'We'll just keep putting them back up': Families angry memorial crosses removed outside Elgin-Middlesex jail

Families of loved ones who have died at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) in London, Ont., are angry a memorial outside the jail was taken down Monday afternoon.

The removal of 18 crosses bearing the names of inmates who have died at the facility comes after Ontario's Grievance Settlement Board ruled in favour of the union representing workers at the jail, which argued the memorial has become a source of psychological stress for facility staff.

The Ministry of the Solicitor General confirmed in an email to CBC London on Monday afternoon that the crosses were removed at approximately 1 p.m. ET in compliance with the board's order.

The memorial, which was set up on the entrance to the jail, allowed many families to visit loved ones.

With the removal of the crosses, some family members say they are left feeling stripped of the place they created to honour and remember the deceased.

Since 2009, 19 inmates have died at the facility. The most recent death occurred July 6 after an inmate, who had been involved in a collision on Highway 401, was found unresponsive in his cell and later died in hospital.

Kristine Baker, an advocate for Justice for Inmates, lost 24-year-old Murray James Davis, who was engaged to her daughter. Davis was 24 and died at the jail in 2017 as a result of what coroners deemed opiate toxicity.

"Every time there's another problem at the EMDC, it brings back every emotion, every bit of anger and frustration that the criminal justice system doesn't change, that EMDC doesn't change, that no changes are being made," Baker said.

Baker said she has never gone to the memorial site because it's too painful. She'd like to see more permanent installations such as plaques. More importantly, she said, is mental health support for inmates must be provided to prevent more deaths.

"It's too hard — I've lost a lot [there]. To go there, feels so hopeless now," Baker said. "I don't know if people understand the loneliness of losing a child, especially one that has the disease of addiction.

"For everybody who is able to go there, they have every right to see and celebrate their loved ones and have a place of justice."

That same year, Judy Struthers's son Justin was found dead inside the EMDC on Boxing Day. She said families, including hers, should have been notified prior to the removal of the memorial.

"I am very angry, very angry, and they're going to get five times the dose of what they had, with our pictures now," Struthers said.

"I was pretty upset because that was the last place everyone got to see their loved ones before they passed," she said. "[But] we'll just keep putting them back up."

For some people, it's the only place they can go to visit their loved ones, Struthers said. Her two granddaughters regularly went to the memorial to remember their father.

EMDC has previously been called out by Ontario's human rights commissioner, who's said it's "overcrowded, violent and unsanitary."

"To me, stress starts inside those walls of EMDC, not out on us ... and that's what they've done. They've shifted the blame on us," Struthers said.

Struthers and her husband attended the memorial site three times within the past week and are calling for changes on "both sides of the bar." Guards should have more mental health training and mental health support should also be provided for inmates, she said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General said the government will be storing the memorial crosses and family members wishing to collect them can send an email to SOLGEN.Correspondence@ontario.ca.

But even with the removal of the crosses, Struthers said she isn't afraid to install more.

"I already got a cross made and I'm going down Saturday," she said. "I got lots of wood ... I'll make some more. And they'll get bigger."