"Isolation at B. C. Pen goes through name change," Vancouver Sun. January 9, 1976. Page 8.
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By DAVE STOCKAND
Solitary confinement under a new name has landed with a disturbing thump at the B.C. Penitentiary.
Suddenly there is no longer a special correctional unit, the SCU, but this does not mean that the days and months and years of segregation and isolation are over.
"I can assure you of one thing." said Dragan Cernetic, the B.C. Pen director, "that inmates who cannot function in the general population, and who represent a dangerous element, may and will be segregated"
Said Fred Leech, Cernetic's security chief: "Quite frankly, the kind of people who are going to be in segregation, I'm branding them dangerous "That's all there is to it and no court order is going to change it, really, because they are dangerous"
Cernetic and Leech were commenting Thursday during an inside-the-walls press conference at which Cernetic announced the demise of the SCU as a solitary confinement unit.
This action was taken following a judgment Dec. 30 by Mr. Justice D. V. Heald of the Federal Court of Canada that solitary as practised in the SCU constituted cruel and unusual punishment or treat ment contrary to the Canadian Bill of Rights
Cernetic said he had studied the judgment and "it has prompted the administration of this institution to live up to the spirit of the judgment.
"It is for this reason that I have closed the special correctional unit and am converting this unit now into a protective custody unit."
Then he got into the complexities of how the unit he had officially closed would remain open.
The way it works out is that the six in mates who had been held in administrative confinement in the SCU have been transferred to cells previously occupied by prisoners in protective custody.
These protective custody inmates were, in turn, transferred to the SCU.
The Canadian Peniteniary Service logic is that removing the inmates front the SCU to regular cells will answer the court's criticisms of their confinement.
These include the fact that they were confined in cells with solid doors instead of bars with lights that burned constantly, 24 hours a day.
In turn, protective custody Inmates sent to what was the SCU are to have the solid doors and other inconveniences removed as soon as humanly possible.
In the transfer of inmates that took place Wednesday afternoon, SCU cells were provided with beds and desks (amenities previously lacking) but some inmates were obviously not happy with the change of locution.
During a press tour Thursday, some of them tried to persuade Cernetic to let them talk to reporters.
"Are they going to talk to us?" the director was asked.
When Cernetic replied that the answer was still no, there were shouts of "It's st not fit to live in" (referring to the units) and "The court will hear about it."
Cernetic told them to go ahead, if they wanted to try the courts, and the tour moved on to another part of the prison.
In his turn with reporters, Leech said staff morale has stood up well under the in change which saw the complete and sudden restructuring of the SCU.
"Although we practically closed down a complete control unit within a few hours notice," he said, "I'd say per cent of the staff accepted it without question, realizing what we were doing."
Then the press tour, which began with a blackout when television crews overloaded the wiring in the penitentiary board room, ended on a sour note when Leech confiscated film taken by a Georgia Straight photographer.
"We said there would be no associating with inmates and there was association with inmates and I don't appreciate this," said Leech, announcing the confiscation.
SPECIAL CORRECTIONAL UNIT AT B.C. PENITENTIARY
solid doors are replaced with bars.
