THUNDER BAY — There is no timeline yet for repairs to the Thunder Bay District Jail’s heating system to be completed and inmates to return to the facility.
On Thursday, Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union Local 737 president Anthony Rojik told Newswatch the evacuation of the jail was complete with the exception of a few inmates they were still working on securing spots for and it was still unclear how long repairs would take.
The boiler broke down on Monday and an evacuation of the jail commenced. Backup heating systems are operational but inmates were being moved in the event those backups experienced any issues.
This is the first time in the jail’s nearly 100-year history it had to be evacuated, with 188 inmates needing to be temporarily moved to other institutions in the province.
“Due to overcrowding in our institutions across the province this has been our only hurdle in completing this process,” he said. “Our officers, not only at the jail but receiving institutions, worked tirelessly around the clock to complete a task never executed before and did it professionally and took all efforts to protect the safety of the public.”
About 70 of the inmates were taken to the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre on Highway 61 and OPSEU Local 708 president Shawn Bradshaw said it has “fundamentally changed how we do business over here.”
The correctional centre’s male population is usually at 146 and as of Wednesday afternoon, it had 215 inmates.
“We have limited units so it’s caused some overcrowding here — using spaces not traditionally used to house inmates,” said Bradshaw. “It’s just overall created a huge workload and an interesting dynamic.”
Despite the overcrowding, Bradshaw said staff at the correctional centre has been positive.
“I have to give kudos to our local management team here at the correctional centre and the district jail. We’ve been working as collaboratively as we can with our family over there, trying to make it as smooth and safe as possible,” he said.
