Public Safety committee  In the SIU, we know that there is still the reality that the mixture between inmates can't happen. They can't belong in the general population and there are reasons that they can't associate with one another. There's a lot of analysis done to make sure that inmates who are recreating with one another can do so.

Public Safety committee  I'm a little unsure as to what is meant by “population control”, to be frank. Of course, it is a population management strategy when we're talking about segregation, for the reasons that I have indicated already—for the protection of the inmate and the protection of others—but I'm not really sure that I understand what you're meaning there, Mrs.

Public Safety committee  I see solitary confinement and administrative segregation—or what was formerly administrative segregation—as two different things. Administrative segregation, for the majority of cases in the populations across the country, was at the behest or the request of the inmates. We have what's called “protective custody”, and a lot of the arrangements under the administrative segregation were for protective custody.

Public Safety committee  I said in my opening comments in our previous meeting that the Correctional Service of Canada and the work my members do are often overlooked by society. People don't think about what happens once somebody goes into an institution and is outside of regular society. COVID-19 has been detrimental to the way we have had to do business.

Public Safety committee  Thank you and good evening, Mr. Chair and the members of this committee. I'm Jeff Wilkins, the national president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. I'm going to focus my opening statement more on the first part of the what the committee is looking into, and that's the current situation in federal prisons in relation to the Correctional Service response to COVID-19, but I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have with regard to the structured intervention units or the reports of sexual coercion and violence in Canadian prisons.

Health committee  What we're seeing right now in some of the institutions is that many correctional officers who have healed are coming back to the workplace. I suggested in testimony that I believe the practice of bringing people back to work before their 14 days has stopped. When we looked at what has happened at Mission Institution, which has many different institutions in a very close proximity around that jail, and we looked at what has happened in Port-Cartier Institution, which is very secluded, we didn't see the same reaction from our employer.

Health committee  We're pretty well in lockdown for institutions that have cases of COVID, but in 40 other institutions across the country, we're not completely locked down. The inmates are still freely allowed to associate with one another in the courtyards for recreation purposes. We've managed to move most things to the unit level, with medication and food delivery to either the cell or the unit itself.

Health committee  Again, this comes down to local contingency plans. Quite often, those aren't shared with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, by the Correctional Service. We raised the same questions. I said in my opening statement, “What if?” We have all of these questions. We have a significant outbreak of COVID in Mission Institution.

Health committee  With regard to the supports we have in place in the institutions, of course we have the employee assistance program. If there are critical incidents, the critical incident stress management team is engaged; most of the time, these things can be deemed that. I think I set it off right off from the very beginning with my membership that mental health was something that we'd need to focus on now, and most particularly in the wake of this crisis.

Health committee  There are a lot of pressures coming from a lot of different outside agencies for the release of inmates, but it doesn't solve our problem. The need to protect in place is there. It's not like we can open the doors and let every inmate out. I know that they're looking at inmates who are very close to their parole eligibility or in fact are eligible for day parole, and inmates who pose less significant risk, but it's not going to solve the problem when the virus enters the institutions.

Health committee  That was a challenge we faced early in the COVID response with the Treasury Board of Canada. Originally, if somebody was symptomatic before going to work and called the institution, they were going to have to use their own sick leave. Of course, we're in allergy season. We're in flu season.

Health committee  Of course, this concern was raised to us from Mission Institution. Mission Institution has a very high rate of inmates who are infected now. As of today, I believe it's 64 inmates and nine staff, and one other staff member besides the correctional officers. Again, it came down to the contact tracing.

Health committee  First I'll address the question about personal protective equipment. We have not been given any indication by Correctional Services that there is a lack of personal protective equipment. Our questions are often about where it is going to be used. When I spoke about the planning in my opening comments and the contingencies in all of these things that need to be discussed at the local level, those have to do with what's going to happen when the virus comes.

Health committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the committee and witnesses on the panel. I'm joined by Éric Thibault, who is the national vice president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. We both would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I'd like to begin by expressing condolences on behalf of UCCO-SACC-CSN to all members of the RCMP family for the tragic loss of Heidi Stevenson.