Times have changed for Ottawa jail
Back in the early-to-mid 1980s, when I spent a lot of time at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, the place was in a lot better shape than today.
At one time, the food was prepared in the kitchen at OCDC by staff and inmate workers. If you worked in the kitchen you were rewarded with a few perks, and if you were eligible, you could go out to the community once a week for a swim at the local pool.
The meals were a lot better and because of that there was a lot less trouble. The place wasn’t a dirty cesspool. The superintendent at the time toured the institution every day to make sure it was clean. If you had an issue, you were able to relay it to him at this time. He personally inspected each and every cell, and if it wasn’t clean, you would face punitive sanctions.
This also kept the violence down and made life a little more pleasant. Health care was not an issue at that time. Inmates had access to a doctor, dentist, psychiatrists, psychologists and the nurses made rounds three times a day to pass out meds. Again, this made life easier on everybody.
The biggest issue is having all this time, and having no way to occupy yourself. At one time they had a library, weight rooms both in minimum and maximum, you could take school courses and if you had the funds, the rec officers would buy you paint-by-numbers. They had a chapel and self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
Now, a lot of people are probably saying, they broke the law and jail is supposed to be punishment. I agree, but a good percentage of the people in OCDC have not been found guilty of any crime. Innocent until proven guilty.
We as a society treat our pets a whole lot better than the people in jail. Even though this is supposed to be rough, let’s not forget that these are people: sons, daughters, sisters and brothers to someone out there, and we should at least have the decency to treat them as such. Shaun Shannon, Ottawa