MLAs question Burnside jail incidents
Posted Apr 20, 2010 02:57:09 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Five lock downs at the Burnside jail in the last month have the justice minister dodging political bullets.
Since March 30 there have been five incidents at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility including two since the weekend.
Liberal Michel Samson was just one of the justice critics demanding to know why details were not made public, one of which included the death of an inmate.
“They have great concerns as to what led to the death of this inmate so my final supplementary to the Minister of Justice: Will the minister commit to providing us the exact details surrounding this,” asked Samson during Question Period Tuesday afternoon.
Justice Minister Ross Landry says it’s standard operation to lock the jail down when there is a security risk.
“There’s no foul play suspected in that matter,” says Landry. “It’s routine for the police to investigate any time that there’s a death in one of our institutions, that investigations is going on.”
Meanwhile, reports state inmates were in their cells because guards lack appropriate safety gear, training and staffing levels.
