The inhumane conditions at the East-Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, long under public scrutiny thanks to the London Free Press, will continue to be kept out of public sight. The excuse?
“Disclosure of information from this investigation would impact security matters that might endanger both staff and inmates,” officials claimed, according to the newspaper.
“Furthermore, depending on the nature of the investigation, human resource or health matters may also be involved. As such, the ministry does not release this type of information for any internal investigation it performs within its correctional facilities.”
Just because these prisoners are in jail does not mean their treatment and living conditions should be kept as a secret of the ministry. Some men are forced to stay three to a cell, even if it means one must sleep on the floor. To my mind, this is beginning to sound like a prison in Afghanistan, but without the torture. The public pays for prisons and should surely have a say in how our money is spent. After the various government debacles in eHealth and the Ornge fiasco, how are we to know that money for prisons isn’t being skimmed into some fat cat’s bank account?
I am not suggesting that prisoners should be living in country club conditions, just that they are treated fairly.
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