A prisoners’ advocacy organization says it’s struggling to deliver programs at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary.

According to Cindy Murphy, the Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, their Prison In-Reach programs are running into barriers because of a lack of correctional officers.

This all comes on the heels of a recent announcement of new portable trailers that are being built outside prison walls to provide programming to inmates.

“Space is fine and dandy, but we have/continued to have struggles getting into the institution because of the lack of staff availability. Programs that we’re currently contracted to provide for folks in there oftentimes aren’t able to to get off the ground, or if they do get off the ground, they’re very sporadic in our ability to provide them,” she says.