COVID-19 outbreak infects 30 at Barton jail with cases 'skyrocketing' behind bars in Ontario

A COVID-19 outbreak at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre (HWDC) that has infected 18 people is fuelling calls for more inmates to be released from provincial jails as the Omicron variant contributes to a spike in cases behind bars.

Seventeen inmates at one staff member at the Barton jail have tested positive since New Year's Eve, according to the city's COVID-19 tracking website.

It's part of a surge in infections at correctional initiations across the country that saw 1,212 prisoners and staff contract the virus in December alone, said Justin Piché, a criminologist at the University of Ottawa.

"COVID is skyrocketing behind bars in Ontario," he said.

"It's a public health and a community safety disaster. We need urgent action to depopulate our jails to the extent that we can."

Two staff members at the Arrell Youth Centre in Hamilton have also tested positive, and the Ministry of the Solicitor General reports there are four inmate cases of COVID-19 at the Niagara Detention Centre. According to Ontario Public Health data as of Jan. 5, there were 17 outbreaks at correctional facilities in the province. 

Jails and prisons across Canada have counted 11,254 cases since the pandemic began, with roughly 10 per cent of that number being tallied last month, said Piché.

Piche, an associate professor at Ottawa University, was quick to point out that the rise in cases mirrors what's happening in the broader community, with the Omicron variant leading to record case counts around the country.

He urged the province and law enforcement officials to follow the same steps they took in the first wave. Back then inmate populations were cut by about 30 per cent in a matter of weeks to limit spread in confined settings where prisoners often aren't able to keep distance from each other.

"Rather than applying those lessons throughout the pandemic, the Ford government, the courts, police have taken their foot off the gas right when we need them to accelerate with more transmissible variants," he said.

A spokesperson for the ministry said each correctional facility has a pandemic plan in place and that it will continue working with public health to protect staff and inmates.

"Any inmate that tests positive for COVID-19 is placed on droplet and contact precautions and isolated from the rest of the inmate population while they receive appropriate medical care," wrote Andrew Morrison in an email.

He added that inmates and staff undergo testing and that the ministry has its own supply of COVID-19 vaccines, which are made available to eligible prisoners.

Morrison went on to list other steps provincial jails have taken such as providing masks if required, increasing cleaning and housing new inmates away from the general population for 14 days.