Saskatchewan Penitentiary suffers data breaches

During 2009-2010, our Office received several reports about unauthorized disclosures of personal information of inmates at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary. In last year’s annual report, we recounted an incident in which the personal information of 184 of the same institution’s prisoners was found in the garbage. 

Here are two incidents reported to our Office from the Saskatchewan prison over the past fiscal year:

• An inmate found 25 interview authorization forms in the penitentiary trash. The forms contained the names and fingerprint identifier numbers of inmates and details on the timing and location of their authorized interviews. The inmate claimed there were many other forms in the garbage, but he only retrieved enough to convince our Office that the prison should be more careful with personal information.
• An inmate submitted a proposal to management. When it was returned to him by Correctional Service of Canada staff, it contained the personal information of 13 other inmates, including their names and fingerprint identification numbers.