Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky places the blame for a violent incident at Windsor's new Southwest Detention Centre on Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Corrections Services.
Before her tenure as the NDP education critic, Gretzky was very vocal about understaffing and overcrowding in Ontario's jails as the party's corrections critic. She believes a rampage by an inmate at the facility last Thursday was inevitable. "We have a new facility. It's not fully open and operational yet because it's understaffed," she says. "You have inmates now that are in tight quarters and you're bound to have personality conflicts."
Brent Ross with the Ontario government says the inmate caused just under $11,000 damage to a unit forcing its evacuation. The unit won't be habitable for about a month.
Gretzky fears moving the inmates in the 24-bed unit elsewhere in the Centre will cause even greater crowding, possibly triggering another incident.
"I've had several conversations with the minister himself," says Gretzky. "Rather than really being proactive on these issues, it seems like the Minister has really turned a blind eye."
