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It’s high time heads start rolling over the unacceptable, inhumane state of Ontario’s jails. And we don’t mean the heads of lower-level functionaries, such as the warden who parted ways with the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre months ago. We mean people – politicians, high-level provincial officials – who knew better, or should have known better.

We also need real, not just symbolic, change.

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Most Ontarians, we’ll wager, aren’t sympathetic to the kinds of people who end up in our provincial jails. But still, we are all ethically and legally bound to treat them with humanity, and too many cases have come to light in which this is not the case.

In the latest example, the Citizen reported Friday about two men who complained of being held in segregation for 24 hours, naked, at the Innes Road jail. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services wouldn’t confirm or deny the allegations, merely saying this wouldn’t be normal practice.