THUNDER BAY — The new Thunder Bay Correctional Complex is still more than three years away from its expected opening, but concerns are already being expressed about its size.
Shawn Bradshaw, president of the Ontario Public Services Union local that represents correctional officers at the existing Thunder Bay Correctional Centre, believes the new building will be too small.
"The complex isn't going to be big enough, to be very frank," he said this week in an interview.
It's designed to accommodate 345 inmates.
Taking into account a recently-opened 50-unit modular facility at the correctional centre, the new on-site capacity would be 395.
According to Bradshaw, the combined inmate population this week at the existing Thunder Bay Jail and the correctional centre was 320.
"That's just in Thunder Bay. We've had many more inmates that we've had to ship to other jurisdictions... which would fill that building completely. I would say 75 easily. I would say we're really close to capacity anyway."
Bradshaw added that the union has expressed this concern to officials from the Ministry of the Solicitor General on multiple occasions.
"We've said this at every meeting along the way, that we felt that their numbers weren't reflective of our inmate population or the trends that we were seeing."
At the Thunder Bay Jail, OPSEU Local 737 president Bill Hayes stated Wednesday that the new correctional complex "is going to be great for Thunder Bay corrections, all around."
But he also said "We already have a lot of our inmates spread out across the province... There's still a major issue in the province of overcrowding...and when we get our inmates back, we're basically going to be filling this place right up instantly."
Hayes said "we welcome the extra bed space, but again, it could always be more because other institutions, Kenora etc, some of the older institutions, are going to lean on us now to help them out with their counts, and more needs to be done across the province."
He noted that government officials have pointed out that the new correctional complex is designed to accommodate future expansion.
"But these are talks that need to start happening now, because we see how long these things can drag out. And just looking at the numbers across the province, what's more beneficial – to expand sooner or expand later – when we're all jammed up again?"
Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told Dougall Media this week that he has an excellent relationship with the correctional officers' union, and wants them to know "their voices are being heard."
The minister said the government's $1.2 billion investment in the new jail "sends a powerful message that Thunder Bay is important to Ontario, and we're going to do absolutely everything we can to keep Thunder Bay safe and all Ontario safe."
