REPORT EXPOSES FLAWS IN B.C. PRISON SYSTEM

A B.C. Corrections official has said that a confidential report into
last October's methadone death of an inmate at a Maple Ridge prison
"speaks for itself."

Talk about stating the obvious.

The report, obtained by The Province under freedom of information law
and outlined by reporter Sam Cooper, is damning.

And the staff errors it pinpointed at the Fraser Regional
Correctional Centre are shocking.

. The 32-year-old inmate, believed to be a heroin addict, was not
registered to receive methadone.

. His prison profile contained a medical alert that he should never
be housed with a methadone program inmate. But, shortly before his
death, he was.

. A nurse who supplied the lethal dose should not have been
administering methadone. She was on her second orientation shift at
the jail, and she should only have been shadowing a regular nurse
doing the methadone rounds.

. The nurse apparently was given the job because another nurse called in sick.

. The inmate likely obtained his cellmate's dose of methadone by
presenting fake ID.

This would be a comedy of errors, if it wasn't so un-funny. And heads
really should roll here.

However, as B.C. Government and Service Employees Union spokesman
Dean Purdy points out, rampant drug use and overcrowding are making
it increasingly hard for the government to monitor prison inmates.

Indeed, the report into the unfortunate death of this one inmate may
simply be the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

Our whole B.C. prison system clearly needs a shake.