Court upholds B.C. prison warden’s order disallowing guitars in prison cells
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/07/2024 (499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA – A Federal Court judge has thrown out a convicted killer’s challenge of a British Columbia prison warden’s decision not to allow the inmate to have an electric guitar in his cell.
A decision handed down last week says Patrick Fischer is an inmate at Kent Institution, a maximum-security prison in Agassiz, B.C., but he bought the guitar while an inmate at the medium-security Mission Institution.
The ruling says he was transferred back to the maximum security prison in April 2021, and the guitar was put in storage, but months later he grieved the institution’s decision that prevented him to keep the guitar in his cell.
The court ruling says the Kent warden has discretion on what inmates are allowed, but also a “standing order” disallowing inmates from keeping stringed instruments in cells “because they may jeopardize the safety and security of the Institution.”
Fischer appealed the prison’s decision to Federal Court, but Judge Julie Blackhawk found both the warden’s prohibition and the decision denying the electric guitar in the cell reasonable.
Fischer, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of 16-year-old Darci Drefko in Merritt, B.C., successfully won a similar case in 2021 when he took the government to court for the return of a PlayStation memory card that had been confiscated when he was transferred to a medium-security prison.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2024