85 active COVID-19 cases reported in Saskatoon Correctional Centre outbreak

The Saskatchewan government reported 72 new COVID-19 cases located at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre on Thursday.

There were 299 new cases reported in the province Thursday, a number that included four staff members and 68 inmates at the correctional centre.

Noel Busse, the executive director of communications with the Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, said the large influx of cases came after a large round of testing at the facility with a majority of the inmates being asymptomatic.

“We’re working with public health authorities on strategies to reduce the spread within the facility and the correctional system,” he said during a conference call. “We’ll also be doing ongoing testing with offenders and staff.”

There won’t be any new admissions to the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, with remanded and sentenced offenders being sent to facilities in Regina and Prince Albert instead.

Busse isn’t worried about overpopulating other centres for the time being.

“We’re confident that we’ll be able to manage the extra offender population in the short term. In the long term, we may look at using additional space at other correctional facilities to ensure we can effectively manage the population,” he said.

Without offering specifics, Busse said corrections officials will work with public prosecution, policing and the courts to limit the outbreak’s impact on the justice system.

However, there aren’t any plans to release offenders or other measures to manage populations.

“We won’t be releasing any sentenced offenders as a result of the outbreak,” Busse said. “We will continue to approve reintegration leaves for offenders who qualify, but no offenders will be released who didn’t meet the criteria prior to the pandemic.”

New inmates entering the facility will continue to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine and starting Monday, all new admissions in the province will be tested.

Testing frequency for staff and inmates will increase over the coming days and weeks, but Busse couldn’t say if that included every person at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.

People in custody will also be required to wear a mask at all provincial correctional facilities.

There’s a total of four active cases at the other major correctional centres in the province: Two staff members and one inmate in Regina, and one staff member at the Prince Albert Correctional Centre. The Pinegrove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert doesn’t have any active cases.