Public Safety committee  I have seen this in the past, actually. We have several high-profile inmates who sometimes are moved not just with our members but with members of our institutional emergency response team through the middle of the night. Things are kept quiet, and nobody seems to know. What has been told to me is that this secrecy is for the inmate's safety and for public safety, because if these types of things were to get out into the media there could be risks involved, and there very well could be.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely, I do. This is one of the biggest problems we face when it comes to the custody rating scale, as I mentioned in my opening statement. When the decision is made to ignore the empirical data—and I say “empirical” with quotation marks—in using that custody rating scale, and to override inmates who would normally be in a maximum- or a medium-security institution to go to a lower level of security, that overriding could have potential consequences for the public, just as it did in this case.

Public Safety committee  The quick answer is yes, absolutely. We hear that. Typically we are dealing with those types of things at the labour management tables, at the local level, the regional level or the national level. Mostly these types of moves are discussed at the regional level. We've asked for a review, in some cases, of the transfer, because our members have come forward with genuine security concerns.

Public Safety committee  Yes, it absolutely is. In some cases, there are reasons and rationale that's put behind that, but when we have inmates who are assaulting staff in a medium-security institution one week and then a few weeks later are being transferred to minimum, we have questions.

Public Safety committee  Judging by the credentials of my colleagues on the witness panel, they might have a better understanding of the custody rating scale, as parole officers or former parole officers. It's my understanding that the custody rating scale is done by the parole officer. The parole officer weighs several different factors.

Public Safety committee  The statements that were made are absolutely correct. As I highlighted in my opening comments, correctional officers are often not engaged in the case management team in making these decisions. As is a normal practice when you're transferring a high-profile inmate, there is a level of keeping your mouth shut that needs to happen.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, members of the committee, colleagues and witnesses here today. My name is Jeff Wilkins. I am the national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. I appreciate the invitation to speak with you today and, hopefully, help answer some very important questions you may have regarding the rights of victims of crime, security reclassification, and the transfer of offenders under the mandate of Correctional Service Canada.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. They did after they announced that they would be procuring vaccines for staff members in the institution. Since the beginning of the pandemic, what UCCO-SACC-CSN has been calling for is that once a vaccine was available, it should be offered in the institution for both the staff and the inmates because of our close-quarter working environments and the fact that we're a communal living facility.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. That's because the initial vaccine rollout was conducted by each of the provinces, and the provinces made their determinations based on the NACI guidelines, and they were different, of course, and rightly so. Health care providers need to be given priority, but we're also providing health care in the institutions, so it was very confusing to us that we weren't listed under that communal living category and made priority number one in the provinces.

Public Safety committee  In reviewing the correctional investigator's report, I noted it talks about inmate-on-inmate sexual violence. Of course, this is something that has happened throughout the history of time. I'm sure that growing up we have all seen memes like “don't drop the soap in the shower if you go to prison”.

Public Safety committee  We received a preliminary answer through the National Joint Council just last Tuesday that the government has done an extensive analysis on hazard pay for federal public servants. The answer is that, no, it will not be provided, which is incomprehensible to me. The provinces are being subsidized to have that recognition.

Public Safety committee  Just to be clear, Mr. Chair, are we speaking directly about SIUs, or just in general?

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. One of the biggest initiatives we saw over the past few years was the road to mental readiness training that came out. It was mandatory training for all staff at CSC. It is more of a preparedness for mental health and for recognizing the importance of mental health among staff and inmates.

Public Safety committee  One of the biggest things that has happened during the course of this pandemic has been staffing crises. We've had many outbreaks across the country. As I said in my opening comments, to date around 450 of our members have contracted COVID-19 in the course of this pandemic. We have a membership of only around 6,500 to 6,800 who report to work, so that represents a huge percentage.

Public Safety committee  I think that Canada in general, and of course the CSC, was highly unprepared for COVID-19. When it first struck our institutions—the first institution was Port-Cartier in the Quebec region—it spread like wildfire. We know that because of the proximity of the inmates and the staff to one another in those confined environments, as soon as the disease gets into the institution, it thrives.