MPP Gretzky questions why new jail can’t handle weekend inmates
It’s shocking that Windsor residents are heading to London to serve their jail sentence on weekends when Windsor has a brand-new jail, Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky said Tuesday.
“It’s unacceptable and it makes no sense when we have a brand-new facility that’s being underutilized in this area. So we’re taking them from an area with this brand-new facility and shipping them to one that’s considered outdated, overcrowded and unsafe,” Gretzky said Tuesday.
Gretzky, the critic for correctional services, said she was startled when she read in a letter sent to her last week from Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Yasir Naqvi that intermittent offenders who had been reporting to the old Windsor jail will serve their weekend sentences at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre “until they can be accommodated at the SWDC.”
The letter said stakeholders and police agencies have already been told that offenders serving intermittent time after Aug. 18 would be required to self-report to the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre in London.
Gretzky said the ministry put all the planning into a wonderful facility and yet doesn’t have enough staff to fully use it.
The new $247-million South West Detention Centre got its first inmates in late July and is supposed to have 315 beds. Naqvi’s recent letter was advising Gretzky that the operations of the Windsor Jail have now been transferred to the South West Detention Centre.
“The safety and security of correctional staff and inmates is the ministry’s top priority,” Greg Flood, manager of issues and media for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional services, said in a email. “The SWDC is currently at 80 per cent capacity and has capacity to house female intermittent offenders from the Chatham and Windsor area on weekends. The SWDC will also house male intermittent offenders once the facility is fully operational.”
He said the Elgin jail has been operating under capacity.
Windsor criminal lawyer Maria Carroccia said the travel to London will cause significant problems for some.
An intermittent sentence of up to 90 days can help low risk offenders keep their job or continue in school or caring for their family. Carroccia questions how people will be able to travel out of town and keep a job here. She said some, such as those convicted of impaired driving and without a licence, may not have a way to get to London.
Flood said the ministry does not arrange transport for intermittent inmates.
Carroccia said she was told during a tour of the new facility that unlike the old jail there would be no need for contact between the people serving weekend sentences and the general population. She said she doesn’t understand why the ministry doesn’t hire the additional staff they need anyway.
“So now we’ve got a new place. We should be able to deal with our own community.”
Dan Sidsworth, a corrections division chairman with OPSEU who works in Milton, said the South West Detention Centre is short about 60 correctional officers so it can’t be fully opened. He said some officers are being transferred and the ministry is training more staff.
Gretzky said a freeze on the training and hiring of correctional officers has been lifted and understaffed facilities are now fighting to get new officers.
Sidsworth said some intermittent offenders are being sent to the overcrowded London facility while others are going to Milton. He said they should be kept in their own community. “It’s having a negative impact in London because they’re already overcrowded,” Sidsworth said. “The ministry hasn’t thought this out long-term.”
OPSEU has concerns about security and safety and has been lobbying across the province for more correctional officers, Sidsworth said.