Ford’s crumbling jail system puts both workers and inmates at risk

QUEEN’S PARK — The Ontario NDP is calling on Premier Doug Ford to provide the province’s jails with the funding and staffing required to keep both inmates and correctional workers safe.

Shadow Attorney General Kristyn Wong-Tam and Shadow Solicitor General Jennie Stevens are pointing to Ford’s continuing neglect, after a coroner’s inquest into the 2021 death of a 44-year-old man from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory at the Sudbury Jail revealed health care failures in the province’s jails.

“Doug Ford has left Ontario’s corrections system in crisis,” said Wong-Tam. “He has continuously refused to make investments that would speed up the province’s courts and provide timely access to justice. Now, people are dying because he and his government refuse to ensure inmates have access to basic health care.

“Ford is putting the safety of inmates and corrections workers at risk with his lack of funding and constant understaffing. We need a public inquiry into the state of Ontario’s correctional system, and for the Premier to take some accountability for this mess.”

“Time and time again, we hear stories of untenable staff-to-inmate ratios, chronic understaffing, and unsafe working conditions coming out of Ontario’s jails. The consequences are being laid bare,” added Stevens. “A system in disrepair is a direct result of Doug Ford’s mismanagement. He and his government will have to wear this.

“Even prior to this tragedy, we saw murder charges thrown out because of Ford’s mismanagement of Ontario’s jails. How many more people have to suffer before the Premier decides to give this system the funding and staffing it needs to keep both inmates and workers safe?”