Calls for action grow in northern Ontario after ombudsman warns of 'growing crisis' in provincial jails

Correctional officers, advocates and community workers in northern Ontario say they're encouraged to see Ontario's ombudsman acknowledge the "urgent need for reform" in the correctional system. However, they emphasize that it's up to the provincial government to make real change.

In his report released last week, Paul Dubé said his office responded to 6,870 cases about correctional facilities within the last fiscal year, representing an "alarming" increase of 55 per cent from the previous fiscal year. 

The office of the ombudsman frequently received complaints about correctional facilities involving inadequate health care, overcrowding, frequent lock downs, the use of force and segregation by correctional officers, according to the report. 

"Many institutions are dangerously overcrowded — some operating at over 150 per cent of their intended capacity — and/or facing chronic staff shortages," reads the report.

Jonathan Peltier, a reintegration worker with the Wikwemikong community justice program on Manitoulin Island said he's "not surprised" to learn about the report's findings.

Through the voluntary program, Peltier supports incarcerated members of the Wikwemikong First Nation. He maintains contact with those serving time, connects them with community elders for traditional teachings and conducts visits.

Calls for collaboration

"Our correctional facilities aren't set up for high numbers of people in there. I've been in correctional facilities where there was four people to a cell with only two beds," Peltier said. 

He suggests that reforming the system hinges on increased collaboration among police, jails, and the judiciary.

"It's all interwoven. It's one big machine with all moving parts that work together. But sometimes all these working parts don't communicate," Peltier said. 

He believes everything in correctional facilities — like the Sudbury Jail — is closely tied to the broader justice system, especially since it's primarily a remand facility.

"Their stay there, if they're on remand, is all dependent on their trial or whatever they have to go through in the judicial system," Peltier said. 

He argues there needs to be better coordination to reduce time spent in custody, provided the offences are minor.

Peltier added that Indigenous people often lack access to critical cultural services like ceremonies and traditional medicine while incarcerated.

"We cannot neglect anybody, and we have to lessen the factors that incite violence," he said.

Those factors include overcrowding and a lack of support services, according to Peltier.

A lack of support services is something that North Bay Jail corrections officer, Roselle Greuter knows all too well. 

'We're not equipped,' says correctional officer

"We're having to deal with a different type of corrections that I don't think we are prepared to deal with," said Greuter, who's been working as a correctional officer for 25 years. 

"I can see where the complaints are coming from because we're not a mental facility. We're not equipped to handle mentally ill people," she added.

Greuter said unlike mental health facilities, jails focus on physical intervention and preventing violence.

"We stop altercations, we prevent other people from getting assaulted and sometimes this requires use of force, so it's not exactly ideal for somebody who is in crisis," she said. 

Greuter said while correctional facilities are starting to recognize the need for mental health and addiction services, the number of inmates has "skyrocketed within the last two years and there's just not enough people to help." 

"For me to come into work and get spit on or punched at or anything like that, I don't think that the public really realizes how much we go through," she said, adding that many officers end up on stress leave for a variety of different reasons. 

"We've had deaths at the jail… Things that are happening in the jail a lot of people have never seen in their life, but we do it on a regular basis," Greuter said. 

She believes the correctional system needs a comprehensive overhaul to address mental health issues, including dedicated treatment facilities and improved staff training.

 "It's becoming more of a mental health facility as opposed to a jail," Greuter said. 

'There's a lot of suffering that happens in the jail'

Sara-Jane Berghammer, CEO of the John Howard Society of Sudbury, which advocates for people affected by the criminal justice system, said the growing number of complaints isn't shocking. 

"We receive phone calls from either inmates or from family members concerned… and we would usually point them in the direction of the Ombudsman if they have concerns," she said. 

Berghammer said the concerns typically involve a lack of mental health support, sanitary conditions and prolonged periods of isolation.

"There's a lot of suffering that happens in the jail and a lot of reasons why people might want to make a complaint to the ombudsman," she said.

Berghammer said the province's bail program and community services need to be better funded to improve conditions and to be able to divert individuals away from the court system. 

"Mental health and addiction is a significant problem for the prison population, we really should be having more facilities where people don't have to wait to get the help that they desperately need, but unfortunately, they have to wait," She said. "In the meantime, they're getting into trouble and end up over at the jail."

Brian Gray, spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General, said in a statement on Thursday, the province will review the ombudsman report. 

"We expect all correctional staff to uphold their standards of conduct as outlined in the Ontario correctional service code," Gray said.

"We will review the ombudsman's report as we build on the record investments we've made to hire more staff and increase mental health and addiction care for those that are in need within the corrections system."

Speaking to reporters, Premier Doug Ford recently said it's up to the "criminals" to fix the overcrowding problem.

"Tell the criminals, stop kicking in doors, putting guns to people's heads, robbing people and breaking into houses," Ford said. "All the criminals out there, you don't want to go to hotel jail, then you don't cause trouble, you don't break the law."

Berghammer believes jails should be seen as a treatment centre and believes stigma surrounding people who commit crimes is one of the factors halting meaningful change. 

"It's lovely to hear that the ombudsman is calling for real reform or change across the correctional system, but now it's up to the ministry to do something about it," said Berghammer.

Last week, Paul Dubé spoke with reporters following the release of his annual report and said he's never forget his visit to the Thunder Bay District Jail. 

"The inmates were lined up on one side of the hallway, and the correctional officers and staff on the other side, and they were both pleading with us to do what we could to bring change," Dubé said. 

"The inmates were giving credit to the staff, saying they're keeping a lid on this. They're doing their best, but you know, we're finding people housed in broom closets and former pantries."

Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer Alison Craig said the issues outlined in the ombudsman report are not new and she doesn't think the province will address them anytime soon. 

"These issues have been going on for years and years and years, and they have been repeatedly called out by the courts, decision after decision after decision, calling out the conditions in our jails, reducing sentences as a result, and absolutely nothing has changed," Craig said. 

"The courts have been ignored on the issue, so I'm not sure why the ombudsman would be any different."