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120 YEARS YOUR COMMUNITY
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1891-2011
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T H U R S D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 1
Guards protest B.C. prison conditions
■ T HIRTY - FOUR Y EARS
IN
E DUCATION
Overcrowding poses risk, says criminology professor Tom Fletcher Black Press B.C. needs 150 more provincial prison guards to protect against a rising number of assaults in crowded jails with many more mentally ill inmates, according to a report commissioned by their union. The B.C. Government Employees Union hired Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd to survey conditions in B.C. jails, where “double-bunking” since 2002 has doubled the guard to inmate ratio to 40 to one. At North Fraser Pretrial in Port Coquitlam, where Neil Boyd prisoners await trial, the ratio is 60 inmates per guard. Boyd said so far this year there have been 29 reports of assaults on North Fraser guards, and there have also been sharp increases in assaults at other secure facilities around the province. According to the survey of 200 guards at B.C. facilities this spring and summer, in the past year two thirds received a credible threat of harm from an inmate. Almost 40 per cent had been hit by feces, urine, vomit or spit, and more than one in four had been physically assaulted by an inmate. Boyd said the majority of prison violence is between inmates. But with more gangaffiliated inmates in B.C. and about one in four having a mental disorder, guards are increasingly in danger themselves as they break up fights or respond to serious injuries, suicides and homicides. Dean Purdy, a union official and supervisor at Vancouver Island Correctional Centre, said there have been 83 assaults on guards since the facility was doublebunked in 2003.
Sardis secondary principal, Bob Long, seen here with daughter Stephanie Tizzard, one-year-old grandson Cooper, and wife Cynthia (left), laughs as colleagues Greg See and Helen Plummer crack jokes during Long’s retirement social at the school on Tuesday. Long is retiring after 34 years of teaching. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
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DPAC vice-president steps down Katie Bartel The Progress Chilliwack’s most vocal parent advocate is backing away from the school district. After losing her bid for school trustee, Kirsten Brandreth resigned as vice president of the Chilliwack District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) this week. Brandreth was disappointed with the election outcome and felt her time in the district had come to an end. “I just cannot sit there for
another three years and watch ineffective trustees,” said Brandreth. With five incumbent trustees re-elected, one former trustee elected, and one newcomer, Brandreth doesn’t hold hope for change. “I thought we were ready for a change, and I knew I was ready for a new challenge,” she said. “But the people thought otherwise.” Brandreth earned 1,705 votes, and came in 10th out of 24 candidates. “I have been so heavily
involved and have dedicated so many of my own personal hours to this district, and for what, no change basically,” she said. For more than 16 years, Brandreth, a mother of two, has been supporting public education. She’s volunteered in several capacities at schools, has sat on numerous committees, was an active member on Promontory elementary’s PAC for six years, before advancing to DPAC, where she sat for the past nine years – four of which were as president. For more than four years,
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she has rarely missed a board meeting, and rarely did she stay silent at those board meetings. She gave trustees and district staff praise where she felt it was due, but also did not shy away from voicing concerns. Brandreth came under fire last year after opposing a move by the board to rename winter vacation on all district documents to Christmas holidays. She said it was insensitive to students in the district who didn’t practice Christianity.
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