I am Anne-Marie Beauchemin, the Ontario Regional Status of Women representative for UCCO-SACC-CSN. I have been a correctional officer for 12 years and I currently work at Kingston Penitentiary, a maximum security institution for men.
I will be discussing CSC policy and legislation, both of which make the job of a female correctional officer more challenging than that of our male colleagues.
In May 2012, the Minister of Public Safety, , Vic Toews, was made aware that federal inmates had access to pornography on television. He announced that he would be putting an end to this unacceptable practice. To date, this has not happened. The satellite and cable television to which inmates have access for only pennies a day still includes sexually explicit channels and movies.
Inmates are also still permitted to keep sexually suggestive and explicit magazines and personal photographs that continue to subject female officers to unwanted attention, unwelcome comments, and intentional displays of sexual gratification. How is it that inmates are not allowed to have material in their possession that has gang or alcohol-related logos because these are considered to be anti-social, but pornography is acceptable?
Female officers do report incidents of inmates deliberately masturbating and exposing themselves. In one of these cases, a female officer was conducting a routine hourly range walk on a midnight shift at a medium security institution. She observed an inmate masturbating in his cell. During each subsequent walk, the inmate appeared to position himself in such a way to make sure that she saw him masturbating. Later that night he handed her a note, offering to put on a show for her and asked her not to tell anyone. The next time she passed his cell, he asked her for an answer and whether or not this would get him in trouble.
The officer reported the incident to the correctional manager on duty, yet despite the situation she was not redeployed to another post. She submitted an observation report at the end of her shift but the incident was not reported to the incoming correctional manager on the day shift. When asked to have the inmate moved to segregation, management refused due to a lack of bed space in the unit. Eventually the inmate was relocated to segregation and institutionally charged by the officer. When the police were approached with a request to press outside charges on the inmate, they informed her that there really wasn't anything to charge him with.
Subsequently, the officer booked the next shift off and ultimately used up to 200 hours of sick leave. After a lengthy battle with senior management at regional headquarters, the inmate was transferred to Kingston Penitentiary where he was reassessed and found to be a sexual deviant.
The officer has since returned to work but has not yet returned to full duties as a result of this traumatic experience.
CSC policy states that inmates must be respectful to officers. The CCRA, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, also addresses this matter. Unfortunately, intentionally masturbating in front of an officer is not clearly defined and this needs to change. Officers must be given a viable avenue in which corrective measures can be consistently applied.
Although officers have the ability to charge an inmate in these circumstances through the internal inmate discipline system, the officer must be able to prove that the act was committed by the inmate with intent to insult, offend, disrespect, and harass the officer. In our region, a review of charges filed in 2011 within a nine-month period demonstrated that nine charges were submitted for inmates masturbating in front of an officer. These charges were all classified as minor, and in one case, although the inmate did admit his guilt, there did not seem to be any final resolution.
Criminal charges could be an avenue for officers as well, but again, there remains the difficulty of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and further that the offence is punishable by summary conviction.
What is being permitted in our federal jails and its impact on female officers is contrary to CSC's own mission statement, which purports to rehabilitate offenders into law-abiding citizens. The ongoing exposure to pornography and to these kinds of inmate behaviour, which seem to be without any consequence, causes female correctional officers, sworn-in peace officers, risks to their emotional well-being and ultimately results in a loss of dignity.
Female correctional officers face different challenges than their male counterparts do. Many of these can be addressed by amending the Criminal Code, the CCRA, and other policies providing clear direction within the Correctional Service of Canada. We are not the problem.
Thank you for your interest in addressing this problem. Francine and I look forward to your questions.