Advocates criticize decision to keep aging Thunder Bay, Ont., correctional facilities open

When Sol Mamakwa visited the Thunder Bay District Jail last month, he said he witnessed beds pressed up against toilets in overcrowded cells.

After learning that the facility, which turns 100 this year, is being kept open, Kiiwetinoong's MPP said “I was appalled.”

It was previously understood that once the new Thunder Bay Correctional Complex opens this November, the Thunder Bay District Jail and Thunder Bay Correctional Centre would be closed.

However, correctional staff learned last week that the existing facilities will continue to operate, as the province looks to address overcrowding in the city’s correctional facilities.

The new $1.2-billion Correctional Complex, located on Highway 61, will contain 345 beds.

The district jail has 149 beds and the correctional centre has 203 beds, a spokesperson for Ontario’s ministry of the solicitor general told CBC News in an email on Wednesday.

Anthony Rojik is president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 737, which represents staff at the district jail. He said the decision to keep the existing facilities open is “a step in the right direction,” in addressing capacity issues.

Meanwhile, Shawn Bradshaw, president of OPSEU Local 708 which represents the correctional centre, cited concerns around making sure there are enough staff at all three buildings.

Northern Ontario’s jails are among the most overcrowded in the province. Between January and June 2025, the average occupancy rate was 120 per cent at the Thunder Bay District Jail and 107 per cent at the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.

In Sol Mamakwa’s view, while he recognizes the strain overcrowding has taken on staff and inmates, “having more jail cells is not the answer.”

His nephew, 27-year-old Kevin Mamakwa, died while in custody at the Thunder Bay District Jail on June 2, 2020. At that time, Sol Mamakwa called for the jail to be shut down due to what he's described as deplorable conditions there — which he says have not improved.

An inquest into Kevin Mamakwa’s death, which was scheduled to take place in Thunder Bay this week, has been postponed until the spring due to the sudden death of Kevin Mamakwa’s partner over the weekend.

“It is care that [Kevin] needed — mental health, addictions and all those things, right?” Sol Mamakwa said.

“Having more jail cells will not address the issue,” he continued. “We need a system that's needs-based, whether it's addictions help, whether it's mental health supports, wraparound services to make sure that [inmates] get better.”