Province reopens EMDC intermittent facility: 110 new beds, 45 new corrections jobs

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner announced that the regional intermittent unit will be reopening soon, CTV London’s Bryan Bicknell reports.

The provincial government has announced the reopening of the Regional Intermittent Unit at Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), creating more space for medium and minimum risk inmates, and adding dozens of new jobs.

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner was on hand at EMDC Friday to make the announcement.

“If you want to commit a crime here in Ontario, if you want to wreak havoc on our streets, we have room for you in our jails,” said Kerzner to a group of government and corrections officials and reporters at the media conference.

The Regional Intermittent Unit will open next Monday, March 24. The facility houses 110 new beds, and creates 45 new corrections jobs.

It will house low to medium risk offenders- a level now determined by a scoring system based on the length of an inmate’s sentence, according to Regional Director of Institutional Services, Sean Phillips.

“A score which is now based on a low risk to reoffend or to have issues while in custody, a medium risk, or high risk. So, this piece of Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre will house low risk to medium risk offenders,” explained Phillips.

The Regional Intermittent Unit (or the RIC Centre, as it was referred to previously) opened inside EMDC in 2016. Its purpose was to ease overcrowding inside the jail, housing inmates serving weekend sentences.

Intermittent facilities in London and Toronto were closed in 2022 with the expansion of GPS monitoring, according to the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

EMDC has become notorious for overcrowding over the last several years. One union representative says the expansion of the Intermittent Unit is welcome news.

“When the same number of staff is supervising up to twice as many inmates that a facility is designed to hold it makes it virtually impossible to monitor everything that is happening. This leads to challenges in preventing incidents of violence,” said Janet Laverty, Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Ministry Employee Relations Committee Co-chair.

Kerzner did not say what it cost to re-open the Regional Intermittent Unit.

The government says it’s part of a $500 million investment in modernizing correctional services. Kerzner said plans are also on track to reopen the Toronto Intermittent Unit.