After six years at the helm of the Drumheller Institution, Mike Hanly has accepted a promotion and will be reporting to headquarters in the Pacific region this month.
“It is very tough to leave. We have done very well in Drumheller. It has been really great for me and it has been really great for our family,” said Hanly. “We have very much been accepted into the community and have become part of the community.
“I don’t think I would want to leave Drumheller just to be a warden somewhere else, but at this stage to have a promotion and to be given this opportunity, it is hard to say no.”
Hanly came to Drumheller from the Edmonton Institution for Women, where he worked as deputy warden and as a team leader. In his 22-year career, he has worked in five institutions in various roles, including a parole officer, and native liaison.
He said when he came to Drumheller his goal was to address stability.
“There wasn’t stability at the institution and I wanted to lead the staff and let the staff know they had a warden in Drumheller because he believed in Drumheller and wanted to be there,” said Hanly. “Drumheller has had some rough patches in its history so we wanted to make sure it was stable and reduce the number of incidents,” said Hanly.
“The population is young, half of them are under 30, half of them are serving sentences of less than three years. So you have a bunch of young guys serving short sentences, so they don’t have a lot of commitment to anything and that can make them very difficult to deal with,” said Hanly.
He adds that gang membership has risen and inmates are involved in more violent behaviour.
“It makes it a difficult population to manage, but the staff do a wonderful job and they are very good at managing the population,” said Hanly.
One thing he takes pride in is the good relationship the institution has fostered with the town.
“The Institution has always had a good relationship, but I think we really took that to another level, and saw a good period of close cooperation and mutual partnership for both sides,” he said.
Some examples of this are inmate labour working on the Drumheller Housing Authority apartment project and the labour invested in the trail network.
“It has certainly been a highlight to me,” he said.
Outside of work, he and his family have become heavily invested in the community. His wife Sue Backs has been a leader at St. Anthony’s School as well as being involved in the arts community, and has taught culinary art classes. His sons are involved in Titans football, hockey, the Sea Cadets, Aquadinnies and The Passion Play.
“I don’t think people in Drumheller give themselves enough credit for what a wonderful place it is and how much the community cares and works together, and we have really been blessed to be part of that,” said Hanly.
He said a replacement has yet to be named, and Corrections Canada will be going through the process of hiring.
