This week the Western Regional Labour Relations Forum (AIS) met for the two days at the OPSEU Regional Office in London. This was the first regional meeting for the locals for this region for institutions. One of the important issues on the agenda was the overcrowding issue. This is not only at critical levels in the Western Region but across the province.
This issue was discussed earlier when the Joint Provincial Health and Safety committee met on June 24th this summer. The employer has not responded to any of the ideas presented to this date. The next H&S meeting is in Windsor on November 04th. This issue will continue to be on the agenda.
Again on Tuesday we discussed modifying working practices and implementing best practices for dealing with overcrowding in jails. The Union identified the lack of any type of regional or provincial co-ordination in the management of empty beds. The union identified the number of empty beds in the system that could be used to house the inmates that sleep on the floor of overcrowded jails. The Western Region being the worst. On that day all could have been placed in empty beds in the system.
We recommended the creation of a co-ordinator to manage the movement of remanded inmates provincially. A co-ordinator would remove the onus of the institution to trade, barter, and beg for beds. With an overview of the whole system inmates could be moved in a migrating fashion to create empty beds closer to where the need is the greatest. This is more than what the institutions, regions, and bailiff department are doing presently.
The Union also identified that there is no regional or provincial co-ordination when it comes to the closing of beds for maintenance or retrofitting cells. When the superintendents identified future plans, it became clear to everyone that part of the overcrowding problem is artificially generated. By better co-ordination of maintenance the impact of taking cells “off line” would be lessoned.
The ministry’s long term plan is to build jails to address the overcrowding. The short term plan is use the empty Y.O. beds in HWDC which will not be opened up until next April. That does not address the need now, over the winter when traditionally the count increases. The ministry does not have a plan other than let’s see what happens.
It is often said you can’t make change until you have a crisis. Only when you cause a crisis can you get the support needed to make the changes. Keeping that in mind…
It is not a giant leap to perhaps conclude the ministry is creating a larger crisis to ensure the government of the day continues to provide the funding for the new jails. By temporarily closing beds a jail saves money, fewer members are needed to work. The money saved can be used to offset budget shortfalls like overtime costs, escorts etc… When jails cram more inmates into each cell the costs per bed/inmate go down, again offsetting overtime costs, escorts, etc… This only increases the risk to our Health and Safety.
We have all seen this tactic played out year after year. So I have to ask, how long are we going to put up with this Ministry generated crisis?
In Solidarity
Dan Sidsworth
