An inmate who took another prisoner hostage prompted an intervention at the Rivière-des-Prairies detention center on Wednesday. Known for his “violent past,” Steven Godin Charlish had previously seized a correctional officer for many hours in Sept-Îles in 2016.
Posted at 8:25 p.m
The incident happened around 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. Furious at being seized of adulterated alcohol that had seeped into the walls, Godin Charlish would then have locked himself in his cell and held the other inmate who was there, Shawn Lefebvre, hostage, La Presse learned. According to our information, he also physically attacked him.
Emergency teams and police personnel were called to the scene, but the man eventually surrendered after an hour.
In 2016, at Sept-Îles Detention Center, Steven Godin Charlish admitted to threatening a correctional officer with his accomplice Dany Bernatchez before detaining them for three hours. He had also pleaded guilty a few months later to counts of conspiracy, assault and prison break with intent to regain his freedom.
For Mathieu Lavoie, president of the Syndicat des agents de la paix en services correctnels du Québec, the main victim is a “problematic inmate with a known history of violence.”
We would like to emphasize that it is a problem for correctional officers that violence is increasingly present within the walls, as this person should have been in a safer area, more contained, given their violent history.
Mathieu Lavoie, President of the Union of Peace Officers in Correctional Services of Quebec
Mr Lavoie regrets that the authorities often do too little to ensure the safety of officers. “It’s a reality we’re seeing more and more in prisons, where there’s a lot of generosity towards incarcerated people, despite their violent past,” concludes Mr. Lavoie.
In April 2021, a hundred correctional officers demonstrated outside Montreal’s Bordeaux prison to denounce the “lack of judgement” of the administration. This no longer “protects” workers when prisoners physically attack them, several workers said at the time, with support from the union. “Assaults, there are several. We have been living with this problem on and off for several years,” confirms Mr. Lavoie.
With the collaboration of Daniel Renaud, La Presse