You are here: Home > OPS > Ministry >April 20  2001  LockTalk

April 20, 2001

Corrections swamps Ontario media

The plan was to ensure that every news outlet in Ontario knew about the plight of jails in this province. That plan was a complete and total success.

The April 12, 2001 media blitz, featuring the corrections video “Sabotage” along with a report on the intentional government destruction of public correctional services, struck a chord with every news service in the province. Every town and city that the package was presented in covered the story, generating a level of publicity that no amount of money could buy. That publicity will continue, as dozens of local cable outlets plan to air the video in the weeks ahead.

It is estimated that at least 80 separate news outlets carried the story, largely due to coverage provided by the Canadian Press (CP) and Broadcast News. At best, the Ministry could only offer a weak response to the issues presented.

Every activist in the Corrections Division is to be congratulated on their amazing effort. To give you an idea what the rest of the country saw, here is the unedited release from CP that went to almost every newspaper and radio station in Canada:

---

Crowded, disease ridden ‘hell holes,’ Ontario jails making guards sick: union
Source: CP
Apr 12, 2001 15:38

Violence-plagued, disease-ridden “hell-holes,” says the union representing their guards.

Conditions are so poor, says the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, there has been a huge increase in the amount of time guards take off work.

In effect, OPSEU says, the province’s jails are making guards sick.

A union survey of 44 Ontario correctional facilities, released Thursday, asked guards across the province about their working conditions in an effort to determine why the average number of sick days has jumped to 20 from 12 since 1995, the year the Mike Harris Tories came to power.

The results directly linked sick time to Corrections Ministry policies, said Leah Casselman, president of OPSEU, which represents 5,400 corrections workers.

“Every decision this government has made has worked to destabilize correctional facilities,” Casselman told a news conference.

Corrections Minister Rob Sampson could not immediately be reached for comment.

In February, the Corrections Ministry began publishing on its Web site the number of sick days workers clocked in an effort to embarrass guards back to work.

Norm Sterling, corrections minister at the time, said the public should be able to judge the “performance of their local jail.”

Union member Barry Scanlon said guards are taking more sick time because Tory cuts resulted in chronic overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

“The overcrowding, filth and disease have landed front-line corrections officers in violence-filled hell holes,” said Scanlon, who works at the Waterloo Detention Centre in Cambridge, Ont.

Scanlon said prisoners rarely get fresh air or room to stretch their legs because of overcrowding.

Jails function at 115 per cent capacity on weekends, the union says. Detention centres, where inmates live while they await trial or sentencing, operate at 151 per cent capacity during the week and 181 per cent on weekends.

Scanlon said the situation is so bad people sleep on tables or on floors with their heads next to toilets.

“This inhumane overcrowding often leads to increased inmate-on-inmate violence because there simply isn’t enough space, enough seats or even enough washroom facilities for everyone,” he said.

The survey showed that 95 per cent of staff have experienced a general increase in psychological distress - including anger, frequent illness, marital problems, substance abuse and depression - since 1995.

Casselman said the government is “deliberately making scapegoats of guards to serve its agenda of privatizing at all costs.”

The province opened its first superjail for 1,500 inmates less than a month ago.

Maplehurst Correctional Complex, in Milton, Ont., will be a blueprint for two more superjails under construction in the central Ontario communities of Penetanguishene and Lindsay.

At least one of those jails will be run privately, a move the government says will save money.

---

Safety takes back seat to bucks
Maplehurst superjail to be occupied despite numerous risks

It would seem that the health and safety of staff at the Maplehurst superjail is just a minor annoyance if it stands in the way of Ministry plans.

It has been reported that on Friday, April 20, Maplehurst superintendent Mike Mously plans to start housing intermittent sentenced inmates in the new facility despite numerous health and safety complaints, many of which could put officers’ lives at risk.

Among the problems noted to date are computer control systems that crash at critical times, the lack of secure sallyports to control entry to the living units, security fences that give constant false alarms, and second level railings that are a danger to both staff and inmates.

Since March 12, 2001, OPSEU’s provincial Corrections Health and Safety Committee has tried to get the problems inside the superjail corrected. These requests have fallen on deaf ears.

“The superintendent has said he will take responsibility for the risks, but in reality it is the staff who are on the firing line,” said Barry Scanlon, chair of the OPSEU Corrections Ministry Employee Relations Committee. “We will do everything we can to protect our members, but if something happens we will take every legal action at our disposal against those who made the decision to move inmates into the facility. This is a budget issue for the Ministry, and staff safety is taking a back seat.”

Bill Gillies, president at Local 234 (Maplehurst), feels betrayed by the move.

“It is being implied that the union has somehow delayed this process, but that is simply not true,” Gillies said. “We have, in good faith, done everything in our power to get these problems addressed. We have made numerous calls to the Ministry of Labour to assist us in achieving a complete and thorough inspection of the facility, to no avail. It is the Ministry that is ignoring the problems. ”

The Ministry plans to have the Maplehurst facility fully occupied within three weeks, mostly housing less predictable and more violent remanded offenders. The same occupation plan for the privately operated Penetanguishene facility, which will be 80 per cent occupied by sentenced inmates serving less than two years, will take six to nine months.

“Enough is Enough”

That is the message on buttons being proudly worn on shift today by members at Local 308 (Peterborough Jail).

The button campaign kicks off a joint workplace strategy put together by local executive members Steve Clancy of Local 308, Larry Cripps of Local 309 (Lindsay Jail), Peter Harding of Local 337 (Brookside Youth Centre) and Pete Wright and Tim Hannah of Local 341 (Millbrook C.C.).

These members wasted no time in setting up a coalition of the four locals, and their planning came to fruition in Peterborough last night at a joint meeting of the four institutions. Over 100 members attended from nearly every bargaining unit, and all were ready to fight back. One of the highlights of the meeting was the showing of the “Sabotage” video, which received a standing ovation.

“I’m proud of the way our members are getting ready to make a stand,” said Steve Clancy. “They all realize what is at stake here. The slogan on the buttons sums up their feelings best: Enough is Enough.”

Clancy also said that escalating workplace actions are being discussed.

“The Ministry of Correctional Services doesn’t seem to be getting the hint about how serious we are in stopping the destruction of our jail system,” Clancy said. “Management may be in for a rather rude awakening.”

For campaign information, call Don Ford (ext. 442) or Pam Doig (ext. 687) at 1-800-268-7376 or (416) 443-8888.

e-mail: dford@opseu.org or pdoig@opseu.org

.Ontario Public Service Employees Union
100 Lesmill Road, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3P8
www.opseu.org  opseu@opseu.org
Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.

Return to top of page

Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 100 Lesmill Rd. Toronto, ON M3B 3P8  (416) 443-8888  www.opseu.org