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But prison expert Darryl Plecas defends B.C.'s minimum-security prison facilities. More than 3,400 Fraser Valley residents live behind bars.
Home to 14 correctional facilities, the region boasts one of the largest concentrations of prison inmates in Canada. But does that make it a more dangerous place to live?
"Absolutely," says Gertie Poole, an Abbotsford grandmother and member of an advocacy group called Victims Rights.
"I think we are extremely cheated, not just Abbotsford but the whole area," she says. "The government's first priority is to protect its citizens, but I don't see that happening. How many victims does it take?"
It's a question many have been asking since last month's escape of convicted murderer and rapist Blane MacDougal. The dangerous offender walked away from Ferndale Institution in Mission and remains at large.
Parole documents reveal MacDougal, 60, to be a man of "deviant desires" with a long history of violence.
It remains unclear how he came to be incarcerated at Ferndale, a minimum-security prison, along with nine other dangerous offenders. The Correctional Service of Canada deems such information private.
"We're letting these guys out over and over again," says Poole. "Wherever this man is, he is deemed a risk to reoffend. Do you know what that means? That means we are not safe."
But others disagree, saying common sense dictates MacDougal would not linger in the Fraser Valley after his escape.
"I think you'd want to get as far away as possible and keep a low profile," notes University College of the Fraser Valley criminology Prof. Darryl Plecas.
The prison expert defends minimum-security facilities -- even for dangerous offenders -- because he believes they contribute to public safety.
"It's hard to describe this as a problem," he says. "Someone escaped, and that's a bad thing, but it's actually pretty safe to have a prison in your community." If prisons aren't a problem and escapes are rare, then why the concern?
MacDougal's escape -- and another from a minimum-security facility in Agassiz a few days later -- prompted a huge outcry from Fraser Valley residents and politicians.
The nine remaining dangerous offenders incarcerated at Ferndale were shipped off to higher-security facilities.
The answer may lie with MacDougal himself. Parole documents reveal an undeniably frightening criminal history that seems to show a pattern of ugly behaviour.
In 1968, the young MacDougal escaped jail in Saskatch-ewan, where he was doing time for property crime, and fled to Texas.
Along the way, he and a companion picked up three gay men at bars and robbed and beat them. Left in a field overnight, one of the men died of exposure.
MacDougal was eventually recaptured and convicted of murder.
But his 35-year sentence failed to keep him behind bars. After serving some time in the U.S., he was transferred to Canada and let out on day parole after 11 years.
A few months into his parole, he kidnapped two women in Prince Albert, Sask., and raped them.
Again, MacDougal was sentenced to jail time.
But again, after eight years, he was released on day parole. After two years, he was given full parole.
Days before the parole ruling, MacDougal bought items intended for use in a rape, including handcuffs.
And just hours after his release, he kidnapped and repeatedly raped a young Abbotsford woman.
After he was captured, he was designated a dangerous offender.
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To make the label stick, the Crown must establish a history of violent crime and indifference to consequences of behaviour and a "likelihood of causing injury, pain or other evil to other persons through failure in the future to control his or her sexual impulses." MacDougal's escape caused fear.
Mission MLA Randy Hawes said the case shows "we shouldn't take a chance with [dangerous offenders] any more because innocent victims are more valuable than the dangerous offender. It would seem some of them have an incurable problem and I just wouldn't want my daughter to be the next victim."
Hawes' concerns were echoed a few days later when convicted murderer Ralph Whitfield Morris escaped from the minimum-security Kwìkwèxwelhp Healing Village near Agassiz.
"This is a man convicted of killing his wife and other violent acts in the community, and residents want to know why he wasn't in a higher-security institution," Agassiz Mayor Lorne Fisher told The Province. "I don't want more victims in the community -- this is now a threat to public safety."
The escaped convict turned himself in after two days in the woods. MacDougal, however, remains at large.
Glenn Flett, a convicted murderer, says he understands the need for caution, but doesn't see the need to do away with minimum-security facilities, even for dangerous offenders.
"These guys will get out of prison some day," says the founder of the LINC Society, which offers support for convicts and ex-convicts alike. "Do you want them coming out of Kent [maximum-security prison] and on to the street?"
Flett is reluctant to discuss MacDougal -- "I don't know the situation; maybe he shouldn't have been in minimum," he says -- but maintains the best place from which to eventually release any prisoner is Ferndale.
"It's not just the best thing for him. It's the best thing for all of us," he says.
Flett can only see one downside to having a large number of prisons in the Fraser Valley.
"It's hard for prisoners from other places. If they [families] don't move here, they're disconnected from their families," he says.
As the regional president of Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, Gord Robertson sees benefits to having prisons in the Fraser Valley.
"They're a very valuable employer," he says simply.
Corrections jobs tend to be stable and high-paying, attracting educated people with an interest in public safety and upholding the law.
Add support staff, parole officers and other prison employees, including cleaners, cooks and maintenance, and the economic impact is even greater.
Robertson estimates there could be thousands of people employed by Corrections in the Fraser Valley.
Prison work programs also contribute to the local eco-nomy. A report to Maple Ridge council last year showed free labour from inmates at the provincial Fraser Regional Correctional Centre saved taxpayers about $265,000.
Robertson says the union has "the same questions as everyone else," when it comes to keeping dangerous offenders in minimum-security prisons, but the convicts don't really pose any extra danger to guards. To get to minimum security, inmates must first show good behaviour.
"I think the recent events show there is a problem with the way Corrections classifies these guys. A review is probably a good thing," he says.
Corrections is reviewing the classification of dangerous offenders after federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day demanded action. It's unclear when the review will be complete.
"Laws and policies currently governing the classification of offenders were formulated prior to this government taking office. Our government has begun to repair a failed Liberal corrections system by initiating and completing a comprehensive corrections review," said his spokesman, John Brent, in an e-mail.
Brent said the escape of MacDougal prompted Day to ask for the dangerous-offender review, which will be done across Canada on a "case-by-case basis."
Plecas has little tolerance for political meddling in a corrections system he says is one of the best in the world.
To prove his point, the criminology professor cites a study showing only four per cent of all criminal activity involves someone who has done time in a federal prison. "That's an amazing number," he says. "Corrections holds thousands of inmates. OK, we've had two escapes, but the federal government wants to move us 10 steps backwards."
Plecas says critics often forget the alternative to minimum-security facilities, which provide reintegration programs that are normally successful in curbing recidivism rates.
"People get out of jail. That's the way it works. Do you want them coming from a medium-security prison or do you want them coming from a minimum-security prison?"
The Fraser Valley's prison population
North Fraser Pretrial
Location: 1451 Kingsway Ave., Port Coquitlam
Prisoners: 629
Escapes since 2002: 1
Staff: 250
Details: High-security provincial prison for inmates awaiting trial, sentencing or classification.
Opened: 2001.
Alouette Correctional Centre for Women
Location: 24800 Alouette Rd., Maple Ridge
Prisoners: 146
Escapes since 2002: 0
Staff: 83
Details: Medium-security provincial prison. Opened: 2004.
Fraser Regional Correctional Centre
Location: 13777 256th St.,
Maple Ridge
Prisoners: 479
Escapes since 2002: 2
Staff: 213
Details: High-security provincial prison. Opened: 1990.
Mission Institution
Location: 8751 Stave Lake St., Mission
Prisoners: 277
Escapes since 1998: 0
Staff: 245
Details: Medium-security federal prison.
Opened: 1977.
Ferndale Institution
Location: 33737 Dewdney Trunk Rd., Mission
Prisoners: 144
Escapes since 1998: 37
Staff: 95
Details: Minimum-security federal prison.
Opened: 1973.
Kent Institution
Location: 4732 Cemetery Rd., Agassiz
Prisoners: 249
Escapes since 1998: 0
Staff: 352
Details: Maximum-security federal prison.
Mountain Institution
Location: 4732 Cemetery Rd.,
Agassiz
Prisoners: 373
Escapes since 1998: 0
Staff: 300
Details: Medium-security federal prison.
Surrey Pretrial
Location: 14323 57th Ave., Surrey
Prisoners: 178
Escapes since 2002: 0
Staff: 189
Details: High-security provincial prison for inmates awaiting trial, sentencing or classification. Opened: 1991.
Matsqui Institution
Location: 33344 King Rd., Abbotsford
Prisoners: 369
Escapes since
1998: 0
Staff: 259
Details: Medium-security federal prison.
Opened: 1966.
Regional Treatment Centre
Location: 33344 King Rd., Abbotsford
Prisoners: 188
Escapes since 1998: 0
Staff: 447 (including Pacific Institution)
Details: Medium-security federal prison providing rehabilitation and hospital services.
Pacific Institution
Location: 33344 King Rd., Abbotsford
Prisoners: 118
Escapes since 1998: 0
Staff: 447 (including regional centre)
Details: Medium-security federal prison providing high-intensity programs.
Fraser Valley Institution
Location: 33344 King Rd., Abbotsford
Prisoners: 60
Escapes since 1998: 0
Staff: 146
Details: Multi-level federal prison for women.
Opened 2004.
Kwìkwèxwelhp Healing Village
Location: Morris Valley Road,
Harrison Mills
Prisoners: 34
Escapes since 1998: 3
Staff: 54
Details: Minimum-security federal prison.
Opened 1975.
Ford Mountain Correctional Centre
57657 Chilliwack Lake Rd., Chilliwack
Prisoners: 102
Escapes since 2002: 0
Staff: 42
Details: Medium-security provincial prison.
- Number of escapes does not include inmates who walked away from provincial prison work crews.
- Information on federal prison escapes between 1998 and 2007 obtained from the Correctional Service of Canada by The Province through a Freedom of Information request.
- Information on provincial prisons obtained from B.C. Corrections.
© The Vancouver Province 2008
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