Staff training

Organizational restructuring of the gaol system
created a demand for professional and trained
personnel to apply the new treatment
technology. This led to the development of a
staff training program in the British Columbia
Gaol Service. Hugh G. Christie, an Assistant
Professor in Criminology at the University of
British Columbia, was appointed the first staff
training officer in 1951. By the fall of the same
year, staff at Oakalla were given instruction in
the custody and training of prisoners.

More administrative changes occurred at the
institutional level in the following year. In early
1952, Christie was appointed warden of Oakalla
Prison Farm. This appointment included an
agreement to introduce a treatment approach at
Oakalla that would resolve certain problems in
the gaol system.

Other professional staff were hired at Oakalla
to plan and implement vocational, educational
and counselling programs. As stated by the
deputy attorney general, these appointments
would facilitate training and rehabilitation in the
gaol.

They included a full-time:

« Medical officer/psychiatrist;

a Psychologist;

» Social worker; and

a Two chaplains—one Protestant and one
Catholic.

Major changes occurred during restructuring of
the gaol system, and program alternatives
expanded in keeping with the rehabilitation
philosophy. These changes did not happen fast
enough, however, to address existing
conditions. Overcrowding and lack of
ptogramming continued to be major problems,
leading to an inevitable breaking point.

Hugh G. Christie, Warden of Oakalla Prison Farm
(date: unknown) Corrections Branch Archives

64

Corrections in British Columbia