Corrections staffer says manager 'butchered' report about Indigenous inmate
Testifying in a Yellowknife courtroom last week, a Corrections Service of Canada staffer said she was shocked to find that a report she had written about an Indigenous inmate had been "butchered" by her manager.
"I had to put it away because I got so emotionally upset that it had been changed," said Kristen Levesque, who was reporting on inmate Cody Durocher's performance in the high-intensity Aboriginal sex offender treatment program at the Bowden Institution in Alberta.
The prosecutor is applying to have Durocher, a 33-year-old repeat sex offender, declared a dangerous offender.
The new program Durocher enrolled in is the most comprehensive program federal prisons offer to reduce the risk of Indigenous sex offenders re-offending.
The six-month program is composed of 120 sessions broken up into five modules that must be taken in sequence.
Each session lasts between two and two-and-a-half hours. The program incorporates Indigenous elements such as sweats, smudging, counselling from elders and a medicine wheel.
Durocher began the high-intensity sex offender program at Bowden in May, but went on to miss a total of 14 sessions —11 of them due to court appearances in his dangerous offender case.
He was suspended from the program in October due to behavioural issues such as interrupting other participants and making inappropriate comments during the group discussions.
Levesque testifies at dangerous offender hearing
"I offered to shut down the program to do the make-up sessions myself," testified Levesque, during part of Durocher's dangerous offender hearing last week.
Levesque said she received no response from her manager. Levesque said two other facilitators at the prison were not available to help make up the missed classes.
"In the past, if a prisoner missed a session, we made it up right away before the next session," testified Levesque.
I asked him, 'Why did you change it?' - Kristen Levesque, Corrections Service of Canada staffer
She said the missed sessions left Durocher at a loss to deal with surging emotions.
"So what we have is a man starting to deal with his trauma, but not ready to deal with it."
In her report, Levesque wrote that Durocher missed sessions in the second and third modules.
As a result, he exhibited "a significant amount of confusion and distress as he was unable to connect to content of sessions as he had not been provided the make-up sessions."
Levesque's manager changed that to "Mr. Durocher missed several key sessions at the end of module 2. Unfortunately, Mr. D. was unable to make up the material from these sessions prior to being suspended from the program."
"I asked him, 'Why did you change it?'" Levesque said in court. "He said to take the light off no make-up sessions."
Levesque said she has prepared hundreds of similar reports and this is the first time one has been altered.
Corrections Service of Canada policy states that when such reports are altered, the person making the changes must notify the report writer.
Levesque said she was not notified.
Corrections Canada refused to do any interviews about the case.
Durocher's lawyer, Jennifer Cunningham, said she did not want to comment because the dangerous offender hearing has not been completed.
