As inmates have been relocated from a maximum-security jail near Oliver, The BC Government Employees Union says it is working closely with the B.C. government in relation to an evacuation alert there.
The 1,500-hectare Eagle Bluff fire has forced evacuation alerts for more than 250 properties including the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
“Our officers are already taxed because of staff shortages and the inability to hire new correctional officers, records amount of overtime they’re working. We’re a little concerned about their mental health and how taxing this will be on them. Like I said, we’re running short already,” vice president of Corrections and Sheriff Services Dean Purdy says.
“I’ve been getting briefed by the Corrections Branch management in Victoria on the situation, regularly been updated on the fire status and just much of a threat it could be to the maximum-security Okanagan Correctional Centre.”
Purdy says this isn’t the first time a maximum-security jail has been on alert.
“Eight to 10 years ago, the North Fraser Pre-Trail Centre was put on alert for a possible evacuation because of flooding, because they sit in the floodplain in the Lower Mainland. That never came to fruition, it didn’t happen.”
NL News has learned that nearly half of the more-than-300 inmates at the jail have already been transferred elsewhere. Purdy could not comment directly on any relocation of inmates, and a spokesperson with the Ministry of Public Safety has declined to comment further on the situation.
Purdy could only say Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre would be an option to relocate inmates from the OCC, along with the five other maximum security jails in B.C.