Mr. Chair, my name is Tony Van De Mortel. I am a corrections officer at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre in the Yukon. I have been a correctional officer for three and a half years. The Whitehorse Correctional Centre—from this point I'll call it WCC—is the only territorial correctional facility in the Yukon, and it is a multiple level facility. WCC holds both male and female inmates and, as noted, will hold federal sentence prisoners for brief periods and for a variety of reasons. The facility also acts as a remand centre for people awaiting trial.
Mr. Chair, I understand the committee is studying the topic of drugs and alcohol within the federal correctional system. I'm here to share a personal experience that I hope will provide a unique viewpoint that may help you in your understanding of this topic.
On October 10, 2009, just 45 minutes into my shift, I responded to a disturbance in the central cell block unit of the facility. Inmates in cell six were engaged in a fight with fellow officers working the shift with me. When order was re-established, two of our officers had been choked from behind and I stood with a broken nose, the bone protruding through my face, and a broken leg.
The event was a result of the inmates consuming a brew they had crafted and hidden over a two-week period. That night I was taken to the hospital, undergoing surgery to reconstruct my nose, and ended up in a full leg cast. I was in a nose cast for four weeks and the leg cast for seven and a half weeks. It would be six months before I returned to modified work duties. I have never been able to return to duty in my full capacity, and I have endured countless hours of painful and tiring physiotherapy. I can only be on my feet for about 40 minutes and can't sit for long periods of time either. I take Advil or Tylenol 3 a couple of times a week to deal with the ongoing pain that never truly subsides. The specialists tell me this is as good as it will ever feel and nothing more can be done to improve my leg. The cartilage will always be uneven over the fracture and the bone is indented at the joint.
Mr. Chair, those are the physical scars, but there's more to this story. It was and continues to be very difficult for my family. I have a special needs son who wouldn't come near me while I had the cast on my face. My wife had to drive me everywhere and do everything around the house, including shovelling the snow. As you can imagine, Mr. Chair, that can pile high in the Yukon. I can't share in some of our favourite times together, like long hikes and other outdoor activities that keep me on my feet. Returning to work has my family often afraid for my safety and is a continued source of stress for them. I get frustrated because I am always tired, sore, and in pain.
Mr. Chair, there is another side. My co-workers and my clients, the inmates at WCC, were impacted by this. These kinds of events impact both staff and inmates' sense of security and trust. Front-line staff are the most significant influence of pro-social behaviour and motivators of positive behavioural change within the institution. This is because correctional officers spend the greatest amount of time with the inmates on a day-to-day and 24-hour basis. In our facility, staff work under a direct supervision model, which has the staff working directly in the living units, working with inmates, attending programs with inmates, and assisting them with all sorts of daily routine and learning activities. Direct supervision living unit officers maintain progress logs and help manage inmate case files directly related to their institutional plan.
As you can imagine, Mr. Chair, events where staff are assaulted negatively impact a fragile and critical relationship between staff and inmates. This is to the detriment of both. I can assure you, Mr. Chair, that the vast majority of inmates understand both the physical and the trickle-down impacts and dangers of brews within the correctional facility.
I recommend to this committee that efforts to support the help, hope, and healing of inmates, the safety of staff, and the recognition and understanding of the critical relationship between staff and inmates take into account the absolute need to keep prisons free of brews.
Furthermore, I can't underscore enough that while programs to deal with substance abuse and addictions are critical, front-line staff are the most significant and influential people in the life of inmates and stand to be the best source of positive behavioural change and demonstration of pro-social behaviour, and they must be provided with the tools, training, equipment, and support to keep illicit drugs and alcohol out of this environment in order to interact with limited barriers or fear for safety.
In effect, Mr. Chair, the officers are the program.
I thank you for your time and am willing to answer any questions you may have at this time.