Beaver Creek Penitentiary

What was he thinking?

Beaver Creek is a minimum security prison in Muskoka, with a medium security prison nearby (Fenbrook).
I had 12 men signed up for my Creative Writing course, here is the Follow-up Report to session #1. There was one couldn't make it.

He skipped out, gone AWOL: someone who had earned rights and privileges and had earned the trust of Correctional Services Canada(CSC)  staff fled in a CSC vehicle, only to be recaptured. The peculiar part of the story, as reported in the paper, is that the vehicle that was stolen was equipped with OnStar, who claim to have helped capture 1000s of stolen cars.

OnStar leads OPP to inmate

January 13, 2010 - by Allyson Snelling

A Beaver Creek inmate serving time for attempted murder, arson and aggravated assault has been re-apprehended by police

It was easily tracked and the vehicle ended up crashing into another. He worked, so the newspaper reported, in the garage, and had passed screenings. He was eligible for day parole in 2006 and full parole in 2007.

Full story from the OPP on-line Crime Alerts news:
Also, CTV News has video footage, plus aerial footage. 
Plus, Rob Tripp reports on all things crime, calls him 'a savage domestic abuser who appears to aspire to kill women, Cancrime research shows.'

Sargant Ed Medved, Muskoka OPP 

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OPP APPREHEND Beaver Creek Escapee

(BRACEBRIDGE, ON.) – Members of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Bracebridge Detachment were advised that a male inmate had escaped from Correction Services Canada (CSC) Beaver Creek Facility at approximately 9 o’clock Tuesday morning, Jan. 12.

57 year old Robert John SAUNDERS, was suspected of driving away from the facility in a stolen (CSC) vehicle.  SAUNDERS was located and apprehended by members of the Toronto Detachment OPP in the hwy 401/403 following a pursuit of the vehicle.

Robert John SAUNDERS is now in custody, a joint investigation into the incident is ongoing through both the OPP and Correction Service Canada (CSC).
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Beaver Creek Institution

Beaver Creek Institution is a minimum security institution located within Gravenhurst, Ontario, on a federal reserve along with Fenbrook Institution. Beaver Creek opened in 1961 and can house up to 202 inmates. Inmates are housed in five residential style units.

Constable Maureen Tilson - Muskoka OPP

The Institution provides correctional programs that promote inmates’ successful reintegration by allowing them to live independently and giving them responsibility for their needs. Inmates live in an environment with standards as similar as possible in a correctional setting to those in the community (i.e., preparing meals in small groups, being in charge of cleaning the units, etc.).

There are 235 employees at Beaver Creek. In addition, the Chaplaincy Program helps the Correctional Service of Canada to meet national and international commitments with respect to the promotion of religious rights and obligations of offenders.

Many volunteers help by involving inmates with Bible Study, presenting seasonal choral performances, support meetings. Volunteers contribute across the nation through CSC, to a variety of institution-based programs including chaplaincy, recreation activities, classroom and workshop instruction, social events and cultural activities.

CHIRP. This is a program by which offenders record a bedtime story onto a CD for their children, the CD then being sent home for the child to listen to at night.

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Correctional Services Canada


With a wide range of services...

In 2003 the Canadian Families and Corrections Network (CFCN) received a Contribution from the Correctional Service of Canada for a two-year demonstration project at Millhaven Assessment Unit (MAU) in the Ontario Region.

As a result of this initiative:

• CFCN sent Time Together: A survival guide for families and friends visiting in Canadian federal prisons to partners and intimates
• all new offenders participated in a session on families, corrections and restorative justice
• Discussions of how criminal behaviour harms families
• Two videos were used as a part of the orientation process. "Making Links to the Community" describes the role of the voluntary sector with offenders
• "Prisoner Families: Facing the Challenge" focuses specifically on the unique needs of families affected by incarceration.
  
• One Day at a Time: Writings on Facing the Incarceration of a Friend or Family Member was sent to parents and other family members.

Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has been implementing its Transformation Agenda. Quick Wins, a Transformation Initiative, is starting to produce concrete results in such areas as safety and security; correctional assessment and program interventions; mental health; community corrections; and victim services.

• An electronic monitoring pilot in the Ontario region; development of a new integrated correctional program model that allows offenders to access programs earlier in their sentences; and successful community events and symposia on key transformation themes, including improving mental health services for offenders, Aboriginal employment, education and managing gangs and drugs in institutions.
  

Quick Wins in Safety and Security

• Increased the number of detector dog teams: five were in place by December 2008 and five more teams are scheduled to be in place by April 2009.
• Held a national Security Intelligence Officer competition to further strengthen and enhance CSC intelligence capacity within the institutions and in the community.
• Replaced x-ray machines and ion scanners in several institutions and introduced, and will be testing, new equipment.
• Held a symposium on managing gangs and drugs in institutions in Ottawa (December 2008).
• Implemented scheduled visits for all institutions (June 2008).
• Developed a national visitors' database to monitor and track visitors (June 2008). 

Literature Review On the Factors Related to Escape From Correctional Institutions

 A Literature Review - mostly North American, and US studies

Property Offenses – more likely to have had property offences

Prior Institutional Escapes – 3 times more likely to have escaped from a juvenile institution, escape record is a good predictor of escapes, bringing to bear risk assessment

Race – escapes tend to be predominantly white, 1 1/2 times more likely to escape, despite blacks being

Age – escapees tend to be younger, NY study: 79% < 30 years, a Canadian study (Correctinoal Service of Canada, 1989) states that as offenders age they slowly desist from criminal involvement.

Prior Confinements – history of juvenile confinement

Sentence Served – 50% in one study had served <1 year, served less than half of their sentence,, perhaps 3 to 4 months.

Other Factors – marital status, juvenile criminal history, education, length of sentence, number of dependents, prior parole and probation violations, family issues (divorce, separation, illness or death in the family), relationship dysfunction, lack of contact with family members, poor family ties, 'dear john' letters, distance away from home, alcohol and drug addiction, parole denial, institutional crisis situations, misconduct, outstanding criminal charges, lack of institutional rehabilitation programs. 

Escapes tend to occur in warmer spring and summer seasons and weekends. 

Unemployment, 45% didn't have jobs at the time of their arrest. 

Transfer from minimum security to maximun is a predictor of likelihood of escape.