Jail time for role in riot at BCC

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This article was published 20/09/2023 (1097 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man who was involved in a jailhouse riot at Brandon Correctional Centre in 2021 was handed a seven-and-a-half-month jail sentence in court on Monday.

Maverick Woodhouse, 31, pleaded guilty to mischief and uttering threats for his role in the riot. He was originally facing a riot charge, but that charge was stayed by the Crown as part of the plea bargain. Both Crown and defence agreed on the sentence for Woodhouse.

Crown attorney Yaso Mathu read the evidence for the charges in court.

On June 6, 2021, 10 inmates on a sub-unit in Brandon Correctional Centre began throwing mattresses around. They pulled phones and a TV from the walls and smashed them. A metal door was pulled of its hinges and sections of the ceiling were damaged. The common area and the cells were flooded.

At one point during the melee, a correctional officer attempted to negotiate with Woodhouse. He blamed her for causing the destruction and threatened to “smash her in” if she or anybody else tried to come into the sub-unit.

Apparently, the destruction started after Woodhouse was caught stealing hand sanitizer from the unit office and drinking it. When staff sent him back to the sub-unit, Woodhouse seemed to get everybody in the unit together before the cameras were smashed and the destruction of the unit began.

The BCC Emergency Response Unit responded to the riot and contained the situation in about two to three hours, the prosecutor said. The damage to the unit was so extensive that it was no longer able habitable and estimated repair costs were in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Mathu said that Woodhouse had a primary role in the riot, as the commotion started after Woodhouse was caught stealing and he made sure that the cameras were obstructed when the ruckus was about to begin. She said that correctional officers observed Woodhouse being agitated and encouraging other inmates, but none of it was caught on camera, which also presented an issue for the Crown’s case.

“This is a highly fraught situation to begin with and Mr. Woodhouse behaving the way that he did certainly did not help anything at all — [it] just aggravated an already tense situation,” the prosecutor said, adding that threats against a correctional officer are especially serious.

Woodhouse’s defence lawyer, Wendy Martin White, said that her 31-year-old client has taken programming while he has been in jail.

She said that Woodhouse has struggled for many years with cocaine and meth addiction and has been diagnosed with various mental health conditions including ADHD, depression and antisocial personality disorder.

Woodhouse, who appeared by video from Brandon Correctional Centre, apologized for his behaviour. He said that he is working on his anger issues.

Judge Hewitt-Michta agreed with Woodhouse’s acknowledgment that he has anger issues.

“What I’ve heard described here, all paints the picture of someone with a really serious anger problem,” the judge said.

Hewitt-Michta said that that riot was very serious and resulted in a lot of damage and cost to taxpayers. Although she said that the recommended sentence was lenient, she said that it fell within an acceptable sentencing range and ultimately sentenced Woodhouse to seven and a half months.

Woodhouse will get credit for the time he has already served (about four months) but he is also pending on other charges including a break and enter in Winnipeg and a robbery charge.

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