By C1 Staff
LONDON, Ontario — Inmates were removed from an overcrowded facility ahead of a tour by the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
Blackburn News reports that Elgin Middlesex Detention Center is notorious for being run down and overcrowded; the facility was given a quick face lift before Minister Yasir Naqvi walked the cellblocks by removing nearly 100 inmates.
“They were limiting the amount of what he would have been able to see,” Elgin Middlesex London MPP Jeff Yurek said.
“He might think that the solution he came up with yesterday might be all that’s needed at EMDC, but if he didn’t see the actual conditions of how the correctional officers have to work or how the inmates are living, then a year is a long ways away to fixing the problems there.”
Minister Naqvi announced a new, 120-bed building would be constructed next to EMDC to house intermittent inmates serving weekend sentences, most coming from Windsor. The brand new $274-million Southwest Detention Center in Windsor opened earlier this year following the closure of several smaller jails, yet inmates continue to be sent to EMDC.
“So when the minister did go through, he didn’t see the overcrowding, he didn’t hear the noise, or see the issues that accompany the overcrowding on a daily basis,” says OPSEU Corrections Chair Dan Sidsworth, who notes that it’s normal protocol to clear out inmates ahead of a visit from a minister.
“Our members are exposed to the overcrowding conditions, the shortages of staff and the violence on a daily basis, and it’s something we’re trying to drive home to the minister.”
Minister Naqvi’s office denies the transfer of inmates ahead of his visit.