Cell setup at a correctional centre. MBC file photo.
Several people are injured and upwards of $100,000 in damages have been inflicted at the Regina Correctional Centre after a Thursday night “disturbance,” the province says.
So far, officials confirm the injured include one inmate, who was taken to hospital, and one staff member. They add that four inmates were transferred after the emergency response team was brought in.
The cause of the riot has yet to be revealed, and the RCMP has opened an investigation into the matter.
The events took place in a security threat group unit, and there’s no word on how many people were in the area at the time.
While no one from the Ministry of Justice was available for comment on Friday afternoon, the Correctional Services Canada provides some insight into what a security threat group is, saying it is a “formal or informal ongoing inmate/offender group, gang, organization or association consisting of three or more members.”
This mostly consists of a variety of gangs, and “affiliation to security threat groups is considered a significant risk, poses a serious threat to the safety and security of the Correctional Service of Canada’s operations and compromises the protection of society.”
Federally, CSC monitors affiliates of security threat groups in order to manage them and keep them “from exercising influence and power and to prevent actions and circumstances that enhance their image and prestige.”
An e-mail form the province states “the primary concern at any of the province’s correctional facilities is the safety and security of staff, inmates, and the facility itself. The Ministry takes all issues that arise at our correctional facilities very seriously.”
This news comes at the end of a week that’s been plagued with inmate violence across Saskatchewan. On Wednesday, two inmates at the Prince Albert Penitentiary died and one man has since been charged with murder in relation to the second death.