Jay McQueen
8/17/2012
The rotational lockdown continues at the Barton Street Jail.
The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has confirmed that staff from outside the city are managing the operations of the facility and inmates are being allowed to use the phones and take showers.
This, as corrections officers refuse to go back inside until they're allowed by management to wear protective vests and search for a missing piece of metal.
It's feared the object could be used as a weapon.
OPSEU Corrections Division Chair Dan Sidsworth says he's heard managers themselves are actually wearing vests inside.
He's also heard the same standards are not being met with regards to safety issues -- for example -- inmates are not being strip searched upon returning from court.
Sidsworth doesn't think wearing protective vests to search for something that could be used as a weapon is unreasonable.
He says 485 officers were assaulted in Ontario jails last year and it's the only province where vests are not mandatory.
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