Her Majesty’s Penitentiary inmate Devon Fitzpatrick says early one morning in mid-May he woke up and felt something moving in the crotch of his pants. When he reached in, he discovered a rat had given birth there.

But the incident wasn’t shocking or even surprising, he said in a sit-down interview with CBC News.

An ongoing rodent infestation at the St. John’s jail — parts of which date back to the Victorian era — means “stuff like that happens on a regular basis,” said Fitzpatrick.

“You see 'em coming in and out of your cell. They climb up on the tables, they climb up the pipes and the wires. They’re everywhere,” he said.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced in this year’s provincial budget that it will spend $15 million over the next two years on temporary upgrades to the penitentiary, with $8 million earmarked for this year.