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Many, many people in Miramichi are breathing a collective sigh of relief at the news that Allan Legere will not, after all, be moved.

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Instead, he is to stay where he belongs — in Correctional Services Canada's super maximum security special handling unit in Quebec. For a while, it looked like he may well have conned his way once again into lulling authorities into such a false sense of security that they figured his incarceration could be safely downgraded to a regular maximum security prison.

Fortunately, word leaked out that that might happen and the ensuing cries of outraged indignation scuttled any such plan that might have been in the works.

We say "word leaked out" and "might have been in the works" because CSC sticks rigidly to the letter of law when it comes to what it deems to be prisoners' privacy rights.

When asked about the rumour, CSC spokeswoman Christelle Chartrand refused to confirm or deny any proposed change in Leger's status, saying the federal organization cannot divulge information about prisoner transfers because of provisions in the Privacy Act.

It seems to us that any prisoners who need to be housed in a special handling unit as a result of their particular offences and/or history have forfeited any right to privacy. Legere is in the SHU both because of the particularly abhorrent nature of his crimes — and because of his escape record.

If CSC is right in interpreting the law in a way that makes it impossible for it to throw light on such a momentous issue as the move of one of Canada's 90 most evil and dangerous prisoners from an absolutely escape-proof facility to a less secure prison, then the law needs to be amended.

When New Brunswick Safety Minister John Foran called us Tuesday to tell us federal counterpart Stockwell Day had assured him Legere was not going to be moved, he noted that as the law currently stands, it also stipulates that the rehabilitation of prisoners takes precedence over the issue of public safety.

When printed in black and white like that, the obscenity of such a notion leaps out at you, but it is the law. Fortunately, there are plans in the works to change that.

Offenders are sent to maximum-security prisons and super-maximum-security prisons because they are deemed to be a danger to public safety to a greater or lesser degree and it is therefore appropriate to house them in a facility where that danger is contained.

That fact should override any other considerations when it comes to the treatment of prisoners, and if the law doesn't recognize that, then it needs to be amended accordingly.

It will soon be 25 years since Legere was first put away in 1986, and with that anniversary comes a mandatory right to a parole hearing.

We are confident that as the law stands, there is no chance Legere will ever be allowed on the street again, but we also need to be able to feel that CSC recognizes that Legere and his ilk, as author and former Miramichi Leader editor Rick MacLean points out, have nothing to lose and escape is never far from their thoughts.

Referring to Legere's most notorious escape, Maclean said, "He [spent] all his time on one thing and one thing only — conning the people around him into believing he's safe enough so that they can trust him ..."

"What do you think he's been focusing on since they captured him in November 1989? What do you think he's been thinking about ever since? I'm convinced he's still thinking about exactly the same thing — ‘I want out; this community did me wrong; this community deserves to be punished.'

"What's he got to lose ... what's the worst thing that can happen to him if he escapes and kills someone? He goes back to where he already is. He has nothing to lose — absolutely nothing to lose."

Not only must Legere stay where he is, we need to know will never again be permitted to be in a situation where escape is even remotely possible, and if that means changing the law, so be it.