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| Canadian Report: Female Staff Targeted in Prison |
| By National Post |
| Published: 08/18/2003 |
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Female penitentiary staff were sexually assaulted in almost a third of the 33 hostage takings and forcible confinements at federal prisons in the 1990s, a new Correctional Service Canada report reveals in a chilling snapshot of the incidents. The attacks can cause 'enormous' psychological and physical harm to the victims, who have included administrative employees, officers, psychologists and even a librarian, the report said. Some of the offenders stalked, wrote letters to or demonstrated infatuations toward their female targets beforehand, but there were few other obvious signs that they were about to strike, the study found. The official strategy for ending hostage takings now is to stall and negotiate. But the discovery that many of the culprits are sex offenders who attack their victims sexually puts that approach in question, the report said. 'The current procedure ... would inadvertently provide a greater opportunity for the hostage taker to sexually assault the hostage.' One female officer said in an interview this week that the threat of being taken captive is always on her mind. The officer, who asked not to be named, said the relationship between female staff and male offenders is a growing issue in federal prisons. A larger proportion of female officers are coming into the system and they have been trained to take a more 'nurturing,' less punitive approach to inmates, something the convicts can misinterpret, she said. Sylvain Martel, president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said hostage takings often lead to the traumatized victims taking months off work. But he alleged that warnings about possible incidents are not always heeded by managers and that support for the victim is sometimes lacking. The authors of the hostage-taking study could not be reached for comment. The study looked at internal reports on 33 hostage takings and forcible confinements across Canada from the end of 1989 to the end of 2000. Women accounted for 30 of the 46 victims. They included three administrative staff, six officers, eight parole officers, three inmates, three nurses, three teachers, three psychologists, six non-corrections employees and a librarian. Women employees were sexually assaulted in 10 of the cases, according to the study. Most of the hostage takers were under 30, most of those who committed sexual assaults on their hostages were sex offenders and all were serving time for violent crimes. In three-quarters of cases, the prisoner took someone hostage or forcibly confined them as a means to an end, usually a transfer to a different institution. Another 22% had sexual motives, while a few wanted publicity or lashed out from 'frustration,' the report said. |
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