Gang members separated to curb violence in Stony Mountain prison

A Manitoba prison has moved to better control violence by separating inmates by gang affiliation.

Six gangs at Stony Mountain Institution are now kept completely separate from each other, which has helped prison guards curb inmate violence. The move follows a riot at the facility in January.

Under the new strategy, rival gang members no longer live, exercise, work or sleep on the same range together. Members of the same gangs are kept together in their own areas.

Kevin Grabowsky, regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Workers, said his union has been lobbying for the changes at Stony Mountain for almost a decade. According to Grabowsky, it's now easier to move the inmates within the facility, and violence has gone down.

"Rather than try to run a population as big as Stony Mountain's all at one time, especially in the evenings, where we have the majority of our problem, they are in smaller more controllable sections," he said.

Stony Mountain is one of the last prisons in Western Canada to move to a segregated population, and the move was long overdue, Grabowsky said.

Calls by CBC News to Correctional Service Canada, which manages the federal prison, for comment were not immediately returned.

Mike Sutherland, president of the Winnipeg Police Association, disagrees with the segregation. Keeping gang members together lessens their chances of rehabilitation, he said.

"You're already with those people when you're on the street and now, when you go into custody, again it reinforces that [bond]. I can't see how you're ever going to break that gang tie if your continued association and investment is always subject to your gang contact," he said.

The prison, 25 kilometres north of Winnipeg, was in lockdown for several days after a January riot that involved about 100 inmates and sent six of them to hospital.

The riot started when several prisoners barricaded themselves inside a single living unit and placed mattresses along the entrance area so guards could not see what was happening.