A federal labour board has ruled a prison guard who fell asleep while guarding a suicidal inmate should not have lost her job, says Blacklock’s Reporter..Instead, adjudicator Ian Mackenzie overturned the firing as excessive, and suspended the guard for 18 months without pay..“I know it looks bad,” said Aleksandra Besirovic, a $62,000-a year guard at the Edmonton Institution, a maximum security penitentiary..“I will admit my actions were not acceptable and I sincerely regret you had to see me in this negative light. I am mortified and feel rather embarrassed.”.Besirovic was working a 2017 night shift when video surveillance cameras showed she pulled up two chairs, gathered a neck pillow and blanket and appeared motionless for almost an hour. The warden said Besirovic looked to be “preparing to make herself comfortable.”.She was assigned at the time to watching a prisoner on suicide watch in solitary confinement..“Video shows her with her legs on a chair, slumped down and motionless,” according to labour board records..Besirovic only stirred when another guard arrived on his rounds..Besirovic was fired for breach of Correctional Service Standards Of Professional Conduct. Management said it wanted to “send a clear message to all employees,” according to the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board..“The grievor in the case before me accepted full responsibility for her actions,” wrote Mackenzie..The guard “has learned a lesson and will be a more vigilant correctional officer as a result,” he wrote..Mackenzie noted it was not the first case involving a sleeping prison guard. There were “many decisions involving sleeping at work,” wrote Mackenzie..The Board in 2019 similarly overturned the firing of a guard at a medium-security penitentiary in Mission, B.C. who fell asleep while on car patrol outside the prison. Surveillance video showed the guard’s vehicle was parked for more than an hour before managers spotted the driver “with his mouth open and his head tipped back” dozing in the front seat..“What are you doing?” asked a manager, knocking on the window. The guard appeared “disoriented, dazed and confused” and had removed his boots and bulletproof vest..“They concluded he had fallen asleep,” wrote the Board..The Board gave the guard his job back with a two-year suspension. The same guard was previously cited for sleeping on the job in 2009..“It’s tearing me inside,” William Dekort, the guard at Mission, testified at a disciplinary hearing..“I can’t express how guilty and sorry I feel.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
