Murderer dies in B.C. prison amid overdose prevention debate
Mountain Institution in Agassiz, B.C. is seen on Sunday, March 30, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
A murderer serving an indeterminate sentence at a federal prison in B.C.'s Fraser Valley has died, the Correctional Service of Canada announced Friday.
Darak Andrew More died in CSC custody at Mountain Institution – a medium-security prison in Agassiz, B.C. – on Wednesday, the service said in a statement.
A man by that name was one of two people charged with first-degree murder in Saskatchewan in 2011 in connection to the high-profile disappearance of a man named Rob Vicente.
More had been serving his sentence for second-degree murder since September 2012, the CSC said Friday.
"As in all cases involving the death of an inmate, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) will review the circumstances," the agency's statement reads. "CSC policy requires that the police and the coroner be notified."
While the CSC did not share the cause of More's death, the union that represents corrections officers said Thursday that an inmate at Mountain Institution had died the preceding morning from an overdose.
The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers is highlighting the latest death – as well as the recent overdose death of another inmate at Mountain Institution – in its campaign to convince the CSC to scrap plans for a prison needle exchange program (PNEP) at the facility.
John Randle, the union's Pacific regional president, told CTV News earlier this week that he met with the commissioner of the CSC to push for supervised overdose prevention sites (OPS) instead of PNEPs.
Through an OPS, inmates have more access to harm reduction services and addiction treatment options, the union argues.
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Becca Clarkson
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