Northern Ontario jail staff raise alarms over pay gaps, contract hiring and mental health

WARNING: This story contains mentions of suicide. 

Correctional workers across northern Ontario say chronic staffing shortages, lower wages than comparable public-sector jobs, and the emotional toll of the work are contributing to a worsening mental-health crisis among people working in provincial jails.

A physician who provides primary and addictions care two days a week inside a northern Ontario jail says the facilities are operating in constant “crisis mode” because there aren’t enough staff to meet the needs of a rising inmate population. 

“Instead of working on prevention, you're always working in a crisis mode, you're always putting out fires… because our resources are so limited. And is that the best way to work? Absolutely not,” said Dr. Louisa Marion-Bellemare. 

“We're just getting by and we're trying to do what is best so that people don't die.”

The Timmins-based doctor said northern Ontario’s shortage of nurses and physicians means medical care varies dramatically from jail to jail. 

Nurses are responsible for creating a prioritized list for the doctor, triaging both new and existing inmates to rank their needs from most to least urgent, Marion-Bellemare explained. 

“If there physically isn't enough bodies to work a night shift, then there's no nurse in your facility to work a night shift. And as physicians, we must rely on nurses,” Marion-Bellemare said.

CBC News has reached out to the Ministry of the Solicitor General requesting comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Ken Steinbrunner, a correctional officer and the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) local at the Monteith Correctional Complex near Iroquois Falls, said that the mental health of correctional staff is being severely affected by the working conditions within jails.

He said his own jail recently lost a guard to suicide, one of several deaths in recent years.

“It's a tough job and it can ruin lives. It has ruined lives. People have lost their lives doing it,” Steinbrunner said. 

Adam Cygler, a social worker at the Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton and one of the elected representatives on the ministry's employee relations committee representing non-correctional staff across the system, said the union has tracked 11 correctional workers who died by suicide since October 2021. 

“That number is not exhaustive,” Cygler said, explaining that some cases are not captured because coroners did not record a person’s occupation.