New lawsuit, alleging abuse by a former corrections officer, claims B.C. jails need "systemic fix"
Credit to Author: Dan Fumano| Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2019 21:55:24 +0000
A new lawsuit against a former jail guard, alleging he sexually abused more than 200 young inmates over his career, claims there are longtime problems with B.C.’s prison system that have damaged prisoners who are then released back into society.
“The corrections branch has been broken for more than four decades and a systemic fix is required,” says the representative action lawsuit filed on behalf of 61 men against former guard Roderic David MacDougall and his employer, the province of B.C.
The lawsuit, which must be certified by a judge, alleges the B.C. government’s “long-term, systemic misconduct” enabled hundreds of jailhouse sex assaults of prisoners by MacDougall during his career from 1976 to 1997. Neither defendant has filed a response to the suit, but the province denied any wrongdoing in earlier related lawsuits. And MacDougall, who was criminally convicted in 2000 of sexually assaulting five former prisoners, has maintained his innocence.
Saturday: A jail guard, the government and 200 inmates
Monday: A failure to improve oversight
Tuesday: Life sentences of shame and fear
Wednesday: A long road through the courts
Irene Peterson, an Abbotsford counsellor who has worked with hundreds of former inmates, including dozens of men who allege abuse by MacDougall, said all British Columbians should care about how prisoners are treated behind bars: There is a cost to society if young inmates are coming out of jail more damaged, traumatized, addicted and angry than when they went in.
“Because where do these problems go? The paramedics, the police … the ambulance, then the ER,” Peterson said. “It’s not an excuse, but we just need to understand the human condition.”
Postmedia analyzed hundreds of pages of court documents, including lawsuits, judges’ rulings, testimony transcripts and expert reports, to piece together the little-known allegations against MacDougall, who has been named in about 200 civil cases filed by former inmates who alleged they were sexually abused at Oakalla, Alouette and other B.C. jails.
Roderic MacDougall
About half of the civil suits are now completed, resulting in payouts, private settlements or, in a few cases, dismissals. The other half remain ensnared in a long, complicated legal process that has pitted the plaintiffs against the legal weight of the provincial government, which is a co-respondent in most of the remaining cases.
Postmedia also interviewed experts who chronicled 40 years of efforts to improve oversight in B.C.’s corrections system, including the 1978 Proudfoot inquiry and last year’s ombudsperson’s report, which criticized the province for delaying the implementation of external inspections in jails.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Patricia Proudfoot conducted a royal commission of inquiry in 1978, following reports of sexual misconduct among male guards and female inmates at Oakalla.
In her final report, Proudfoot wrote that the Commission was “disturbed” by evidence that emerged on the relationship between the division of inspection and standards — the body within B.C. Corrections responsible for oversight in provincial jails — and management at Oakalla prison and the Vancouver region of Corrections.
“Obvious conflicts of interest are readily apparent,” she wrote, calling for more external, independent inspections in B.C. jails.
Justice Patricia Proudfoot listens to a lawyer speak at the inquiry she was conducting in 1978 into abuse at Oakalla prison.
Fast forward to 2018, when B.C. ombudsperson Jay Chalke issued a report criticizing the government for failing to act on a key recommendation to bring B.C. in line with the international standards for the treatment of prisoners: independent inspections.
Chalke told Postmedia he was disappointed the province missed its own March 2018 deadline to implement portions of the Nelson Mandela rules that expand traditional internal inspections to also include an external body, such as a human rights organization, to conduct random inspections.
He said B.C. inmates have options to seek help, such as through the government’s internal inspections office, the ombudsperson’s office, the court system, and the coroner’s office. But it’s important to add external oversight to assure the public “that places that most of us don’t get to go to, because they are behind locked walls, are acting in a manner that reflects Canadian values.”
This recommendation originated in a 2016 report from Chalke, which revealed that the province failed to conduct any periodic internal inspections of correctional centres, which are legally required, for more than a decade, beginning in 2001. When a regular inspection system was finally implemented in 2012, the ombudsperson’s report said, its lack of independent oversight meant it did not meet the international minimum standards for the treatment of inmates.
Ombudsperson Jay Chalke in Victoria in 2017.
Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth, who was not available for an interview, provided a statement that said his ministry would comply with Chalke’s recommendation and was “very close” to implementing the Mandela rules. He also said that after the release of the 2016 ombudsperson’s report, B.C. Corrections added an independent person to its inspections team — which Chalke had recommended as an interim measure.
In the past six years, B.C. Corrections has done more than 100 inspections, leading to 767 recommendations, but none that “highlighted any imminent safety or security concerns,” Farnworth’s statement said. He added other agencies, such as WorkSafeBC and the federal government’s immigration detention monitoring program, also check on B.C. jails.
But new lawsuits against a second former correctional officer allege problems existed in at least one other B.C. jail.
In civil suits filed last month, three men allege that they were abused by former jail guard Christian Hauer between 2003 and 2011, when they ranged in age from 13 to 17, in the Victoria youth custody centre.
In an email to Postmedia, Hauer, who retired from corrections in 2011, strongly maintained his innocence. The province, listed as a co-defendant in the Hauer case, would not discuss the allegations as they are before the courts. Neither side has filed a statement of defence.
When the B.C. NDP formed government in 2017, the legal-aid clinic Prisoners’ Legal Services sent a letter to Farnworth and other ministers outlining a list of recommendations for correctional reforms, including increasing the independence of the province’s investigations office.
The clinic’s executive director, Jennifer Metcalfe, said she understood the province was “working on implementing reforms to correctional practices,” including increasing procedural fairness for prisoners, “but at this time the concerns we raised in this letter remain.”
Her office continues to hear from inmates who allege they are sexually abused inside jails, and she is calling for “more independent external oversight of B.C. Corrections,” and more transparency of reporting misconduct inside jail.
Dean Purdy of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union.
The workplace safety of corrections staff was the subject of a protest earlier this month, where the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union said assaults on jail staff have been rising in recent years, reaching an “all-time high” last year.
“On top of the assaults on our correctional officers, there’s additional violence our officers regularly witness including overdoses, suicides by hanging and slashings, assaults on other inmates with homemade weapons, jumpers (and) riots,” said Dean Purdy, BCGEU vice-president of corrections services.
Former jail guard Robert Prins, who worked alongside MacDougall at Oakalla in the 1970s and ’80s, agrees with the need for change, including independent oversight.
“I am in regular contact with people who are still involved in the corrections system,” said Prins, who worked as a guard for 15 years. “My assessment from what I hear … is that if anything, the situation is worse — for staff and for inmates — than it was 30 years ago.”
With research from Postmedia librarian Carolyn Soltau.