Security cameras at prisons in Ontario and Quebec recorded guards hitting inmates, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. The CBC, in a report Thursday, said it and Radio Canada had obtained the videos. While the guards whose actions were videotaped have been dismissed and even criminally charged, surveillance cameras are not universal inside Canadian prisons, the CBC said.

Howard Sapers, Canada’s federal prison watchdog, also said in a report that the cameras are ineffective about 70 percent of the time because of poor quality, breakdowns, and incompatible systems. Inmate advocates say the country needs to install security cameras throughout its prison system and to make sure their recordings are usable.

“It’s terrorism. I mean these guys are abusing their authority and they’re terrorizing people who are under their control,” Kevin Egan, a lawyer in Ontario said of the beatings. “The purpose of our prison system is to rehabilitate. And it may be that it’s not just inmates that need to be rehabilitated, but the guards.”
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