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Ottawa will be getting a new 725-bed jail to replace the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, the province’s corrections minister announced Thursday.
Marie-France Lalonde said the province intends to build a bigger jail to increase capacity and reduce overcrowding at the Ottawa jail.
She said it was “premature” to share a timeline for the new jail, and there were no details about where the new jail would be built, nor how much it would cost.
Lalonde also announced a new 325-bed jail for Thunder Bay.
Lalonde said health care in jails will also be taken over by the ministry of health, and that the province will be moving forward with new legislation in the fall of 2017 that will define segregation based on conditions of confinement and international standards – not on a physical location within an institution.
The province will also implement an “enhanced model of independent oversight and governance of the adult corrections system, including segregation” that will increase accountability and transparency.
The announcement coincides with the release of a report on segregation in the province by Howard Sapers, the former federal corrections investigator. Sapers found that the use of segregation had become the “default response” for dealing with mentally ill, disabled or other challenging inmates in Ontario’s jails.
Related
“Segregation should never be the default to manage those with complex needs,” said Sapers.
Sapers made 63 recommendations to reduce the use of segregation in Ontario and that he hoped would enhance oversight and regulations around its use. One of the recommendations was the elimination of indefinite segregation entirely. That would mean inmates would spend no more than 15 days in a row in segregation, or 60 days total without an “extraordinary review process and oversight.”
The detention centre has long been a magnet for criticism.
The jail has long been operating at, above or near capacity, its stated capacity of 560 inmates, and up until mid-April, as many as 10 inmates serving weekend sentences were routinely given mattresses on the floor in a dayroom in a segregation area. Others were being kept in holding cells in the admitting and discharge area.
Some inmates in segregation also were being doubled up in cells meant for one; one inmate would sleep on a bunk, and another on a mattress on the floor, according to staff.
Facilities for those with mental illness have also been a problem: according to the union representing correctional officers, the jail’s interim “step-down” unit, which is intended to help inmates with mental illness transition from segregation back to the general population, was set up in a repurposed hallway.
REVEALED IN PHOTOS: Take a tour inside Ottawa’s notorious jail
While the province has recently hired dozens of new correctional officers, nurses and staff to run recreation programs at the jail, the union said the jail has simply run out of space to put everyone.
The jail’s independent community advisory board has repeatedly criticized both the cleanliness and the maintenance of the institution, and a special task force appointed by then corrections minister Yasir Naqvi also made recommendations to improve health and safety conditions within the jail.
“I would say it’s good news for everybody,” Denis Collin, a correctional officer and president of the OPSEU local representing correctional officers at the jail, said of the announcement.
“It’s good news for the province, it’s good news for Ottawa, it’s good news for the ministry, it’s good news for those working the jails and it’s good news for those doing time in our jail. It’s just overdue and maybe we can turn the page if this actually comes through and get on with the business of providing what a proper jail is supposed to be providing.”
The new jail does appear to be a change in direction for the ministry; when Naqvi was corrections minister, he said that building new, bigger jails would fail taxpayers.
aseymour@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/andrew_seymour
查看原文...
Marie-France Lalonde said the province intends to build a bigger jail to increase capacity and reduce overcrowding at the Ottawa jail.
She said it was “premature” to share a timeline for the new jail, and there were no details about where the new jail would be built, nor how much it would cost.
Lalonde also announced a new 325-bed jail for Thunder Bay.
Lalonde said health care in jails will also be taken over by the ministry of health, and that the province will be moving forward with new legislation in the fall of 2017 that will define segregation based on conditions of confinement and international standards – not on a physical location within an institution.
The province will also implement an “enhanced model of independent oversight and governance of the adult corrections system, including segregation” that will increase accountability and transparency.
The announcement coincides with the release of a report on segregation in the province by Howard Sapers, the former federal corrections investigator. Sapers found that the use of segregation had become the “default response” for dealing with mentally ill, disabled or other challenging inmates in Ontario’s jails.
Related
- Ottawa jail 'clean and well-functioning', new corrections minister says after tour
- Platt: Ottawa's jail sees another horrifying story, and the government again appears oblivious
- Reevely: Ottawa's jail contends for worst in province, head of corrections union says after tour
“Segregation should never be the default to manage those with complex needs,” said Sapers.
Sapers made 63 recommendations to reduce the use of segregation in Ontario and that he hoped would enhance oversight and regulations around its use. One of the recommendations was the elimination of indefinite segregation entirely. That would mean inmates would spend no more than 15 days in a row in segregation, or 60 days total without an “extraordinary review process and oversight.”
The detention centre has long been a magnet for criticism.
The jail has long been operating at, above or near capacity, its stated capacity of 560 inmates, and up until mid-April, as many as 10 inmates serving weekend sentences were routinely given mattresses on the floor in a dayroom in a segregation area. Others were being kept in holding cells in the admitting and discharge area.
Some inmates in segregation also were being doubled up in cells meant for one; one inmate would sleep on a bunk, and another on a mattress on the floor, according to staff.
Facilities for those with mental illness have also been a problem: according to the union representing correctional officers, the jail’s interim “step-down” unit, which is intended to help inmates with mental illness transition from segregation back to the general population, was set up in a repurposed hallway.
REVEALED IN PHOTOS: Take a tour inside Ottawa’s notorious jail
While the province has recently hired dozens of new correctional officers, nurses and staff to run recreation programs at the jail, the union said the jail has simply run out of space to put everyone.
The jail’s independent community advisory board has repeatedly criticized both the cleanliness and the maintenance of the institution, and a special task force appointed by then corrections minister Yasir Naqvi also made recommendations to improve health and safety conditions within the jail.
“I would say it’s good news for everybody,” Denis Collin, a correctional officer and president of the OPSEU local representing correctional officers at the jail, said of the announcement.
“It’s good news for the province, it’s good news for Ottawa, it’s good news for the ministry, it’s good news for those working the jails and it’s good news for those doing time in our jail. It’s just overdue and maybe we can turn the page if this actually comes through and get on with the business of providing what a proper jail is supposed to be providing.”
The new jail does appear to be a change in direction for the ministry; when Naqvi was corrections minister, he said that building new, bigger jails would fail taxpayers.
aseymour@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/andrew_seymour
查看原文...
