Officials are doing their best to contain the current coronavirus outbreak at both the Thunder Bay District Jail and the Correctional Centre.
Bill Hayes, OPSEU local 737 President, says this isn’t what they signed up for.
“We signed up to help rehabilitate people, help them get the things they need, not to watch the inmates get packed like lumber and just waiting around not accomplishing anything,” Hayes stressed. “We needed a new facility twenty years ago and now we desperately need space. They’ve delayed the new building for so long, and now here we are.”
The jail, which was designated as a heritage property back in 2009, was built back in 1926.
Premier Doug Ford, in an interview with CKDR News late last week, indicated he and his solicitor general are all over the outbreaks, which started January 6th.
“With the Thunder Bay Jail I had a conversation with the solicitor general [Sylvia Jones] and she’s all over that. I know they have the support in there right now and we’re going to continue to support them,” Ford indicated. “™’m always concerned about the prisoners but I’m more concerned about the correctional officers that are up there and getting them vaccinated as soon as possible.”
Bill Hayes heard the Premier’s response and just referred to it as damage control.
“They’ve sent up support staff to help out with testing and everything like that. [As far as I’m concerned] it’s damage control, they knew we were in a rough spot once the [support workers] got in, they saw it blow up and then they responded,” Hayes noted.
87 inmates and 120 staff are inside both facilities.
