Special Handling Unit
Encyclopedia
The Special Handling Unit is Canada
's highest security (super-maximum) prison. It is co-located with the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines Institution (maximum security) and the Regional Reception Centre, at the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) complex at Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec
(a short distance from Mirabel International Airport). As of 2008, there were 90 prisoners at the SHU. It is nicknamed "the SHU" .
The X shaped facility is surrounded by fencing and surrounded by farms.
Inmates are always handcuffed in the presence of officers. When escorting inmates, officers are unarmed to prevent inadvertently placing a weapon in the vicinity of the prisoner, however they do carry pepper spray. Inmates must progress through programs in the SHU before being transferred back to the general population of other maximum security prisons; however, some inmates are considered to be too high-risk to be eligible for this and are detained in the SHU for longer periods.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's highest security (super-maximum) prison. It is co-located with the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines Institution (maximum security) and the Regional Reception Centre, at the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) complex at Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec
Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec
Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada, northwest of Montreal in the Regional County Municipality of Thérèse-de-Blainville. The population estimate for the city in 2011 was 13,700, up from 13,001 in the 2006 census...
(a short distance from Mirabel International Airport). As of 2008, there were 90 prisoners at the SHU. It is nicknamed "the SHU" .
The X shaped facility is surrounded by fencing and surrounded by farms.
Inmates are always handcuffed in the presence of officers. When escorting inmates, officers are unarmed to prevent inadvertently placing a weapon in the vicinity of the prisoner, however they do carry pepper spray. Inmates must progress through programs in the SHU before being transferred back to the general population of other maximum security prisons; however, some inmates are considered to be too high-risk to be eligible for this and are detained in the SHU for longer periods.
Notable inmates of the Special Handling Unit
- Maurice BoucherMaurice BoucherMaurice "Mom" Boucher is a convicted murderer, reputed drug trafficker, and outlaw biker—the former President of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter. Boucher led Montreal's Hells Angels against the rival Rock Machine biker gang during The Quebec Biker War of 1994 through 2002 in Quebec, Canada...
(murder, 2002-present) - Allan LegereAllan LegereAllan Legere is a Canadian murderer and arsonist, also known as the Monster of the Miramichi. On May 3, 1989, Legere escaped from RCMP custody while serving a life sentence at the Atlantic Institution for the murder of shopkeeper John Glendenning, of Black River Bridge, New Brunswick, on the...
(murder,1991-present) - Ali Dirie (terrorism, 2009-present)
- Walter Stadnick (murder, 2004-present)
Former inmates
- Guy Paul MorinGuy Paul MorinGuy Paul Morin is a Canadian who was wrongly convicted of the October 1984 rape and murder of his eight-year-old next-door neighbour, Christine Jessop of Queensville, Ontario. DNA testing led to a subsequent overturning of this verdict....
(murder, 1992-1995; exonerated and released) - Clifford OlsonClifford OlsonClifford Robert Olson, Jr. was a convicted Canadian serial killer who confessed to murdering two children and nine youths in the early 1980s.-Murders:...
(serial killer, 1982-2011; died of cancer September 30th, 2011)