Nunavut News/North bureau chief Kathleen Lippa spent 10 hours with two corrections officers at the Baffin Correctional Centre. In the second of a two-part series, she shadows Margaret Evaloakjuk.

Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 15/04) - Blowing snow and a mid-February wind chill outside made the inside of the jail seem more comforting on this night.

Margaret Evaloakjuk, one of 10 female corrections officers, was busy behind darkened windows in the Baffin Correctional Centre's (BCC) central control room.

She answered the phone, filled out some paperwork, then briefly glanced at a security camera to watch an inmate doing his own brand of martial arts -- kicking and making karate chop moves in front of his TV set.

Apparently, he had just finished watching Marked for Death starring Steven Segal and was inspired.

"He always does this," she said.

Evaloakjuk has worked at BCC 13 years.

In all that time, she has never been afraid of the inmates.

There was one incident, she recalls, when an inmate with a history of mental illness lunged at her, grabbing her breasts.

Male corrections officers quickly intervened and Evaloakjuk emerged from the incident a little shaken but unharmed.

On the screens in front of her the images shift from room to room, inmate to inmate, then outside where the driving snow slants against the flood lights in the yard.

Silent black-and-white images from inside the dorm rooms have the quality of an old movie or something you'd see with an underwater camera.

But it's no movie: it's just life inside BCC.

Little excitement

The screens show images of a life that is more dull than you'd imagine.

That is what initially shocks you: the plainness of it all.

The fairly recent drawings on the walls, of walruses and drum dancers, cannot alter the bleak fact that there is nothing to see but navy blue and grey.

On this night, Evaloakjuk stayed in the control room.

Inmates approached the windows every so often and made faces at her or waved. She waved back.

Evaloakjuk doesn't like to stay in the control room for long, even though a visitor might think it would be better to stay partly hidden behind the glass.

Like her male counterparts, Evaloakjuk would rather be "floating," patrolling the jail, spending time with the inmates and making sure their chores are done.

Evaloakjuk has learned a couple of things working in this environment for so many years.

"If you tell them to clean up," she says in her steady, quiet way, "they won't do it. If you start cleaning up, they will follow you."

Another thing she knows well is that the mood inside BCC hinges on the quality and consistency of three things delivered by the corrections staff: clothing, food and fresh air.

Evaloakjuk went to a residential school when she was growing up, where the instructors hit her for speaking Inuktitut.

Her mother died when she was eight years old.

She learned how to run a home and how to survive simply because she had no choice.

When she settled back in Cape Dorset, she was teased for speaking English and being Catholic.

She still speaks both English and Inuktitut fluently.

Evaloakjuk is a proud grandmother and when things are really quiet at BCC, late at night on the 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, she thinks of her kids and grandkids at home.

They often ask her why she must go to work.

"Don't go," they say to her.

It is hard to believe the corrections officers, in BCC 12 hours at a time, carry no weapons on their belt.

Brains better than brawn

Asked what they do bring with them into the dorms, deputy warden Steve Hay tapped his forehead with his pen, indicating that brains, skills and training are their best protection.

There is riot gear in BCC, enough for just a few officers, but it has never been used.

They also keep canisters of pepper spray handy, just in case, and a straight jacket, which has also never been used.

For Evaloakjuk, the idea of using force is extreme.

She believes that even where there is darkness, there is still always hope.

If she didn't believe it, she could not have worked at BCC for so long.

BCC programs

There are a number of programs for inmates at Baffin Correctional Centre to be sure they have plenty to keep them occupied throughout the day.

-- There is a classroom and daily classes, Monday to Friday. An inmate recently obtained his Grade 12 diploma.

-- There is a healing centre inside, where elders and a counsellor meet with inmates.

-- Elders visit every so often to talk to the inmates, by far the most popular, well-attended program inside BCC, according to Margaret Evaloakjuk.

-- A new gym gives inmates a place to play games, including basketball and floor hockey.

-- There is one guitar. Inmates must sign it out.

-- There is table hockey and a pool table in the dining room/common area outside dorms.

The Crews

The following programs are used at Baffin Correctional Centre for inmates who are in good standing, those who have worked up their status through good behaviour.

-- Carving crew lives in the trailers. Every Friday from 11 a.m. -5 p.m. the carvers, who are all inmates, sell their work to the public.

-- Town crew lives in the trailers. They do jobs around Iqaluit, cleaning up the streets and other maintenance duties.

-- Shop crew just built a new shack the jail needed. They also fix door hinges and do odd jobs for BCC.

-- Land program gives inmates a chance to spend time hunting with guides. They go hunting for seal, caribou.