NDP calls for transparency, action from Ford government on COVID-19 outbreaks in correctional facilities

QUEEN’S PARK – Kevin Yarde, NDP Critic for Community Safety and Correctional Services, has written to Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, calling for transparency and action from the Ford government on COVID-19 outbreaks in Ontario correctional facilities.

The letter is in response to Toronto South Detention Centre becoming the most recent correctional facility in Ontario to declare a COVID-19 outbreak, with at least 54 inmates testing positive. Since November, Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre and Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene are also among the facilities that have declared outbreaks of the virus.

"We wrote to you in April 2020, raising concerns regarding potential COVID-19 outbreaks in correctional facilities,” Yarde noted in his letter. “At the time, we requested your Ministry act immediately to ensure a plan was in place to minimize risk to these populations.

“We also warned that unless more was done to halt the spread of COVID-19 in correctional facilities, we would be met by certain disaster. Well, certain disaster has struck.”

Yarde noted the clear workplace safety concerns for correctional staff, including custodians, kitchen staff and guards. He also addressed the human rights concerns for inmates – noting that Black and Indigenous people are disproportionately incarcerated in Ontario, and made particularly vulnerable by the Ford government’s failure to keep people in correctional facilities safe.

Yarde re-iterated the Ontario NDP’s April call for the Ford government to immediately provide:

1. Accurate reporting of COVID-19 outbreaks in correctional facilities to inmates, staff, their families, and the public at large;
2. Adequate protection for inmates and staff in correctional facilities, including social distancing, PPE, sanitation products, and medical isolation on COVID-19-positive individuals;
3. The release of low-risk, non-violent, and immigration detainees, where safe, and implementation of proper community supervision where appropriate.

**Read letter here.