Sudbury jail workers' union says a few new correctional officers won't cut it

As the union representing correctional workers in Sudbury cranks up the volume on its ongoing messages about staffing and safety problems at the Sudbury jail, the province announced Monday that more correctional officers will be trained for the north.

• Inmates set fires at Sudbury jail after lockdown: ministry
• Sudbury jail disturbance under investigation
• Sudbury jail workers protest 'dangerous' working conditions

A lock-down at the Sudbury jail on Saturday seems to have been the catalyst for three fires set by inmates that day.

The president of the local chapter of OPSEU said the inmates were locked down in the first place for being "disruptive."

Nathan Aubin said the inmates used contraband — likely smuggled in, he thinks — to light some styrofoam on fire.

Staff at the jail put out the fires and no one was hurt.

Now, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has launched an internal investigation into the lock-down.

More guards — but enough? 

Yesterday, Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault announced three more correctional officers would be trained for the Sudbury jail and, all told, 24 new officers are being trained for northern Ontario correctional facilities.

But Aubin said three more guards in Sudbury won't help much.

"We need far more. The officers they say they're going to hire now [won't] ... even fill the positions that are vacant in our institutions."

"One of the questions that needs to be asked is, 'how many staff does the ministry need to do the job that we need to do now?' As policies change, the procedures, and the job description of correctional officers, change dramatically."

Essential service

In January, correctional workers were very publicly teetering on the edge of a strike over staffing levels, wages and health and safety issues. But, in a last minute deal with the province, they were declared an essential service — something the OPSEU 617 union local in Sudbury declared a "win" — but members thereby gave up their right to strike. 

• Ontario hires 91 new correctional officers across province

As for the new correctional officer positions announced Monday for the north, it's not clear yet if that's on top of those among the 91 new hires already announced for all of Ontario in December. 

That announcement was also rolled out at a time when correctional officers in Ontario were agitating for more money, staff and better working conditions. 

Sudbury jail not alone

The Sudbury jail isn't the only corrections facility in the northeast that has been ringing alarm bells for some time about staffing and safety issues. 

A corrections officer at the Monteith Corrections Complex near Iroquois Falls told CBC News in January, "the jail [was] already overcrowded and understaffed, with a whole floor closed because there aren't enough guards to patrol it." 

In April, a 35-year-old inmate at Monteith reportedly suffered "serious injuries" after six other inmates beat him in his cell.

Will full-body scanners help?

On Tuesday, Ontario's correctional services minister said full-body scanners will be installed at Ontario jails as a way to better detect contraband.

The scanners will be installed at all 26 adult correctional facilities in the province over two years at a cost of $9.5 million.

Naqvi said Ontario will be the first province in the country to install the scanners.

The move follows a six-month pilot project at the Toronto South Detention Centre, which Minister Yasir Naqvi said resulted in a reduction in contraband and fewer incidents with weapons.

During that project 16,427 scans were done and 86 inmates were found with ceramic blades, pills, marijuana and other contraband.

Current methods of contraband detection — including a Body Orifice Scanner chair, hand-held and walk-through metal detectors and strip searches — can't always detect items that are non-metallic or hidden internally.