Exactly three weeks ago, a social worker assured a group of inmates at a Brampton jail that they were “in the safest place in the land.”

On Monday, the Ontario Correctional Institute (OCI) became the site of the worst outbreak so far at an Ontario provincial jail. Eight staff and 60 inmates — more than half the jail population of 109 — have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, according to the Ministry of the Solicitor-General.

OCI has closed temporarily and all inmates have been transferred to the Toronto South Detention Centre, where they will be kept in a separate area and made to isolate for 14 days.

All staff from OCI are being asked by Peel Public Health to self-isolate for the next 14 days.

Both inmates and correctional officers say the outbreak could have been prevented if measures including strict social distancing had been enforced earlier.

“Since the pandemic began, local OPSEU leaders at OCI have been demanding that ministry officials take meaningful steps to enforce social distancing. But up until April 16, most of those demands had been ignored and inmates were still allowed to attend programming, exercising, and were eating together in groups,” said a press release from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) on Monday evening.

OPSEU President Warren “Smokey” Thomas said the Ministry of the Solicitor General is failing to keep both inmates and correctional staff safe and criticized a “business as usual” approach that has resulted in a catastrophic outbreak.

Correctional officers at the jail had also previously complained about limited access to personal protective equipment.

On Monday morning, inmates told the Star they were provided face masks to wear for the first time. Temperature and pulse checks began only after three correctional officers from OCI tested positive for COVID-19 and Peel Public Health declared an outbreak on April 15.

Inmates showing symptoms were “rush-tested,” with some held in segregation units before being transferred to the Toronto South Detention Centre in Etobicoke. All 109 inmates at the jail were tested over the weekend.

The jail is a treatment facility focused on providing treatment for substance abuse, sexual offending and mental health. All inmates there are serving sentences of less than two years.

A spokesperson for the ministry said the mass inmate transfer from the jail was needed due its dormitory style setting which inmates have said made social distancing impossible.

Inmates also shared bathrooms and living space in a unit of about 20 to 25 men, which they were responsible for cleaning themselves. Inmates had continued to eat close together in a cafeteria until last Wednesday, and, until last Tuesday, were using recreational facilities together, according to inmates at the jail.

The inmates are being transferred to Toronto South, because the jail, opened in 2014, has a modern healthcare unit with medical isolation units and appropriate resources, according to a ministry spokesperson.

As a result of a number of factors, including more bails granted, fewer arrests and a few early releases, the population at the Toronto South has been operating below capacity.

However, the jail — the second largest in Canada — has been regularly criticized by judges for “inhumane” conditions, understaffing and frequent lockdowns which have continued during the pandemic.

On Monday, Chris Jackel, head of the correctional officers division of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said there may not be enough staff to handle the influx of new inmates, even though the Toronto South jail population had decreased.

“It’s impossible to predict if there will be a staffing crisis,” he said. “The workload obviously will increase, there are more inmates to care for, more cleaning that is required.”

He said he can’t comment on any measures being taken to ensure adequate staffing levels at the Toronto South. He said he doesn’t know yet if protocols will be in place to avoid cross-contamination if correctional officers are moving between the OCI inmates and others. He said that at the Toronto South correctional officers are ususally assigned to work in just one area of the jail.

He said all staff working in units where the OCI inmates are will have full personal protective equipment. He is continuing to lobby for more personal protective equipment for officers all jails, and said a contentious waiver from the ministry is no longer required for staff who want to wear their own masks if PPE was not approved for use.

In addition to a lack of social distancing measures, Jackel said OCI may have become a “breeding ground” for the virus in part because of its unique layout as a treatment facility. It has dormitories rather than cells, a cafeteria, recreational facilities and relatively free movement for the inmates, he said.

Speaking to the Star on Monday morning, OCI inmate Mark Zammit thought back to three weeks ago when a social worker at the jail started touching various items in a room and said that the inmates were “in the safest place in the land.”

“I knew then we were in trouble,” said Zammit, 49. He is serving a sentence for assault with a weapon and armed robbery and was accepted at OCI in January to receive treatment for his addiction to crack cocaine, anger management and his mental health.

Zammit said there has been a lot of fear and anxiety among the inmates, who aren’t sure what conditions at Toronto South will be like. They were told to call public health for their test results, he said, and he didn’t know yet what his were. Peel Public Health said results are being provided through the jail health teams.

“It’s very stressful. It’s very frustrating. Everyone is afraid,” he said.

The outbreak at OCI is the worst-case scenario advocates have been warning about for weeks, and they say more needs to be done to release non-violent, low-risk inmates from jails. The jail population has decreased by 30 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

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“This isn’t surprising,” said Daniel Brown, a Toronto defence lawyer and vice-president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, of the OCI outbreak. “It was only a matter of time and it will spread like wildfire.”

Meanwhile, jail conditions across the province are harsher than normal, with reports of almost 24-hour lockdowns due to staff shortages, limited phone access, limited shower access and no visitors, he said.

No new COVID-19 cases have been reported at any other provincial jails. The Toronto South has had three inmate cases. It is unclear how many are still active. One inmate case at Monteith Correctional Complex is no longer active.

There are no confirmed cases at Milton’s provincial Maplehurst Correctional Complex, though one inmate moved to a hospital tested positive there, said Peter Figliola, acting president of OPSEU Local 234. He also represents correctional officers at the neighbouring Vanier Centre for Women, where there are no cases.

Between the two jails, there are about 1,300 staff, with around 1,100 of them guards.

Looking at the proportion of the inmate population testing positive, the scale of the outbreak at OCI is similar to the largest outbreaks in federal prisons, where offenders sentenced to more than two year sentences are housed.

According to figures posted Monday by Correctional Services Canada, which reflect federal tests as of Sunday, there were a total of 177 positive inmate cases, up six from the previous day. More than 300 tests had come back negative, with 33 pending results.

One federal inmate at Mission Medium Institution died in hospital last week, becoming the first federal inmate to die from COVID-19. Mission, in the Fraser Valley, is the scene of the largest federal outbreak, accounting for 60 positive inmate cases out of 218 inmates tested.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said late last week that the Mission inmate was in his 70s, had “some other health concerns” and — amid calls to depopulate jails and prisons — was not eligible to be released due to the “serious” matter for which he was serving a sentence.

“It’s a great concern to us,” Blair said in a Zoom chat, referring to the death of an inmate. There are about 14,000 people serving sentences in federal institutions. Many are serving life sentences, said Blair, and are not eligible for release.

“We’ll continue to work really, really hard with people who work within the prison system and advocate for those inmates to make sure that we do everything we can to keep them safe.”

CSC confirmed late last week that correctional officers at Mission were no longer rotating between institutions, a change demanded by the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

Fraser Health has set up a mobile hospital for infected inmates, requiring fewer correctional officers to be with them. Twenty-one Mission inmates have recovered from COVID-19.

There are inmate case outbreaks at five other federal prisons, with 8 cases at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener; and in Quebec, 14 at Port-Cartier Institution; 44 at Federal Training Centre; and 51 at Joliette Institution.

In its daily count Monday, the union for federal correctional officers listed its members’ positive cases by institution, with two cases at Grand Valley; two at Drummond Institution in Quebec; six at the Federal Training Centre; nine in Mission; 13 at Port Cartier and 34 at Joliette.

The total of positive federal prison guard cases is 65, which has remained about the same for the past several days