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“COVID in jails threatens the health and safety of inmates, workers, and the wider public. Our governments must control the spread.” Larry Brown, NUPGE President.
Ottawa (19 Jan 2022) — The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is demanding action over recent reports about COVID-19 outbreaks in provincial jails across Canada.
Governments must step up protections in correctional facilities
"Everyone should be concerned about this,” said Larry Brown, NUPGE President. “COVID in jails undermines the health and safety of correctional workers, inmates, and the general public."
“Let’s not be under the false impression that what happens in these facilities stays in there. At the end of the working day correctional officers, nurses, sergeants, and support staff return home to their loved ones. When there are outbreaks in jails, there’s a risk of spread to the wider public,” he said.
The explosion of cases in institutions clearly confirms that our governments are doing a horrible job in controlling the spread, and it's clear why.
NUPGE is calling on governments to take these outbreaks seriously. “Correctional facilities need to listen to their workers when they express concern," said Bert Blundon, NUPGE Secretary-Treasurer.
"Our governments need to do more to ensure public health and safety. Governments must ensure that in the jails, Covid protocols are strictly followed. They must address the problems of overcrowding and understaffing, and they must ensure safe and healthy working conditions with state-of-the-art personal protective equipment and air filtration systems for safe ventilation," he added.
Some recent numbers from across the country
Manitoba
There are reports of several outbreaks in Manitoba, but the highest number of active cases of any provincial jail is at Headingley Correctional Centre with infections jumping from 55 to 100 in less than a week. An inmate told the Winnipeg Free Press that several units have been closed or locked down as the novel coronavirus spreads rapidly. Dorms have become crowded as inmates are moved in from shuttered units and double-bunked, causing fear about the spread.
Ontario
According to a recent report in the Toronto Star nearly 30% of Ontario jail inmates are in “medical isolation” because they have or could have COVID, and more than half the jails have active outbreaks That number, along with the case count, doubled in 1 week as the number of adult jails in active outbreak increased from 9 to 15 to 25. As of last week, there were at least 164 staff cases. There are estimates that 20% of all cases in Ontario jails during the pandemic were reported in the first 2 weeks of January. As of Jan. 12, there were 1,961 inmates in medical isolation, up from 1,041 on Jan. 5.
In one report, Roselle Beausoleil, President of OPSEU Local 616, explained that staff and inmates were exposed because COVID policies were not followed. Beasoleil said staff concerns for a potential COVID outbreak were brought to the senior management, but they were rebuffed and ignored. “We are all looking for direction and solutions from our senior managers, regional managers, corporate, and our Deputy Solicitor General, Karen Ellis,” she said.
The problems include non-essential institutional transfers that have become the focus as the catalyst for spread and outbreak between institutions.
Prince Edward Island
An outbreak was reported at the Provincial Correctional Centre involving 6 staff members and an offender who had all tested positive.
Nova Scotia
At the Nova Institution for Women, a federal institution in Truro, there are reports that almost 30% of the inmate population prison tested positive for COVID. And a COVID outbreak is reported at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia’s largest provincial jail.
What governments must do: fix overcrowding, increase staffing levels
NUPGE is calling on governments to ensure that COVID policies and protocols are followed. And NUPGE is demanding that governments fix the problems of overcrowding, understaffing, and health and safety hazards.
“We won’t solve this COVID outbreak problem by simply locking up people for long periods,” said Blundon. “We need to get at the root of the problem. And these COVID outbreaks expose the biggest problems with our correctional facilities: they are overcrowded, understaffed, unsanitary, and unsafe.”
Cutting the number of people in jails would keep those inside safer and help limit spread in the general public community by reducing the risk of exposure to staff who then leave the facility.
"We need the government to invest in the recruitment and retention”
The problem of understaffing is what Kyle Ross, President of the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union (MGEU/NUPGE), explained in a statement to the Winnipeg Free Press.
"It has to be pointed out that understaffing has been a problem before COVID existed and has now only gotten far worse during the pandemic," said Ross. "We need the government to invest in the recruitment and retention of highly trained correctional officers and we need that to happen now."
Staffing also ensures health and safety. With increased sick calls, staffing levels at many institutions are at critical levels. This directly compromises safety and impedes security, especially considering the prevalence of home-made weapons, brews, and contraband regularly discovered among the inmate populations.
What the government must do: improve health and safety
Protective equipment
From a Health and Safety standpoint, NUPGE is demanding that provincial governments ensure that all the necessary protections are in place for staff and inmates at correctional facilities, especially PPE and air quality.
Many provincial governments are mandating N95 masks for all employees in schools, and they should do the same in jails. Members working in correctional institutions and in parole and probation offices should be provided with properly fit-tested N95 masks as standard PPE. In corrections, there is no ability to keep a positive inmate from attending an institution as there is in a school. N95s should be fit-tested to ensure the best possible health and safety controls.
Air quality
The air quality inside the institutions must be improved because adequate ventilation is an important health and safety control in conjunction with other measures.
Governments have too long refused to improve ventilation, especially in the older institutions and rented P&P offices because they say it’s too expensive to retrofit these workplaces to MERV 13 standards. The approach seems to be all or nothing where less cost prohibitive and less intrusive options are not even considered. There are options to improve ventilation without completely upgrading existing infrastructure already in place to supplement indoor air quality, such as installing HEPA filters.
The air quality inside the institutions must be improved because adequate ventilation is an important health and safety control in conjunction with other measures.
Governments have too long refused to improve ventilation, especially in the older institutions and rented P&P offices because they say it’s too expensive to retrofit these workplaces to MERV 13 standards. The approach seems to be all or nothing where less cost prohibitive and less intrusive options are not even considered. There are options to improve ventilation without completely upgrading existing infrastructure already in place to supplement indoor air quality, such as installing HEPA filters.