FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 31, 2002

Riot underway at Millbrook: "Was only a matter of time," union says

MILLBROOK – A riot currently underway at an Ontario maximum-security facility was inevitable, says the union representing correctional officers.

As many as thirty-nine inmates at the Millbrook Correctional Centre, 25 kilometers southwest of Peterborough, have taken control of an entire unit including the control room. They are currently smashing cell windows in an attempt to gain access to the outside yard.

Tim Hannah, a correctional officer and president of OPSEU Local 341, says that corrections managers have been leaving the inmates unsupervised in their units.

"It was only a matter of time until something like this happened," Hannah said. "We’re locked out, and managers have left inmates in their day areas unsupervised for hours and hours at a time. We would be fired if we did the same thing."

Barry Scanlon, chair of the OPSEU Corrections Bargaining Team, said that this is the result when untrained, inexperienced managers are allowed inside correctional facilities.

"You can’t have unqualified managers inside a maximum-security institution and not expect some sort of major incident," Scanlon said. "The employer’s scheme to keep our members out of facilities during this strike could have tragic results."

On Mar. 30, OPSEU filed charges at the Ontario Labour Relations Board against 11 managers at the Maplehurst Complex in Milton. OPSEU claims that these managers have incited inmates against the striking members, resulting in death threats against essential service workers.

Unionized members of Millbrook’s Institutional Crisis Intervention Team (ICIT) have been called in, along with ICITs from Whitby Jail and Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Tim Hannah (705) 932-9341
Barry Scanlon (519) 820-6809