No Excuses

What the devil is going on down at the Justice Department?

The mistaken release of a prisoner from custody is something that hooks your ear when you hear it on the news. More than once gives you pause, several times leaves people scratching their heads and wondering what the problem is. But hold on to your hats - in Nova Scotia, we're at a whopping ELEVEN mistaken releases!

To make matters worse, these inmates haven't been shoplifters who go back to Mom & Dad's house to wait for the Sheriff to come collect them; while I can't speak to every charge and every criminal, several have been dangerous offenders up on weapons charges, assault, robbery, and even attempted murder.

The government's damage control started shortly after the rash of releases and escapes caught the eye of the provincial media, as was to be expected. But, unfortunately, this problem has reached a point where explanations no longer suffice and action is necessary to ensure the public's confidence and, more importantly, safety.

I don't get paid six figures to fix this problem like the folks at Justice, so I won't even try to analyze the logistics involved in ensuring a functioning chain of custody. I can, however, shed some light on the situation as a whole.

During my time in Nunavut, I was a correctional officer at the prison in Iqaluit. Much of my work, in addition to supervision of inmates within the prison building itself, involved escorts to and from court dates and hospital visits.

Even in the relatively primitive North, there were strict procedures in place to ensure prisoners were safely and securely transported between the institution and an outside location. We knew days in advance when an inmate was to leave, and could even speculate most of the time whether or not that inmate would be returning. It really wasn't that complicated.

Escorts, to court especially, required the involvement (or at least the acknowledgment and approval) of many Corrections and Justice departments staff: the warden, deputy warden, prisoner liaison officers, control officer, on-duty corrections staff (including shift supervisor, staff on the floor, and the guards doing the escort), staff from the Sheriff's office, court officers, clerical staff, and often police officers. By my count, that's at least a dozen people who are responsible for the comings and goings of a prisoner to court.

And not only are these the folks who are technically responsible for the transport; the aforementioned people, especially prison staff, as dictated by the nature of their job, must employ common sense when dealing with moving a dangerous person from one location to the next. If the inmate is remanded for robbery charges, common sense will tell you that a routine court appearance doesn't mean a release from custody. Unless you hear the judge drop all charges, issue a formal apology, and kiss the inmate goodbye, you double, triple, and quadruple check before removing those cuffs.

Then we have this business of not realizing the error until days after the release. Paperwork, schmaperwork - when Joe Blow leaves for a day in court, there are (or at least, there should be) dozens of people expecting him back. The end-day reports to the warden/deputy warden have to account for every inmate. How could it take six whole days for an entire department to realize they were missing someone who had already been found guilty of a serious crime? What, did the justice fairies come to court and give him a "get out of jail free" card? No, it doesn't work that way.

Granted, I'm no expert on Nova Scotia corrections procedures; my knowledge is of the way things were done in Nunavut in 2001-2003, and this province might be completely different in their methods. But, if anything, I would expect Nova Scotia to be even more thorough and effective than Nunavut, and my broad description is only meant to give a general idea of how many people are involved in these situations.

When an organization fails at multiple levels, it's generally accepted that the boss is to blame, and this is no exception. Incidents may have been chalked up to clerical errors and such, but the number of incidents in the past two years, since they were caused more by a faulty system than a careless individual, have to be looked at as a managerial failure. Had you asked me last week, I'd have said Cecil Clarke should offer his resignation; but he already tried, and Premier MacDonald would not accept it. In light of this, one might say that perhaps the resignation should come at level even higher than the Justice Minister. Surely someone can figure out how to keep criminals in jail.