Updated:
At least 94 inmates at the Okanagan Correctional Centre near Oliver were evacuated when a wildfire was burning nearby in August, NL News has learned.
In government emails obtained by NL News through a Freedom of Information request, those inmates were transferred within 36 hours of the Eagle Bluff fire starting, which started late at night on August 4.
Of those 94 inmates, at least 49 were moved to the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre. The remaining were all moved to jails in the Lower Mainland, but it is unclear exactly where.
The Ministry of Public Safety deflected well over a dozen media requests at the time asking for details on if inmates were being moved.
In August, Liberal Kamloops-North MLA Peter Milobar said there would’ve been no harm in sharing that information publicly.
“In this case, because KRCC has seen a diminishing of numbers, as my understanding, since the (OCC) came open, there in all likelihood was the capacity to support 49 inmates to come in temporarily during a wildfire,” Milobar said at the time.
“The fact that the Ministry themselves will not issue a proper statement to make sure the public understands exactly what’s going on within in their own community, as it relates to Corrections, is usually – and in this case I would assume, given the Minister (was) not available for comment – is a direction straight from the Minister’s office to not say anything. That is not acceptable.”
When asked today, spokesperson for the Ministry Caroline McAndrews says giving that information in real time could put public safety at risk.
“If it was public that a convoy of vehicles was moving inmates (noting that there could be individuals with gang affiliation) from A to B there is potential for interference of any kind,” McAndrews says. She has not yet commented as to why that message was not stated to media at any point back in August.
The Eagle Bluff fire charred more than 2,600 hectares in the South Okanagan and, at one point, led to more than 250 properties being put on evacuation alert, including the OCC.
