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.

‘It can ruin lives’

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. 

In 2023 alone, five Ontario correctional workers died by suicide.

He explained it’s impossible to entirely separate workplace stress from personal circumstances. But he emphasized the corrosive impact of repeated exposure to violence, trauma, and graphic content inside provincial jails.

“There’s significant exposure to violence,” Cygler said. “Whether it’s violence directed towards staff or other inmates.”

All provincial jail employees are routinely exposed to violent incidents, he said, including assaults, stabbings, and medical emergencies where staff must intervene.  Workers also read detailed police reports and court files describing violent crimes.

Half of correctional staff surveyed in the union’s 2018 occupational stress study screened positive for one or more mental-health disorders, including major depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

“It’s almost two out of three workers,” Cygler said.

Agency nurses filling entire shifts

Cygler also pushed back against the province’s recent claim that it has hired more than 2,500 new staff for Ontario jails, including guards, mental counselors and nurses.

“When [the province says] they hired 2,500 people, it’s not new positions, it’s not full time positions. The vast majority of those are correctional officers at the start of their careers who are coming in on that contract basis,” Cygler said. 

He explained most of those workers are brought in to backfill existing vacancies, not to expand the system or address the workload caused by overcrowding and rising violence.

“It’s like saying, ‘We’ve got 30 per cent more students in school and we’ve hired 2,000 substitute teachers.’ That might be a temporary solution, but it’s not permanent,” Cygler said.

He said the last meaningful increase in full-time positions came in 2020, when the province added 500 jobs as part of a larger investment. 

“Since then there’s been sort of dribs and drabs of new positions,” Cygler said. 

Cygler said even when the province opens new wings, like adding 25 new beds in both the Thunder Bay Correctional Complex and Kenora Jail, the additional positions only cover those beds. Meanwhile, existing jails operating at above their designed capacity do not receive new officers.

Staffing shortages extend far beyond correctional officers, Cygler said, with some northern Ontario jails now relying on private-agency nurses to fill shifts. 

Agency nurses are temporary, earn more, and don’t provide the continuity needed inside a jail, Cygler said, and also can create tension with full-time staff.

At the North Bay Jail, every nurse currently working is an agency nurse, he said.

The province’s spending on agency nurses to staff jails has soared from $13.9 million in 2020–21 to $51.3 million in 2024–25, according to Cygler. 

Cygler shared data gathered by OPSEU showing jail staff earn less than their counterparts in hospitals, federal corrections, and other provincial workplaces:

• Registered practical nurses in corrections are currently paid $34.45/hour while in hospitals they are earning 4-5$ an hour more.
• Psychologists make $13-18 an hour less in jail, compared to working in a forensic hospital in Ontario.
• Social workers make $7-10 an hour less at a correctional institution, than working in a hospital.
• Rehabilitation officers who work providing programming and addictions related treatment earn close to $11/hour less than similar positions in the federal correctional system.
• Skilled trades workers who maintain provincial jails earn $6-$10/hour less than other similar positions in large complexes such as hospitals, federal government positions or within the LCBO.
• Administrative employees are paid 20 per cent less ($6/hour) than similar positions within the OPP.
• Ontario correctional officers are making $8/hour less than federal correctional officers.

Cygler said these gaps make recruitment even more difficult for a job that already carries high rates of violence and trauma.

CBC News asked the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General about all of these specific concerns from unionized workers, but they did not reply.

Calls for more mental health support

Cygler said jail workers’ mental-health benefits are capped at $2,500 per year, which covers roughly 10 therapy sessions, not nearly enough for someone who could be dealing with PTSD or complex trauma as a result of their job.

“We are essentially waiting to intervene until somebody is in one of the most challenging places in terms of their mental health that they can be… [the province is] not saving any money by doing that,” Cygler said.

“We want priority access to mental health professionals assessments and inpatient and outpatient services. We want to make sure that there’s training for people to prepare them for the psychological demands of the job.”

Steinbrunner said the public often fails to see the life-saving work jail guards do every day, including intervening in overdoses, responding to violent assaults, and preventing injuries.

But without new full-time staff, fair wages, and strong mental-health support, he said the situation will continue to get worse.

“We need to make a sincere effort to change the working conditions because the jails are not just where we house people that are alleged to or have committed crimes. It’s also a workplace,” Steinbrunner said.