Statement from Ontario PC Community Safety and Correctional Services Critic Rick Nicholls regarding recent events at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre

The following is a statement from Ontario PC Community Safety and Correctional Services Critic Rick Nicholls regarding recent events at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre and the government’s failure to address the ongoing crisis in Corrections:

“This is obviously a tragic case, especially because overcrowding and deplorable conditions at Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre are well known issues. Our concern is that the government is only now realizing how bad things have gotten not only at Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre, but at facilities across the province. Where else is this occurring? What else is the government failing to address?

The Minister has banned the symptom without addressing the cause. Overcrowding and understaffing have been issues for years and because they were never properly addressed by this government we are seeing a crisis in corrections.

Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre needs to be given the proper amount of staff and resources to deal with overcrowding effectively.

It’s time for this government to take the crisis in corrections seriously. We have seen disturbing inconsistencies in what the government says about corrections compared to their actions on the ground.

The task force’s report must be made public. Safety concerns raised by correctional officers and inmates across the province have been systematically ignored and supressed by this government. I hope to see correctional officers and frontline staff whose voices have long been ignored included on that task force.”