Special adviser to probe 'disturbing' rise in jail violence

The minister in charge of Ontario's jails has asked the province's independent correctionsadviser to investigate a spike in violenceagainst correctional officers.

Violent actsagainst correctionalofficers, which includethreats, spitting, punching, kickingand attacks with weapons, have beenon the rise in Ontario jails.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, there were 793 suchincidents reported by guards at the province's 25 jails in 2016.

By the end of June 2017 the latest data availablethere had already been617 reports.

Followinga CBCNews report earlier this week in whichcorrectional officers and their union blamed the violence on recent changes to segregation rules in the province's jails, a ministry official suggestedthe trend might be tied to improvements in data collection, rather than a rise in the number of attacks.

• Attacks on jail guards jump amid segregation changes

On Thursday,Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Marie-France Lalondesaid the numbers suggest a "deeply, deeply disturbing trend" that's causing significantconcern.

Sheannounced at Queen's Park that she has asked Howard Sapers, the province's corrections adviser, to look into the issue and report back within 90 days.

"We need an in-depth understanding of what ishappeningin our institutions and, more importantly, what is driving the trends," saidLalondein a letter toSaperswhich was shared by her office

Sapers confirmed to CBC News he will be doing the review.

"This is critically important. Nobody,not the men and women who are sent by the courts, not the men and women who work in the institutions,nobody goes to a jail to endure violence," Saperstold CBC Radio's Ontario Today.

"We need to understand what's happening inside the walls of Ontario correctional centres right now, because there have been some reported trends that cause alarm and some of the individual incidents are actually quite horrifying."

Lalonde also said the province is hiring 26 new security and intelligence officers to seize contraband smuggled into jails, monitor gang members and work proactively with inmates to help curbviolence.