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EDITORIAL: Prison policy ignores risks

Review, changes required to ensure public safety stays top priority.

B.C. Corrections must take a closer look at its policy for prisoner-to-guard ratios when inmates are on escorted leave from a correctional facility.

Last week’s escape by a Nanaimo Regional Correctional Centre inmate while attending a treatment meeting away from the prison brought to light the woefully inadequate supervision policy.

A lone guard was responsible for a handful of prisoners in a building with at least two exits.

The inmate, serving time for property-related offences, made good his escape and was still on the loose at press time. He is considered dangerous by Nanaimo RCMP and is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.

He is one of several inmates who have walked away from the centre’s escorted leaves over the years.

Thankfully, the majority of escaped prisoners are arrested soon after, usually close by and without incident.

But who knows what lengths an inmate might go to if he decides he has had enough of incarceration? Nanaimo Correctional Centre is a minimum security prison, but it takes only one determined prisoner to put both the guard and the public at risk.

Having two guards supervising prisoners on escorted leave would mean better security and peace of mind for the community. That policy is already in effect for sheriffs transporting prisoners – people who, for the most part, have not yet been found guilty – between jail cells and the courts.

There might be an outcry by some over the cost of providing extra security for escorted inmates, but just because past escapes haven’t led to tragedy, doesn’t mean another won’t.

And if it does happen, that cost would definitely be too high.