My New Year's Resolution

Today I write thinking of what I want for 2016. I'm not going to make false resolutions about health and wellness, or making myself a better person. I am who I am and I will continue to be me no matter what I chose to change in my life. My New Year's resolution this year is not going to be easy to achieve but its needed for a brighter future. This year I want to resolve the issues in Ontario Corrections. I want to make our profession one that is respected and revered. One that the public is aware of, one that demands the respect of the Government, one that our youth want to become a part of.

This is not going to be easy but I think I will start here. I am going to write my opinion of the Corrections division, my thoughts on improvements, and steps we all can take to move us closer to our Law Enforcement brethren. To simplify things I will break it down into separate points and try my best to not let my anger and passion in our current situation overtake me, though that would be impossible.

1. Here is a quick update of the last 30 days on the job in Ontario. I may miss some things but these are incidents that I know have happened. TSDC had a fire, which inmates started  and were using the Fire to assault staff. Over 10 Officers were taken to the Hospital with smoke inhalation. The Fire suppression measures did not work to protect staff or inmates, yet no one was held accountable. Days later the same institution had a water pipe burst, causing a ceiling in staff area to collapse. Luckily no one was hurt, but this did cost the Government money to repair. Repairs on a brand new state of the art building that the P3 deal to build was a total waste. We had a major riot, according to the Ministry a minor disturbance, that resulted in a CO being taken hostage and total destruction of the top floor of the TBDJ. While the Police, Fire, Paramedics waited outside our staff and Crisis teams dealt with the riot and safely negotiated the staff member out of the area. We have had fires at multiple institutions. Disturbances at Sudbury Jail and CECC. Serious inmate stabbings at MHCC and OCDC, where frontline staff not Paramedics, were on the scene first to risk their safety to save an inmates life.There has been a sexual assault on a female officer at CNCC. There has been numerous inmate on staff assaults, one at CECC that left a CO with 10 staples in his head, inmate on inmate assaults, where the crisis intervention teams have been deployed. This is in one month. This is our job. 
2.  It seems like the problems are never ending. We can not keep up as our staff is being burned out and over worked. WE can not sustain running Jails based on Officers working 1000 hours of OT per year. We continue to run our Institutions drastically short staffed. Our Inmate counts continue to grow to levels that can not be contained. How did we get here? Well 5 years ago this Government in its infinite wisdom decided to have a hiring freeze. Over these 5 years we have lost over 1000 staff members. The Minister loves to brag about his 500 hires every time he talks but come on now, anyone can see through this. If over 1000 have left the job and you've only hired 500, it's pretty easy to see how short staffed we are. When it comes to counts, we are seeing a huge influx of remanded inmates. Causing some Institutions to be nearly double capacity. We have 3 inmates in 4 by 8 cells locked down with less staff to respond then ever. Kenora has seen 4 inmates in some cells. Counts as high as 24 in one range that only one staff enters to unlock and lock down. Other Institutions are just as bad. We need more staff, we need to retain the staff we have, and we need to make this a job that people want to work in for their careers.
3. I am going to give a brief overview of Community corrections, I am not a PPO or do I claim to know all their issues, however I do know this. I know that Ontario has the highest workloads in Canada, they are the third lowest paid in the country, and their responsibilities continue to grow without help. This Government is slowly destroying their workforce and making it impossible to retain quality staff. During what is gearing up to be a strike on January 10th at 0001 hours, there will be over 50,000 Offenders on Probation and Parole in Ontario with no one supervising them. No one writing warrants for arrests for breaches. No one making sure they check in or stick to their conditions. This includes Sex Offenders, Murderers, Rapists, all of whom will be walking among the public unsupervised. This scares me and I would hope it scares you. While we want respect, we also want to protect the public but this Government doesn't care. They would rather prove a point then keep track of the Sexual predators walking among us. I say Shame. 
4. So now I come to the Contract negotiations that have been going on for over a year now. In that time this Government has spent over 10 million dollars on Strike prep, given their Managers raises amounting to over $58 million dollars, are putting Managers on stand by pay until the Strike happens, and paying Managers, Scabs, and former managers 2.5 times their wage for every hour they are locked in during the Strike. How in the world is this fiscally responsible? How does this amount to "net zeros"? As a taxpayer I would be very sickened that this Government wants to balance its budget, after multiple illegal scandals, off the backs of front line staff. They have asked the Front line staff to take what amounts to 5 years of 0% raises. They have asked us to freeze the wages of the newest hires. They have asked us to reduce benefits and let our sick and vulnerable staff be taken advantage of. Well we have said no more. We are ready to fight this scandal filled Government. So we asked for a fair deal. We asked for an immediate wage adjustment, to bring us closer in line with our Law Enforcement brothers and sisters, we asked for a minor wage increase each year of the contract, we asked for the new hires to move through a wage grid that was agreed to in past bargaining, all of which would cost the Government less then they have already spent. What did the Liberals say, they said No, you are not worth that, they said No, public safety is not worth that, they said No, you can go out and starve and destroy your friendships and families because we won't ever respect you. This is wrong. 
5. Our final request to the Employer was that we be moved off the bargaining table with the greater OPS. That we are moved to our own table to negotiate our own unique issues. That we lose the Right to Strike and move to Interest Arbitration, as Police, Fire, And Paramedics already have, to solve our bargaining impasses. How much money would that save? How many friendships and families would not striking save? They don't want to give this to us out of fear that an Arbitrator would rule we are too underpaid. That right there is enough to tell me and all the public that this Government admits they disrespect us. This request costs them nothing right now.It makes our Front line staff in our Institutions and Communities Essential and recognizes our importance as First Responders.

So what can we do? First and foremost we can stop fighting among ourselves. We can stop the divide that the Employer always attempts to create. We can follow our Local elected leaders who have fought hard together to take this division to where it is today. We have never been more together as a Province, we have never been stronger, so lets come together and fight from the same side. Community, Institutions and Youth Officers all as one united team.

Then we need to keep the pressure on the employer through the media and opposition parties. Jennifer French and Rick Nicholls have been amazing in their support of us. Local media outlets across the province have finally seen the shit we face and are showing us the respect we all deserve. We need to remain professional and continue to report our incidents, our issues and our search for respect to these people. Finally we need to make it public. Why does the public support Police, Fire, and Paramedics? They do an amazing job right in the pubic eye. No one knows what we do or what we deal with. No one knows the assaults we face daily. No one knows the situations our Employer puts us in during every shift. They need to know. Please stop just sharing these write ups and articles and statements on only Corrections groups and sites. This all needs to be published to the broader public. Write letters to your MPPS, write letters to your newspapers, but remember we are professionals. To be respected as such we need to act as such.

You see today I woke up and realized this is the year. 2016 is going to be a defining year for me. I will be able to look myself in the mirror every day and smile, knowing I am fighting for the thankless profession of Corrections. I can smile knowing I am making a difference in this world. I can smile knowing I have the best Brothers and Sisters watching my back. I can smile knowing that unlike the Liberals I will always be able to say I treat people with respect. I don't think this Government can even look in the mirror, at least I hope they can't, because if they can and they do smile, they are truly horrible people.