‘Ottawa’ Day After Scathing Report, Staff Feel ‘Inmates Now Run the Institution’
A day after the release of a scathing new report about the conditions inside Ottawa’s jail, correctional officers said they feel like they are losing control over the institution while critics said they don’t believe the province is taking their concerns seriously.
Correctional officer and local OPSEU union president Denis Collin said officers working inside the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre no longer feel they can do their jobs the way they were trained to do.
As the ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services attempts to respond to the mounting criticism, it has left its staff feeling as if the inmates now run the institution, Collin said.
“If you talk to staff on the floor, staff will say the ministry has lost its way,” said Collin, a day after the release of the 2015 report by the jail’s independent community advisory board.