“What happens when a maximum security facility produces maximum insecurity?”

So opens Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan’s ruling on a prison stabbing case that faults the prison system — “rife” with shanks and shivs — above the inmates involved.

Justice Morgan’s ruling last week acquitted inmate Michael Short, 27, of four assault charges after he fought back against a shank — a makeshift knife — attack by two prisoners at Toronto East Detention Centre in February 2015. Short was then released.

“There is nothing unreasonable about Mr. Short using a weapon of his own to defend himself . . . where people are blatantly trying to kill him with knives or shivs,” Justice Morgan wrote in the July 14 decision.

The judge laid broader responsibility at the feet of the institution and its “violent” conditions. “The system put him in this situation, and the system cannot blame him for resorting to his own means of defence,” he wrote.

Short, who was serving time for robbery when the incident occurred, was in court last week facing two charges of assault, and two of assault with a weapon. The three-day trial ended July 13 with Morgan letting Short walk free.

Shamar Brown and Jordan Marcelle were not charged in the incident.

Short sustained a neck injury, requiring stitches. It’s unclear who caused the gash. Brown received a slash and a puncture wound from Short.

Morgan’s ruling comes in the wake of a wave of criticism around overcrowding, understaffing, lack of mental health support and use of solitary confinement in the provincial and federal correctional systems.

On Thursday, Short told the Star “The East” — the detention centre — needs more guards and fewer lockdowns.

“There’s not nearly enough of them. And there needs to be an immediate response when this happens. It’s dangerous,” he said on the phone through his lawyer, Robert Costello.

Monte Vieselmeyer, chair of the corrections division for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said the ruling sets a “dangerous precedent.

“It’s implied that he’s saying that offenders are justified to carry these weapons,” Vieselmeyer said.

He called on the provincial government for more prison funding.

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has approved the roll-out of full-body scanners at all 26 provincial jails over the next two years. The scanners will catch inmates’ makeshift knives, sometimes lodged “up their backsides” said Vieselmeyer.

Earlier this year, the province announced it would hire 2,000 correctional officers over three years, on top of the 710 it has brought on board since 2013.

The new hires will beef up the number of guards, boost access to rehabilitation and reintegration programs and improve access to mental health services, then-minister of Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi said in March.

The head of security for the Toronto East Detention Centre, Sgt. John Lawson, “conceded that The East is a violent place with many inmates having weapons,” Morgan wrote. Short, Brown and Marcelle testified that the Scarborough facility is “rife with weapons of all varieties,” the judge wrote.

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Correctional Services is currently reviewing Morgan’s ruling, and declined to comment on the case because it may still be appealed, said spokesperson Greg Flood.

Jason Mushynski, vice-president of Local 582 representing correctional officers at Toronto East Detention Centre, called the ruling “insulting” and “a slap to COs.”

He pointed to the absence of training to deal with weapons or sharp objects. Mushynski said the union has been asking the province for that for years to bolster safety for guards and inmates