Ontario is recruiting an additional 180 correctional officers to increase staffing levels at the province’s correctional facilities including 15 at the Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre.  Other northern communities to benefit include Fort Frances, Kenora, Thunder Bay, and Iroquois Falls. New recruits will complete an 8-week training and assessment program which includes mental health training, and inmate management techniques.  Guards, unions and opposition politicians have said Ontario’s correctional facilities are understaffed to the point that it is jeopardizing guard and inmate safety.
The government originally said the new officers would only replace those who were leaving or retiring.
But in a statement the government now says these 180 new officers will help ensure that staffing levels grow beyond normal turnover and retirement.