A correctional officer was stabbed in the face by an inmate at B.C.'s maximum security prison, and the union that represents him says it’s a huge concern.
The stabbing occurred on July 14 at 8:15 a.m. inside Kent Institution. The officer had been conducting a routine pat down.
John Randle, the regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers for the Pacific Region, said this is an extreme situation.
Randle immediately got in his vehicle and went to see the officer in the hospital.
“I thought the worst,” he said.
The officer was stabbed in the jaw where his earlobe meets his cheekbone.
“I saw the injury and it was centimetres from the neck of the jugular area,” Randle said. “It could have gone either way.”
The officer, who has been in the role for roughly two years, was doing a pat down when the inmates were going to get their daily medication. Pat downs are a normal part of the job, and officers might do 15 to 20 per day.
“It’s pretty egregious,” he said of the incident. “That’s attempted murder when you try to stab somebody with a weapon in the side of the head.”
Randle said the union is very concerned about the stabbing.
“These inmates, eventually, are going to get out into the community,” he said. “If that’s the kind of behaviour while they're incarcerated in a federal jail, how are they going to act when they get back into the community?”
Randle said the union is seeing a "massive" uptick in assaults.
"Assaults on officers have risen by over 100 per cent in the last three to five years,” he told Lodestar Media.
The union is hoping criminal charges will come from this incident, which is being investigated by RCMP and Kent Institution.
"The safety and security of institutions, their staff, and the public remains the highest priority in the operations of the federal correctional system,” said Kim MacPherson, assistant warden at Kent Institution.
"In order to improve practices aimed at preventing this type of incident, the Correctional Service of Canada will review the circumstances of the incident and take the appropriate measures.”
The officer who was stabbed did receive stitches and is home from the hospital recovering.
"Psychologically, I'm not sure, we're working with him on that right now,” Randle said.
