Burnside jail attack puts focus on security

The Burnside jail has been in the news recently after an inmate was attacked in his cell.

Tyrell Kenneth Benedict, 19, was assaulted Tuesday night. He’s in hospital with life-threatening injuries. An inmate faces charges of aggravated assault over the attack. 

Mark Knox works as a defence lawyer and has had clients in the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility for about ten years. Knox said movement is highly restricted in the jail.

“The word from clients, from inmates, is if you compare Burnside to the old facility in Lower Sackville, is that security is very high, that they’re always being watched, which is not always an easy thing to deal with if you’re an inmate,” he said.

That’s to avoid “concern with other inmates who may have a beef with someone, or concern for things going wrong.”

Knox said the Burnside jail houses inmates convicted of crimes who were sentenced to two years or less, but also people on remand. “Those are people who haven’t had a bail hearing. Those are people who’ve been denied bail,” he said.

That makes it hard to get traction on rehabilitation programs, as no one is at Burnside for more than two years.  

Knox said double-bunking, or sharing a cell, is a part of overcrowding, a problem he says dates back 20 years.

“If double-bunking hadn’t occurred here, we would have an inmate who would be in a cell alone. It would not have happened, obviously,” he said. “Would it have happened before? Would it have happened after? Those are issues that nobody can answer.”

Nova Scotia's justice minister has said the double-bunking did not contribute to the assault.