Guilty pleas in prison sex assault case highlight systemic issues, says Elizabeth Fry Society

A group that advocates for and supports women in conflict with the law says the fact a former correctional officer has admitted to sexually assaulting three women illustrates what the grouphas been saying all along.

"This is about more than an individual," Emma Halpern,the executive director of the mainland Nova Scotia branch of the Elizabeth Fry Society, said Tuesday.

"This is about a system that we at [Elizabeth Fry]have been calling out for human rights abuses and torture for many, many, many years."

On Monday, former prison guard Brian Wilson pleaded guilty to six charges relating to the sexual assaults of three women at the Nova Institutionfor Women in Truro, N.S. The offences occurred between May and September 2018.

Halpern said she finds it unlikely that Wilson could have committed these offences without someone else knowing. She alleges they happened "under the noses" of the Correctional Service of Canada.

"This is not a place where privacy is really an easy thing to access," Halpern said, referring to federal prisons for women.

"There are cameras, there are locked doors ... every moment of someone's life when you are incarcerated is being run by other people who are paid to be there to administer your sentence."

The Correctional Service of Canadahas not yet responded to a request for comment on the Wilson case.

Halpern said this is not the first time a prison guard has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his or her care, but she said Wilson could be the first person convicted of an assault at the Nova Institution.

Halpern said Wilson's guilty pleasunderscore the society's long-standing contention that prisons do not provide women with the support and rehabilitation resources they need to be reintegrated into society.

She said the situation has only gotten worse during the pandemic because of the isolation caused by COVID-19 restrictions.

Wilson remains free on conditions until his sentencing in June.

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