Prison guards are demanding that Correctional Services Canada immediately issue protective vests after an inmate was stabbed at a Fraser Valley prison.

Corrections Canada says the vests, which protect against stabbing, have been ordered but are not yet ready to be issued.

The union, representing close to 400 prison workers in the province, says some of the vests have already arrived and should be handed out right away.
 
Gordon Robertson, president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers in B.C., said on Thursday that three separate lockdowns in the Fraser Valley last month have made his call for the vests more urgent. Last month, an inmate at Kent Institution in Agassiz was stabbed in face and throat with a sharpened piece of steel.

"We've seen the use of home-made weapons, knives and that type of thing, so that's what the vests are there to protect us from. It's our safety and it's our health so we need these vests as soon as possible," Robertson said.

Keeping some of the stab-proof vests locked up while waiting for others to arrive is putting guards at risk unnecessarily, he added.

"We just wish they would speed up the process across the country to get this finished," Robertson said. "The release is going to be all at one time. So we're seeing some institutions waiting even though technically they could provide them to staff."

But Corrections Canada spokeswoman Line Guibert-Wolff said the vests are still being purchased, and then will need to be fitted for each guard.

"Correctional Services Canada takes staff safety and security very, very seriously," said Guibert-Wolff. "That is why we are getting the stab-resistant vests. And right now they are in a procurement process, and when that's all completed they will be distributed."

The vests were supposed to be issued in June, according to the union. Corrections Canada could not say when they would be ready.