Prison watchdog slams investigation of deadly riot in Saskatchewan
OTTAWA — The Correctional Service of Canada told the public a story about a deadly 2016 riot at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary that didn’t match the findings of its own investigation, which was itself “superficial, expedient and self-serving,” the federal watchdog on prisons reported Tuesday.
Correctional investigator Ivan Zinger wrote in his annual report that the prison service should not investigate itself in cases involving a riot, a death or a suicide in solitary confinement.
The violence at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary involved 185 prisoners and left one inmate dead, eight prisoners injured and a large part of the institution uninhabitable.
Jason Leonard Bird, who was serving a sentence of less than three years, was stabbed to death during the riot; five other inmates have been charged with murder. Most of the injured were hit by shotgun pellets when the prison authorities moved in. The riot did an estimated $3.6 million in damage.