CONFLICTING BACK TO BACK STORIES REGARDING OUR PRISONS (CSC)

This is no April Fool's joke. On April 1 the Waterloo Region Record printed this story "Prison guard's training questioned". The overall article indicated that there was very little training or even basic understanding of respect for inmates as human beings. There was one sentence regarding the treatment of guards, workers etc. namely "Apparently social values around respect toward offenders have not been encouraged within CSC to the same extent as values of respect toward the organization and co-workers...".

The very next day the Record carrys this story "Prison workers face harassment:survey". It appears by the juxtaposition that both these stories are the result of the same survey done by Correctional Services Canada (CSC) last year. The survey was voluntary and quite frankly the second story seems to make a little more sense in regards to human behaviour. The first story suggests that CSC fosters an in-house positive environment with mutual respect by staff towards each other while there is little unanimity in basic human respect towards offenders. In the second story we get a very clear picture of a toxic work environment. It includes rudeness, harassment (sexual and otherwise) and discrimination. Under this atmosphere and nasty environment it is much easier to understand how staff including guards would be more likely to pass on these disrespectful attitudes towards inmates, who are clearly at the bottom of the status pile.

Some jobs are inherently more stressful than others. That being said it is incumbent upon senior management to set the tone and proper atmosphere within a workplace. Unfortunately this often turns out to be no more than lip service as problem behaviours are swept under the carpet. This is even more prevalent in workplaces where cronyism and favourtism are fluorishing. Clearly Correctional Service Canada have internal problems affecting both staff and inmates and under these conditions we can expect more human tragedies such as the Ashley Smith case.