOUS:   Sex attacker freed over jail squeeze

Decision 2 years later: no charges

EDMONTON - Inmate Todd Stevenson, 40, was beaten to death on Sept. 10, 2005, while in a unit that housed 47 other men.  "There were a number of suspects identified, but insufficient evidence," government spokesman Mark Cooper said.  (Edmonton Journal)

 
     

Drug runs no longer a shoe-in

TORONTO - Drugs and weapons have been literally walking through the door at some GTA correctional facilities – prompting new rules on what inmates can wear in custody.   (Toronto Star)   PREVIOUS:   Prison guards face rising threat from violence, drug abuse   Plans and priorities 2007-2008

1 in 10 parolees AWOL

One in 10 federal offenders currently on conditional release in Quebec - 205 of 2,078 - are illegally at large, according to Correctional Service Canada data.  (CanWest)   RELATED:  BC will need more jail space   Adult and youth correctional services: key indicators 2005/2006    Number of Canadians behind bars rises

 
     
 

Many jail staff corrupt: report

LONDON - At least 1,000 prison staff are corrupt, and more than 500 are in "inappropriate relationships" with prisoners, according to a leaked study.   (BBC) 

 
     

Crime pays off in Canada

Too bad you're not a teen killer, because then you'd be showered - thanks to the Canadian government - with more than $100,000 a year.  It's called the Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision program or IRCS and for 24 of this country's worst youth offenders, the little-known federal justice program is akin to hitting the jackpot.  (Sun Media)

Cell mate a 'dangerous person'

EDMONTON - An Edmonton rapist waiting to learn if he will be locked up indefinitely as a dangerous offender is suing the province for putting him in a cell with a “dangerous” person. Russell Ominayak, 28, was convicted by a jury of aggravated sexual assault in 2005 for breaking into a single mom’s south-side home and raping her at knifepoint. . (Edmonton Sun)  

 
     

Statutory release a failure

EDMONTON - In 2005-06 there were 5,424 prisoners freed on statutory release. But 41% of them didn’t make it through their statutory release time without botching things up.  (Sun Media)

BC surrendering parole decisions to feds

VICTORIA - It's curtains for B.C.'s legacy of leniency, at least as it relates to our homegrown 20-member BC Parole Board.     (Province)

 
     

Inmates escape; bring stolen goods back to jail

DORCHESTER, NB - The RCMP say two inmates from Westmorland Institution appear to have escaped, broken into a home in neighbouring Dorchester and returned to jail with the stolen property.  (CBC)

Private prisons not on mandate

OTTAWA - Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said privately run penitentiaries are out-of-bounds for a newly struck federal government panel which is reviewing the country's prison system. (CanWest)   MORE:  Correctional Service Canada review panel   Deaths in custody

 
     

Former judge to be paroled

MIRAMICHI, NB - A former New Brunswick judge imprisoned for his role in defrauding the Miramichi Regional Health Authority of $1 million will be released from prison this week.   (CBC) 

Guard gets 5 years in prison

EDMONTON - A former guard at the Edmonton Remand Centre has been sentenced to five years in prison for smuggling drugs inside the jail for inmates.    (Edmonton Journal)

 
     

BC needs to build more jails

VICTORIA - British Columbia must build more jails in 2007 because crowding in the corrections system has reached an unacceptable level, says John Les, solicitor general and minister of public safety.   (Times Colonist)

Accused believed to be ringleader

WINNIPEG - One of four men charged in the 2005 slaying of inmate David Tavares at Stony Mountain Institution was the alleged ringleader of a mass gang fight at the medium-security jail only months earlier.     (Free Press)

 
     

Do the crime - do the time

OTTAWA - For the past decade, a vast social experiment has been ongoing in Canada's criminal justice system, largely without Canadians' knowledge. In the mid-1990s, Ottawa and most of the provinces agreed that incarceration should be the exception rather than the rule for most criminals.  (National Post) 

Prison review to follow legislation

OTTAWA - The Conservative government is about to announce an expansive review of the inner workings of the federal prison system, with an eye to examining inmate programs, giving crime victims more say, enhancing protection for prison guards and tackling the spiralling problem of drugs. (CanWest)

 
     

Mountie seduced my wife: killer

VANCOUVER - BC's most infamous doctor -- convicted of hiring a hit man to kill a 19-year-old patient accusing him of sexual assault -- wants an inquiry into RCMP conduct in his decade-old case because a Mountie seduced his wife who became the star prosecution witness.  The notorious Joseph Charalambous, 53, and his lawyer have written to the Commission for Public Complaints about the officer who subsequently married his ex.  (Vancouver Sun)

Ombudsman accuses prison system

OTTAWA - Canada's prison watchdog blasted the federal government on Monday for discriminating against aboriginal prisoners by putting a disproportionate number in maximum-security penitentiaries and segregation, keeping them jailed longer, and failing to provide proper programs to help them survive when they leave.  (CanWest)  REPORT:  Annual report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator of Canada 2005-2006

 
     

Violent offender nabbed

VANCOUVER - A violent offender who disappeared from his Vancouver halfway house Wednesday morning is back behind bars after a 57-year-old woman botched his attempt to hold up a convenience store.   (Vancouver Sun)  PREVIOUS:  Police getting involved in BC halfway house security   Kamloops Mounties nab newly released sex offender

Death-row dogs get prison rehab

VANCOUVER - Spud, a six-month-old mutt with serious "dominance issues," was facing death row at the Langley Animal Protection Society.  But he, and another 12 dogs, were thrown a bone Wednesday when they were given a prison sentence for behavioural problems at a human jail.  His new trainers are also behind bars. (Vancouver Sun)

 
     

Judge awards former inmate $728,000 for brutal beating

OTTAWA - The federal government has paid $728,000 to a former young offender for a brutal beating into near blindness at a federal penitentiary while he was serving a manslaughter sentence for his role in the shooting of an Edmonton cab driver. (CanWest)

Two more inmates escape

DORCHESTER, N.B. - Two inmates have escaped from a minimum-security prison in New Brunswick.  Officials at the Westmorland Institution in Dorchester say they're looking for James Lahey, 28, and William Miller, 42. Including Miller and Lahey, six prisoners have escaped from Westmorland this year.   (CTV)

 
     

Dealer's reduced term irks US, Canadian police

TORONTO - When Sean Erez was found crumpled and bleeding in the elevator of the Westin Harbour Castle hotel this week, shot when an alleged drug deal went awry, he could well have still been inside an American prison for his international drug trafficking enterprise.  (National Post)    PREVIOUS:   Man shot at Harbour Castle former drug dealer

Mental hospital escapee found in Victoria

WINNIPEG - A mentally ill killer who escaped from a Manitoba psychiatric hospital last month was taken into custody in Victoria on Wednesday.   Winnipeg police said their investigation led them to the whereabouts of Earl Joey Wiebe, 23.  (CP)    PREVIOUS: Violent psychiatric patient escapes custody    Keep' em in chains

 
     

Killer moved to victims' community

VANCOUVER - Corrections Canada is under attack for sending Abbotsford killer Terry Driver to a prison in Abbotsford, the same community where his victims' families still live. (Province)   

Ontario fugitive nabbed

VANCOUVER - One of Ontario's most wanted criminals was captured when a BC dad went looking for the man who sexually assaulted his 16-year-old daughter.   (Vancouver Province)

 
     

Would-be killer walks free

OTTAWA - Marty Ferrier, a convicted sex offender once bent on becoming the country's "most prolific killer," walked out of prison Wednesday with no supervision or special conditions attached to his freedom.  Having served his full sentence, Ferrier walked out of Warkworth Institution in Campbellford, Ont., a free man.  (CanWest)  PREVIOUS:  Monster in the family

Virk killer gets parole

MISSION, B.C. - The man convicted in the savage murder of teenager Reena Virk hugged her parents yesterday after the National Parole Board granted him unescorted temporary passes.   Warren Glowatski's parole hearing included an aboriginal healing circle attended by Reena's parents.  (CP)     PREVIOUS:  The murder or Reena Virk

 
     

Olson murders cast a shadow in world of police probes

VANCOUVER - Serial killer Clifford Olson remains behind bars, but the impacts of his horrific case have rippled across the Canadian justice system for 25 years and will continue for years to come.   Olson denied parole

Olson grandstands at parole hearing

Olson parole hearing reopens old wounds

Faint hope clause may linger

How to help the Justice system stop lying

Section 745.6 - The 'Faint Hope Clause'

Clifford Olson destined to die in prison

Olson wants out

Crime Library: Clifford Olson

Wikipedia: Clifford Olson

 
     

Classification of aboriginal woman prisoners challenged

VANCOUVER - A BC aboriginal woman has launched a class-action lawsuit against the Correctional Service of Canada over the classification of all aboriginal women serving time in federal jails. (CBC)

Inmate count doesn't count inmates

VANCOUVER - A federal parolee who walked away from a halfway house in Vancouver was not missed for several hours because the facility's "client count" did not involve actually counting the parolees, according to an internal investigation report. (Vancouver Sun)  

 
     

Cop killer denied parole for drugs, public danger

EDMONTON - As long as he’s in jail, convicted cop killer Albert Foulston says he will do drugs.  And as long as he does drugs, the parole board says he will stay in prison. (Edmonton Journal)

Stopping petty thieves

VANCOUVER - In a small, windowless interview room at the Vancouver lockup, a police officer and a suspect sit down for a chat.  (Vancouver Sun)  PREVIOUS:  Making the time fit the crime   Our farcical parole laws

 
     

Stabbing victim's family suing parole board

HAMILTON - The family of a woman brutally attacked in Hamilton two years ago is suing federal officials and the convicted offender who attacked her for the loss of her “guidance, care and companionship.”  (Hamilton Spectator)  PREVIOUS: Gardiner 'cheerful' before his parole    National Parole Board sees nothing wrong with day parole system

Fujii to be deported for letting kids die

CALGARY  - The National Parole Board informed Rie Fujii on Wednesday that when her statutory release date kicks in on Monday, immigration authorities will pick her up and begin the process to get her out of Canada.   (CP)   PREVIOUS:   Freed killer riles ex-cop   'I tried my best to become a good mother to my babies'    Father tried to visit babies

 

Stabbing brings two-year sentence

HAMILTON - Brian Kosh, 21, pleaded guilty yesterday to stabbing 22-year-old Michael Riley, four times - once in the neck and three times in the back.  Kosh, who has 17 prior convictions, was also sentenced to three years' probation.  (Hamilton Spectator)

Cop killer rejected treatment

STONY PLAIN - Two years before he and an RCMP officer died in a shootout, Martin Ostopovich discharged himself from the mental-health unit of the Royal Alexandra Hospital against doctors' recommendations, a fatality inquiry heard Wednesday. (Edmonton Journal)   

Drug dealer serves just one-sixth of sentence

VANCOUVER - Some first time offenders are better off being sentenced to federal prison time.    (Delta Optimist)  

Man admits to breaching sentence conditions 116 times

WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg man pleaded guilty yesterday to breaching his conditional sentence 116 times.  (mikeoncrime.com)

Condo denied access to family

GRANBY - Court documents show that Mr. Condo, 42, who is set to be released from prison Monday to a Granby, Que., halfway house under several strict conditions, initially fought against the order requested by his ex-wife, Yvonne McGuire, before changing his mind several days later.  In 2000, Mr. Condo was convicted for the kidnapping and aggravated assault of Ms. McGuire.  (Ottawa Citizen)