LONDON, Ont. — Ontario will add more beds to its beleaguered jails, which are bursting with inmates, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said Monday.
The province intends to add several hundred spots throughout the system as it grapples with a surge of inmates over the past 18 months.
Meanwhile, the province has said 81 per cent of inmates in provincial jails are awaiting trial and presumptively innocent. Those institutions hold people accused of a crime but not out on bail, as well as those serving sentences of two years less a day. Ontario will reopen two intermittent detention centres inside Toronto and London jails that had been closed in order to add up to 430 beds by 2026.
Correctional workers are increasingly assaulted and both operational stress injuries and post-traumatic stress disorders are on the rise. Suicides among correctional officers are also increasing, the union has said."This investment in staffing and infrastructure is a good example of the type of solutions we need to help keep communities, our staff, and those inside our walls safe," said Chad Oldfield, an OPSEU spokesman and correctional officer, in a statement.
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