the conversation

Raizel Robin’s excellent exposé on the atrocious conditions and chronic lockdowns at the Toronto South Detention Centre got provincial knickers in a twist. To wit: this question period exchange between Progressive Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls and Corrections Minister Marie-France Lalonde:

“Ontario’s gold standard jail, the Toronto South Detention Centre, was recently called a billion-dollar hellhole by Toronto Life magazine. The jail has been a disaster from the start. ‘Unbreakable’ windows were broken by inmates.… Negative pressure rooms for inmates with contagious airborne diseases regularly malfunction. The software system controlling cameras, intercoms and locks regularly stops working.…

“Why did the government go ahead with Toronto South Detention Centre’s experimental designs despite warnings from the Auditor General and staff?”

—Rick Nicholls, Chatham-Kent-Essex

“I recognize that the Toronto South Detention Centre is not without its challenges, and we know that more work needs to be done for it to live up to its full potential. We need to hire more staff, reduce the lockdowns and improve the overall condition of the institution. In fact, I was there a couple of weeks ago…and I saw a group of passionate staff who are dedicated to their vital role in maintaining law and order in our society. Through this visit, I got a sense of the progress that needs to be made. Our government is committed to the transformation, and I’m working on this.” —Marie-France Lalonde,

Ottawa-Orléans

We also heard from inmates, correctional officers and other insiders, who confirmed Robin’s depiction.

“Spent five and a half months at the South. Waited almost two years for a trial that kept being delayed. Finally was acquitted on all charges. The purpose of the South is to get one to plead ASAP. The article is dead-on with regards to this facility.”

—Erin Brat Myles, torontolife.com

“Thanks to Toronto Life for alerting readers to the crisis in corrections. The Toronto South Detention Centre is a dangerous place because the Liberal government failed to hire enough correctional officers. Understaffed prisons are unsafe prisons.

“The government actually tried to open this jail with only one offi- cer for every 40 inmates. These are the same Liberals that recently capped kindergarten classes at 30 kids per teacher. That’s right, this government believed fewer staff were needed to maintain control in a jail than in a kindergarten class. It’s no wonder four people died in the first two years of the jail’s operations. Canada does not have a death penalty and we must not let our corrections facilities become death traps—for the inmates or the correctional officers who are there all day, every day.” —Warren “Smokey” Thomas,

OPSEU president

Readers totally unaffiliated with the South were similarly appalled.

“I was deeply saddened by ‘The $1-Billion Hellhole,’ but not at all surprised. No matter how chic the skylit reception area, no matter how LEED-certified the buildings, ultimately, our philosophy behind jailing people will prevent us from true progressive change.

“Though several government officials have spoken of their commitment to rehabilitation, the conditions they allow inmates to live in—conditions that PETA complains about for chickens— often show a different picture.”

—Bailey Reid, Ottawa