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| Inmates Sentenced for Pancake Riot |
| By The Globe and Mail |
| Published: 12/19/2005 |
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The first sign that Jan. 3, 2005, was going to be a day unlike any other at Canada's Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre came when an envelope containing human feces was left on an officer's desk. Before the morning was out, the three officers in the KRCC living unit, which housed 23 inmates, would be barricaded inside an office, stuffing wet paper towels under the door, while a fire raged just outside the room and the air was filled with the din of a riot that -- according to inmates -- was started over the size of the breakfast pancakes. The madness of the riot, which occurred when the prison was lightly staffed on the holiday Monday after New Year's, was revisited in a written judgment released yesterday by Madam Justice Daphne Smith of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In the first trial stemming from the riot, Judge Smith sentenced four inmates -- James Allen Anderson, Robert Aaron Archibald, Anthony Nathaniel Brown and Eric Shimout Gilbert -- to prison terms ranging from seven to 13 months for causing mischief over $5,000 and taking part in a riot. Last February, Todd Stephens, one of the ringleaders, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. In total, 13 inmates have been charged. While the Criminal Code defines what happened as "mischief," Judge Smith's judgment makes it clear that it was really mayhem with malicious intent -- and the officers were lucky to get out alive. She stated that the riot began after prisoners were given small pancakes for a combined breakfast/lunch when they had expected waffles. One of the officials had more pancakes delivered but that didn't help. "For his efforts, he was yelled at and told that the food cart would be held hostage until the inmates' demands were met," Judge Smith stated. Officers testified about the growing tension that day, which started with the envelope being left on a desk and escalated until a prisoner threw a kettle against a wall next to an officer. "This act marked the leadership's decision to destroy the unit," Judge Smith stated. Within moments, the unit was engulfed in riot, with officers Richard Salituro, Kevin Batter and Gilles Morin locking themselves in a staff office. "During the ensuing rampage, inmates started a fire in front of the staff office. They fuelled the fire with pieces of property they had ripped apart and from loose items of property taken from their cells. About six inches of water from the overhead sprinklers rained down into the unit. Black smoke billowing from the fire covered the area. Eventually, the smoke obscured all vision from the surveillance cameras. . . ." It took an hour for the emergency response team to reclaim control and during that time prisoners frantically tried to break down the office door. "Through the office Plexiglas window the officers observed several inmates kicking and throwing objects at the office window . . ." the judge wrote. "Four-by-fours, chairs, pieces of the tables that had been ripped apart, and other loose debris were thrown at the office," Judge Smith continued. "Inmates threw themselves kicking at the window. The staffing station just outside the office was destroyed. The staff desk was pulled over and torn apart, along with the computer monitor and the tower for the computer. The latter item was used as a battering ram against the office door. "Inside, the officers could feel the vibrations from the objects as they hit the window. . . . "Elsewhere in the unit the inmates smashed and ripped apart the microwave, the refrigerator, the phones, one of the surveillance cameras, and all of the tables and chairs. During the chaos, inmates issued death threats and threats to smoke out the officers locked inside the office. Fearful for their lives, the officers retreated further into a small windowless bathroom adjoining the office. They took with them a fire extinguisher and barricaded themselves inside the tiny bathroom by propping a chair against the door. While inside the bathroom they could not see what was happening in the unit but could hear the crackling of the fire and could smell the smoke. . . . "Acting out of self-preservation, the officers soaked paper towels with water which they stuffed under the office door. . . . They described the noise of the riot from inside the bathroom as deafening." Judge Smith said the officers, later rescued uninjured, might have been killed had the door given way. KRCC is a remand-and-sentence facility for adults in Canada. |
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