Corrections union says rampant drugs in Atlantic institutions have caused two inmate deaths

The regional president of the union representing Canadian correctional officers in the Atlantic region says officers are at their ‘wits’ end’ when it comes to the number of drugs, overdoses and violent incidents in federal institutions.

Rene Howe is a regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. CTV Atlantic last spoke with him about these issues in March. He hoped that his words would help bring about positive changes. Instead, he said the situation has worsened.

“These institutions are getting to the point that they are no longer safe to work in, point blank,” Howe said.

Howe said he believes two recent deaths, one in Springhill and the other in Dorchester, were the result of overdoses

“The kind of drugs that are coming into the institutions is anything that you can think of,” he said. “There’s fentanyl, marijuana, there's hash, there's cocaine, there's whatever that you can think of.”

Corrections Services of Canada (CSC) would not confirm the deaths were caused by overdoses in its statement but did say the inmates died of unnatural causes. Police and provincial coroner services are investigating further.

The Nova Scotia department of justice said it doesn’t release causes of death publicly because they’re considered confidential medical information.

Howe shared statistics he’s gathered from the five federal institutions in the Atlantic region.

Since June:

• 85 threats against officers
• 8 officers assaulted
• over 90 weapons removed from cells
• 10 drone sightings by officers

Howe said overdoses are occurring weekly, if not daily.

“There's an inherent risk that we all accept as correctional officers. However, the accountability from inmates right there now is very low,” Howe said. “There's no accountability for their actions whatsoever and the amount of violence in the institutions has escalated, as I said, to a point that we're really at our wit’s end.”

In a statement earlier this year, CSC did acknowledge there are issues that require ongoing attention, but actions to improve those issues have been “undermined by the introduction of unauthorized materials.”