B.C.’s Public Safety Minister says he is working with the union representing correctional officers to try and curb violence happening in jails.

Mike Farnworth was asked about the issue after the B.C. Government Employees Union said there was a record 26 reported assaults on correctional staff at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre last year, saying that trend of violence is similar at all seven maximum-security jails in B.C.

“We are actually working with corrections, the BCGEU, to try and deal with some of these issues. Because we are as concerned about it as corrections officers,” Farnworth says.

“It is very much sitting down with the union to identify what the problems are. What are the issues, and how we can resolve them.”

Farnworth says the two sides recognize issues and he says some initiatives can be done in the short-term and others will take longer.