Mounties are investigating after an inmate at British Columbia’s only maximum-security prison was taken to hospital following an assault this week.
The Correctional Service of Canada says the assault happened Tuesday at Kent Institution in Agassiz, east of Vancouver.
The injured prisoner was evaluated by staff members and transported to an outside hospital for treatment, the agency said in a statement.
The Agassiz RCMP detachment is investigating the assault alongside prison officials, the correctional service said.
“The assailant has been identified and the appropriate actions have been taken,” according to the agency.
No other inmates or prison staff were injured in the incident.
The assault occurred four days after a group of inmates at Kent were charged in the death of a fellow prisoner.
On March 14, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced that Therae Racette-Beaulieu had been charged with the second-degree murder of 43-year-old inmate Christopher Braun.
Three other prisoners – Theodore Anderson, Michael Okemow and Joseph Goulet – have been charged with assault after the inmate’s death following a fight in the prison cafeteria last December.
“The safety and security of institutions, their staff, and the public remains the highest priority in the operations of the federal correctional system,” the correctional service said in the statement.
“In order to improve practices aimed at preventing this type of incident, the Correctional Service of Canada will review the circumstances of the incident and take the appropriate measures.”
Kent Institution opened in 1979 with a capacity to house 378 prisoners, according to the correctional service. The facility is the only maximum-security prison in the correctional service’s Pacific region, which includes B.C. and the Yukon.
With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Ian Holliday
