Lockdown lifted at Sask. prison after riot earlier this month

Things are slowly returning to normal at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary after a riot earlier this month left one inmate dead and eight more injured.

Correctional Service Canada spokesman Jeff Campbell said a prison-wide lockdown at the facility near Prince Albert, Sask., has been lifted and visitors are being allowed back.

He said the prison's minimum-security unit resumed its normal operations late in the evening of Dec. 22 while the medium- and maximum-security inmates were placed ona modified routine.

At some point during theDec. 14 riot, three inmates were stabbed, prison officials said. Jason LeonardBird, 43,was pronounced dead after he was brought to hospital by paramedics.

Some inmates were hit with pellets after guards fired shots to take control of the area.No serious injuries were sustained by the shots.

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Campbell said the higher-security inmates are now allowed to shower and make phone calls, but their movement within the rest of the prison is restricted.

Campbellconfirmed that some prisoners have been transferred out of the federal facility since the riot, which caused significant damage to a large portion of the medium-security unit.

However, he wouldn't release details on how many inmates were transferred or where.

'Peaceful protest' over conditions

Sjaane McMurchie's husband and two brothers-in-law are inmates at the prison. She's been in contact with them since the riot.

One brother-in-law, who McMurchie said is serving time in the medium-security unit, was impacted by the riot. She said he told her that it all began with inmates protesting conditions at the prison.

"He told me it was a peaceful protest, that they were protesting the treatment they receive from the facility," she said.

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McMurchie said thatonce the riot beganinmates were pepper-sprayed and eventually moved as groups into cells.

"They were placed in a cell in segregation five men to one cell and had to sleep on concrete floors," she said.

Prisoners from the medium-security unit were moved into cells in the maximum wing, while she said those prisoners were moved to Edmonton. Correctional Service Canada would not confirm this.

McMurchie said that most of the prisoners in the medium-security unit are facing institutional charges related to the riot.