'Systemic problems': Prison watchdog blasts Edmonton Institution

Three years after identifying "dysfunction" at the Edmonton Institution, Canada's prison watchdog is out with another bad review of the maximum-security facility.

Overpopulation, poor access to showers and staffing shortages were just some of the issues Dr. Ivan Zinger noted during a November 2021 visit to the facility on the northeast outskirts of the city.

"Some staff described the chain of command as 'broken.' The number of correctional officers on long-term leave was extremely concerning, indicative of a workplace in crisis," Zinger, Correctional Investigator of Canada, wrote in a recent annual report.

He also noted limited telephones and laundry facilities, a year-long waitlist for mental health services, no meaningful work opportunities and one video-visitation station for 258 prisoners.

“I wasn't necessarily surprised,” said Chris Hay, executive director of the John Howard Society of Alberta.

"99.99 per cent of people who go to jail are coming out..logically if you treat someone like an animal, they're going to come out like an animal."

The report also states that long-standing tensions and conflict between staff and management have resurfaced.

"We've been complaining about the situation that they described for several years now," said James Bloomfield with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

A big part of the problem, he believes, is a lack of stable leadership and divisions in the workplace.

"That will result in different treatment towards the inmates because if we're demoralized as a group, we are now in a much different place than we would be if we were treated appropriately and acting as a team together," Bloomfield claimed.

Despite his concerns, Zinger concluded his report on a somewhat hopeful note.

"Though the situation at the Edmonton institution is still far from ideal and the systemic problems brought forward are far from resolved, the collaboration and responsiveness of the commissioner in trying to address office findings and concerns is encouraging," he wrote.

CTV News Edmonton has reached out to Corrections Canada for comment on this story.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Joe Scarpelli