THUNDER BAY – In her role as the NDP’s community safety and correctional services critic, Jennifer French has seen a number of Ontario prisons.
But French was left visibly shocked by the conditions inside the Thunder Bay District Jail.
Saying it was different than any other jail she had ever been in, the MPP for Oshawa toured the 90-year-old MacDougall Street facility with OPSEU Local 737 president Mike Lundy on Wednesday morning.
“This is archaic. It is very tightly packed, even in terms of the design you know everyone in there is fighting the building, with every other challenge we have in our corrections system from addictions to violence compounded,” she said after completing the tour.
“It’s dirty. It’s deplorable. Things are in such dire straits because of the staffing, it’s so under-staffed. All of our jails across the province are suffering that but seeing it here in such a small space really drives it home.”
French acknowledged she was motivated to visit the Thunder Bay facility after a Dec. 7 riot that saw a correctional officer taken hostage by inmates for more than three hours and the whole facility placed in lockdown for 12 hours.
The incident garnered headlines across the province and became a topic of debate in the legislature at Queen’s Park.
The facility had earlier been toured by OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas and Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown, who both called on the governing Liberals to build a replacement.
French reiterated those calls, questioning why there has been no movement despite the former PC government having a groundbreaking at the site of the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre on Highway 61.
“There was a shovel in the ground and a promise for a replacement, for an update and something that serves modern day corrections. Where is it? I don’t know,” she said. “This is a community that has been calling for a replacement. The community knows what it needs. I would ask the government why it’s reneging.”
Local MPP Michael Gravelle (Lib., Thunder Bay-Superior North), who is also the minister of northern development and mines, toured the facility earlier this month and said he believes it needs to be replaced but any plans would after the completion of a ministerial review of the correctional system.
Lundy described the morale inside the jail as “awful” since the riot and said the last major renovations to the facility pale in comparison to what is needed.
“They built a sally port back in the (arrest and detain) area and back in I believe 2005 they did a retrofit to the dorm area where he house worker inmates but we didn’t add any extra beds or anything like that,” he said.
“I go to all these new jails and I see some of the older ones from 1980 or 1985 and they’re all getting retrofits and all this work done. We keep asking for a new jail but I think we need to strive to say we need a replacement jail…The time has come.”
The situation inside Ontario prisons might become even more dire within the next two weeks as correctional officers were issued a no-board report, putting them in a legal strike position on Jan. 10.
The Ontario government issued a media release on Tuesday acknowledging the deadline and that negotiations have been “challenging” but said they remain committed to the bargaining process and are working to reach a deal.
In the event of a strike, jails would be run by managers with management from other ministries brought in to support.
“In 2002 they ran the same thing with the replacement managers. The system has gotten much worse in the last 13 years, much worse,” Lundy said.
“I’m not trying to fear monger to them but they’re not going to be able to run these jails. They know it, the frontline managers know it but the ministry, treasury board and (Premier) Kathleen Wynne don’t get it.”
French said if a labour disruption does indeed happen, the government needs to ensure safety inside.
“There’s a lot to anticipate in terms of worst case scenarios,” she said. “I think between now and then the government really needs to figure this out before our communities are left picking up the pieces.”
