Behind The Wall

I ended up watching a documentary last night that more than likely will take this city by surprise. In fact I am very surprised that there is not more features on it. But it came to be breaking news to this community last night.

It's the story of Canada's corrections. One friend of mine called me back when I was in Edmonton. He went to university one year later than myself and we kind of went our own paths and then came to renew our friendship. Two years ago he when he called he I knew that he had went back to university to obtain his masters in sociology as he was working with young offenders for years at an institute here. I had the opportunity to go and visit him back one year ago. And I must admit what I saw was not all that pleasant. Seeing these teenagers that have a culture that goes the wrong direction. And they really don't see this lifestyle as a culture shock however for me it was something as it was really a holding tank and jail for many that were hooked on meth and all sorts of drugs. To see four teenagers in cells - it's wasn’t my vision of what he did. He was more of a guard in plain clothes than anything. I could never do that and I know the burn out rate of this type of work. I thought he was doing counseling. Now I know why he left after 20 years and went back to school. That does take some courage and his name is Jim. After he obtained his masters and I had returned here we had got together and he went from working as a counselor within one of Canada's larges federal psychiatric centers. However I was surprised that he had taken this time to re educated himself and then go from a social reform councilor to merely being a driver driving inmates/patients back and forth. He said it was much too stress. I know where the stress came from now as last night for the first time across Canada there was a major feature on this federal corrections center (slash) psychiatric center. There was one girl that was beaten by guards. She came from eastern Canada and obviously had the need for some help but get this - she was throwing crab apples in 2007 at a postman and ended up getting a life sentence.

There is no doubt that the 18 year old need care however she was beaten and she ended up killing herself while guards watched for 30 minutes. I don't wish to be too graphic in the description of what was done but this program was able to obtain videos from someone on the inside and as well there were interviews done with those that were from the medical side and decided to leave. Now I know really why Jim made that change.

This city has always been looked upon as a very pleasant city, always called a small town yet a thriving growing city. It was literally a surprise to here all that took place and how the spokesperson for this show literally was able to get the contacts and broadcast things in such detail. There were three medical people that retired and then came forward on the show as well within court as the head of this center was annulled of all guilt. It says something about the system within Canada as it's certainly needs a revamp to say the least. It shall be interesting to see how this city responds with all this as it was the first airing of the show and I will post in the link but there are things that do need revamping within Canada. Some of the areas that are run by the federal government really are not that accountable.

Needless to say it's a pity when a young women of the mere age of 18 is abused and she is treated like she is in jail. However even in jail there are laws but this was a kid really that was in need of good medical attention and secondly she how she ended up with a life sentence is beyond me. It really shall be very interesting to see how this city responds with this as like many small towns people do rally on things when they see something that is to the contrary of what this city is about.

I shall post the link, the program is a national program called the 5th Estate. And hopefully this shall work as little did I and most probable anyone knew anything about this story and it took till last night for it to come out. It’s the first time I have seen anything on television of the likes of this and while watching it I when Saskatoon came up then it drew my attention - then when one watched this it was truly a mind blower. We shall see what happens within this place as I am sure that come Monday this will be on city councils main agenda within it's weekly meetings. As prior to this no one knew a thing of what was going on in there and I hope that there is some accountability that this advocate program does. And justice is served as sometimes within some of these federal departments it's all behind closed doors.

 http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/behindthewall/