Man charged in jailhouse sexual assault
Head of corrections promises thorough review of 'very unusual occurrence'
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 5, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
An inmate at the North Slave Correctional Centre has been charged with a violent sexual assault on a fellow inmate following an alleged incident at the facility late last month.
RCMP Const. Elenore Sturko identified the accused as Mikey Chocolate, 21. He appeared in court Tuesday and was remanded into custody.
Chocolate is charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm, forcible confinement, and anal intercourse. According to the Criminal Code of Canada, the anal intercourse charge can be levied at anyone who performs the act without the other person's consent.
Sturko said for privacy reasons she is not releasing any information about the victim, including whether he was seriously hurt or sent to hospital.
Monty Bourke, director of corrections for the Department of Justice, said an operational review into the incident was scheduled to get underway yesterday.
"All events leading up to, during and after (the alleged assault) will be examined," Bourke said.
"We will be looking at all relative policies as they relate to inmate safety and security."
He said he wants the review done quickly and thoroughly but did not provide a time frame for its completion.
"This is a very unusual occurrence at NSCC and we take it very seriously," he said.
"We will peel the onion with this review and find out if there are any gaps in policy, and if there are, we will address them."
Bourke said the attack is alleged to have taken place in what's known as a residential area - a common area - in one of the pods. The incident was reported to staff in the early evening of Nov 26, he said. Bourke did not say who reported the incident. RCMP were notified right away once jail staff had been alerted, he said.
"There is a limit to what I can say because police are still investigating," Bourke said. "I can tell you that the alleged victim has been transferred to another facility in the NWT."
He said they will be vigilant in finding out how the incident happened.
"Our staff members are well-trained. We've co-operated fully with the RCMP," he said. "We want our staff and our inmates to be safe."
Meanwhile, Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins said he hadn't heard about this latest incident at the jail until informed of it by Yellowknifer. But he added he has issues with transparency at the facility and whether the public is being properly informed.
"The real issue here is timely disclosure of information on serious occurrences or crimes," Hawkins said.
"This is the second serious incident at the correctional centre where the public essentially found out about them by accident. We had an inmate on the lam in the spring and the public was never warned about him. The Department of Justice oversees the jail and it has a moral and public obligation to disclose information to the public on these kinds of incidents."
The other incident Hawkins is referring to involves Grant James Reeves, 48, who failed to check back into jail on earlier this year after being out on an unescorted temporary absence permit. At that time, RCMP did not inform the public that Reeves was unlawfully at large.
