(Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Corrections

Incident at Prince Albert men’s jail prompts fire and police response

Jan 4, 2021 | 10:26 PM

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:30a.m. to include an update from Parkland Ambulance

An incident at the men’s jail in Prince Albert Monday, required the assistance of both the Prince Albert Police Service and the Prince Albert Fire Dept.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Corrections and Policing, told paNOW they would provide a statement on Tuesday.

But speaking on the condition of anonymity, a source close to the incident told paNOW of a very chaotic scene that started when the inmates breached the staff office in the gang range.

Helping hand

Salvation Army seeking bell ringers for annual Christmas Kettle Campaign

2h ago

Health

First Canadian case of more severe mpox strain confirmed in Manitoba

6h ago

Mail

Canada Post reports $315M Q3 loss, compared with $290M loss a year earlier

Nov 22, 2024

“The inmates broke the windows in the cells to the outside as well. They lit fires which rose in the ventilation system and had top tier inmates trapped inside smoke filled cells for hours,” the source said.

While Parkland Ambulance has confirmed they did attend and that no patients were transported to hospital by ambulance, paNOW has been told at least one staff member was injured after the glass shattered in her face. According to the source, the incident was gang related and explained staff couldn’t get onto the unit to let out the inmates trapped in cells in the upper tier for at least two hours.

The incident at the jail marks the second of its kind in less than four months. The source explained staff are scared and feel upper management does nothing to prevent the incidents from escalating.

“During the yard breach a couple of months ago, staff were being threatened personally and the guys who were leading the riot told staff that was just a practice,” the source said.

“Staff is consistently put in positions of danger.”

Another staff member also reached out to paNOW and explained there’s been multiple staff assaults, riots, and even a staff hostage taking in the past year and even months.

“It’s been chaos not including the secrecy surrounding all the covid 19 cases amongst staff and inmates. Management bullies staff into keeping quiet and altering reports so that they can lower their statistics on paper. Jail has always been unsafe but it’s never been this bad before,” the employee stated.

Police set up a perimeter around the men’s jail late Monday afternoon. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell