Guards refuse to work in the new day room at the Burnside jail; prisoners have been on lockdown since the weekend

On Sunday (August 19), the Examiner published一份声明囚犯在伯恩队监狱概述了监狱的条件并提出了10个需求。杰森麦克莱恩，纳吉总统和惩教人员回应here。

The protest is in part sparked by the move to thedirect supervision model。职员和囚犯都表示，新的一天房间的变化已经混乱，即支持该举措的情况很少，并且尚未满足员工和囚犯的许多承诺。

这些条件导致了劳动力行动，员工，无法听到他们的收音机，拒绝在新的日间工作。由于人员配置的问题，由于至少周末，囚犯每天被锁定在23小时内。

In an interview with the Halifax Examiner, a prisoner in the jail describes the months-long process of creating the direct supervision range. In the planning stages, there were meetings which involved prisoners, guards, and corrections staff. At that point the prisoners felt like they were being given a voice, and their demands were being met:

Many of our basic demands — fitness equipment on the range, healthier canteen options, shoes, and others — were raised in committee and promised us by corrections staff. Offender committees were set up for West 2 and West 4, ranges that would be united in the new direct supervision range. The guards were resistant to the idea of direct supervision, and the inmates were very resistant. They decided to set up committees to figure out how West 2 and West 4 could live in harmony, and how we could live together with the guards in harmony. This is where all these requests for better living conditions came from, from the committees.

They let us know we’d have microwaves, coffee makers with real coffee, access to things like that right there on the range. We had meetings that went very well, with the chaplain and about four captains. They were telling us they were thrilled with how well we expressed our concerns, and that West 2 and 4 were promising they would be able to get along. They were very happy about the feedback we were giving them about issues with staff. Everything’s on a very positive note.

然后，突然间，他们延误了[开业]直接监督的日期，委员会会议停止了。随着日期越来越近，人们开始寻求会议。不是委员会会议的一件事，并在我们转移之前答应落实这些事情，以建立他们的信誉。

Then, the date to move over here came, and there was absolutely nothing done. Not a single thing that they promised us was implemented. In fact, there’s less equipment to work out with than there was on our old range. And now, we’re in a lockdown, because staff refuse to work.

The demands in the statement reflect promises made but left unfulfilled after the move.

The move to the new ranges also caused problems for staff and led to work refusals that the prisoners allege were well-known beforehand. The prisoner told the Examiner:

In the committee meetings, they said, “This is great. We want your guys’ input, we want you to be happy over there, we want this to run as smoothly as possible.”

So, they promise us things like a coffee maker, microwave, treadmill, stationary bike, a bunch of other fitness equipment, and six program officers on at all time, so we’d have a multitude of programs, including fitness programs, and extra gyms. And there’s supposed to be another air court, with good quality fitness gear outside.

When they move us over here, the range is just finished, there’s not one single piece of fitness equipment on it of any type. The officers are all refusing to work on [the range]; they’ll only work on it one to two hours a day. They say they’re scared, they didn’t install the noise-killing things, so it’s too loud, and they’re scared by how many inmates are on here.

惩教机构知道过去几个月将有工作拒绝。They’re doing refusals to work right on the range, and even though we’re the same number of us as before, and there’s actually more guards on than when we were on the other side, because there’s not two guards on our range, the only difference is that this range is bigger. They won’t let us out. So, we’re locked down 23 hours a day, because they’re doing work refusal to the new policy, which [Corrections officials] knew they were going to do.

罪犯委员会会议,他们说planned to implement all the things we asked for, which were better food, healthy canteen, healthy [meal] options, better fitness equipment, more access to gyms, and so on. Everything they promised to implement hasn’t been done. There’s no sign that they’re going to do any of it. No talk about doing any of it. We haven’t seen one program officer yet, if there are any. The staff are refusing to work.

The prisoners also allege that there are attempts to stoke tensions on the ranges by housing incompatibles together:

Now, they came and put a sign up on the wall, saying that if there’s any fights, your unit will be handled as a lockdown unit, and will be locked down all the time with small rotation and will be run exactly like the federal Special Handling Unit where they put the most violent prisoners in Canada. That’s how they’re planning to run this if there are fights.

Now, in order to make sure there are fights: they’re guys who’ve checked into protective custody, who are rats, who are living three by three on their own with no fights. These guys are known rats; they’ve been in fights with guys already on this range, and they’re not supposed be put on this range. They’re clearly trying to start fights, by bringing these guys in here, to get justification to put this range on permanent lockdown.

Supposedly, these guys [the staff] are going to protest for the next month that they don’t want to work on a direct supervision range. We’ll be on 23-hour lockdown while they do that.

Prisoners also have questions about the cost of the renovations, and whether that money is reflected in the actual conditions on the ranges. Allegations include toilets that don’t flush, and cells with no running water:

我们听说翻新成本1100万美元[注意：他们似乎有成本680万美元。] Having been on this [direct supervision] range and the old one, I can tell you what’s been done. There was a wall in the middle of the range, separating two ranges; that’s been taken down. A half wall by the stairs is still there. The range floor has been painted with grip paint. The cell doors and walls have been painted. There’s two newer TVs and a desk made of brick for the guards in the front. They added new reflective covering over the front windows. The leaky windows in the cells, the crappy lights, the same mirrors, the same toilets – they didn’t fix the plumbing.

In a bunch of cells, there’s no water and the toilets don’t flush, cause they didn’t fix the plumbing. And that’s where we are, 23 hours a day, for the next month. Having worked in construction, I bet the work they’ve done here would have cost $30,000.

基本上，他们把它放了一层涂料，撕下一堵砖墙，做了一些其他的变化，就是这样。而且这花了1100万美元。他们扔掉了钢顶桌子，并带来了不锈钢顶部桌子，这是一种浪费，因为它们可以在钢桌上放置不锈钢顶部。

这样做的压力来自顶部。警卫不想在这个直接的监督范围内工作。到目前为止，更正没有保留一个承诺。我们在这里绝对没有任何东西。我们甚至没有进入院子，这是我们的权利：我们已经在院子里两次。没有健身器材。我们甚至没有干净的衣服;没有干净的毛巾或床单。

We’ve been silently doing nothing, not even swearing at the guards, so that there’s no excuse to lock us down. But we’re stuck in lockdown 23 hours a day anyway, because of their work refusal.

The Department of Justice has回应囚犯的发言。The Department claims that the jail is “running as usual,” which contradicts reports by the prisoners — confirmed in theinterview with Jason MacLean— that they have been locked down for 23 hours a day during a labour action.

While the Department of Justice has asserted that demands about programs, healthy food, and other conditions are already being met, direct prisoner accounts of the current conditions inside Burnside provide a different narrative.

囚犯继续强调他们是和平的，他们无意造成中断或任何暴力，他们的要求是合理的，并代表他们被告知的事情。

The Department of Justice has not responded to any reports of staffing problems in the jail or of a lockdown. So far, there have been no statements from Justice Minister Mark Furey commenting on the protest, or the conditions that prisoners are alleging. We will print any statements they provide.