The Union of Safety and Justice Employees (USJE) has directly appealed to the federal Public Safety Minister, the Hon. Gary Anandasangaree, to intervene with the federal Correctional Service after learning of a management request to find savings through replacing paid Correctional staff with inmate labour in federal institutions.
In order to meet the government’s demand for deep departmental cuts, USJE has become aware that the Correctional Service of Canada is pursuing an ill-conceived direction to increase inmate employment within federal correctional institutions as a means to offset staff resources.
In an excerpt sent to all Deputy Wardens, among others, in Ontario’s federal Correctional institutions, CSC noted that:
“As budget’s tighten, one of the areas regions have been asked to review, is where we can enhance Inmate Employment to help take on work in certain areas to assist, and lessen the need for staff resources, with the goal of hiring inmates within our institutions to offset staffing requirements.”
The Union of Safety and Justice Employees immediately flagged this with CSC’S National Headquarters, including Commissioner Anne Kelly. We voiced urgent health and safety concerns around such an approach that would potentially create a heavy reliance on inmate labour for certain essential activities within federal institutions.
One of the reasons for USJE’s significant concerns is owing to the brutal assault in 2021 of a Food Service Officer (FOS) by an inmate while working in the kitchen of Stony Mountain Institution in Manitoba. The assault left the employee with significant physical and psychological injuries, such that they have not been able to return to work.
Following that incident, an independent investigation revealed that CSC had “not properly identified, assessed and protected against all the hazards in the workplace.”
USJE has consistently requested more FOS members in the kitchens in order to improve efficient and safe operations, which includes the hiring of more indeterminate/determinate staff as opposed to relying on casuals employees and inmate labour.
Further, USJE has been adamant that there needs to be an increased presence of Correctional Officers to ensure the security of both employees and offenders in the kitchen.
While such assaults are unfortunately not unheard of, they are becoming more prevalent. In late August, there was a violent assault on an employee in the kitchen at Port Cartier Institution in Quebec. The incident resulted in the employee being taken for outside medical attention.
USJE will not stand by as CSC seeks to burden an already overstretched workforce within Correctional facilities, and place knives and other would-be weapons in the hands of even more federally incarcerated inmates.
The federal government’s Refocusing Government Spending initiative and Comprehensive Expenditure Review absolutely cannot be undertaken in a manner that increases risk in the workplace and undermines the safety of federal public service employees and inmates residing in federal Institutions.
This can only be characterized as irresponsible, if not reckless. Read the letter to the Hon. Gary Anandasangaree here.