"I know that the officers were wearing stab-proof vests and they're very good pieces of safety equipment that CSC has provided to the officers who are working in the units," Brian Joyce, an assistant warden at Kingston Pen said yesterday. "I can't speak specifically about whether that was a life-saving event or not but it certainly is a mitigating factor."

are still being assessed. One officer may have suffered an injured eye from flying glass.

Joyce cited privacy laws in refusing to provide any information about the status of the staff.

The two inmate attackers have been transferred out of the prison and could end up in a special handling unit, a super- secure facility for convicts who pose a threat behind bars.

All of the roughly 400 convicts at KP remain confined to their cells and all visits and programs were cancelled to allow a prison-wide search for weapons and contraband.

"We're going to take our time and do what's necessary to make sure every-thing's safe before we open up," Joyce said.

He could not predict when the search would be completed and the institution's normal routine would be restored.

Godin said the incident could have been defused, with fewer injuries, if correctional officers were permitted to carry OC, a form of pepper spray.

He said staff could see the incident spiralling out of control.

"If we had [OC spray], we could have prevented further injuries," he said.

The union has been battling senior management for some time, arguing that prison guards should be permitted to carry small canisters of the spray so that they can swiftly respond to violent incidents.

At the moment, OC spray is available, but staff must go to a locked, central command post and ask permission from a supervisor for its use.

Godin said staff often don't have time to fetch a weapon.

"Eighty per cent of the use-of-force incidents that happen in our institutions are spontaneous," he said.

Two years ago, guards at maximum-security Kent Institution in British Columbia briefly refused to work and filed a health and safety complaint under the Canada Labour Code over the failure of prison bosses to issue OC spray.

A tribunal hearing was held in July to examine the complaint. A decision could take six months.

"It is frustrating," said Gord Robertson, regional president of the union based in Abbotsford, B. C. "It's difficult when we know that these things actually protect staff, they actually save staff's lives and in the case of OC it can definitely help in protecting inmates' lives because we can break up fights."

Robertson said the union faced the same resistance from senior Corrections bosses over demands for handcuffs and vests to be standard issue, at least in maximum-security prisons.

Corrections initially resisted union demands for cuffs and vests, arguing they would provoke or intimidate prisoners.

In 2004, Corrections Canada agreed to allow correctional officers to carry handcuffs. Vests were issued to staff in maximum-security prisons and to some staff in medium-security facilities about two years ago.

Robertson said Corrections is facing a serious budget crunch and money may be a factor in the resistance to give OC spray to all staff.

He notes that Corrections spent nearly $25,000 to hire an expert to appear at the tribunal in July to argue against the union.

"Twenty-four thousand, nine hundred dollars would buy enough OC spray for an institution for years," he said.

Robertson said staff inside prisons face a growing threat of violence.

"CSC realizes that these inmates are becoming more and more violent all the time," he said.