In its efforts to prevent escapes and the illegal entry of weapons and drugs into detention centers, the government will close around fifteen additional prison yards, TVA Nouvelles has learned.
This is one of the measures aimed at strengthening security in detention establishments that the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, will announce on Tuesday.
With these additions, there will now be 39 courtyards equipped with fences out of the 150 exterior courtyards distributed in the 18 prisons in Quebec, which represents approximately one courtyard in four. The Ministry of Public Security, however, refuses to reveal which ones, for security reasons.
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The government believes that this measure will help avoid unfortunate events such as the spectacular airborne escape that occurred in Saint-Jérôme in March 2013.
The detainees Dany Provençal and Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau then fled, hanging from a rope attached to a helicopter.
The same scenario repeated itself fifteen months later, when three dangerous drug traffickers awaiting trial managed to escape from the Quebec Detention Center, also aboard a helicopter.
Shaken, the Ministry of Public Security then launched an administrative investigation which revealed that these escapes, although surprising, were not unpredictable.
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Faced with the situation, the minister at the time, Lise Thériault, took the initiative to fence more outdoor courtyards, a work that her successor, Martin Coiteux, said he wanted to continue.
But in the ten years since the first helicopter escape, only 11 new courtyards have been fenced off, including those of brand new detention centers. During the same period, the police had to deal with 24 escape attempts, nine of which were successful.