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Families search for answers after 3 Canadian correctional officer suicides

Red Deer Remand Centre officer Jeff Duncan remembered at memorial this week after taking his own life

By Erin Collins
CBC News

ALBERTA — Guarding Alberta’s convicts can be a tough, thankless job. The work can leave lasting physical and mental scars for the corrections officers who do it, and it’s leading some guards to take their own lives.

Colleagues and family members say three correctional officers have committed suicide in just over a year. The latest — Red Deer Remand Centre officer Jeff Duncan — took his own life on Mother’s Day.

His friends and family gathered at the Red Deer Legion this week to say goodbye. Bagpipes played as a slow procession made its way through the room packed with stocky men who came to pay their respects to a fallen comrade.

But they have also come looking for answers, a fact made plain by the minister presiding over the ceremony.

“It is not my role here today to explain why Jeff ended his own life — I am sure everyone is searching for that answer.”

Full story: Alberta correctional officer suicides: Families search for answers after 3 deaths

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