Remand centre overcrowded, union says

The Calgary Remand Centre is dangerously overcrowded and that has led to assaults and other problems, the union representing the guards says.

Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, says there are regularly 500 inmates in a facility designed to hold 350. That means single cells are housing two and sometimes three people.

And MacLennan says the staffing levels have remained the same, even though there are more than 100 additional people to guard.

"When you don't have the staff in place, certainly it causes a lot more stress," he said. "The whole double-bunking of inmates, where they're crowded into cells, more than one per cell, sometimes actually three. It increases naturally the tension level within the institution.

"We expect unless something's done, it will get worse."

MacLennan says the problem – as well as overcrowding in Edmonton and Peace River – wil be discussed at a union convention this week.