OPSEU/SEFPO proudly represents 10,000 provincial correctional staff in adult correctional facilities, youth centres, adult probation and parole offices, and youth probation offices across the province. They work for the Ministry of the Solicitor General (Corrections) and the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (Youth Justice).
Every year, starting on the first Monday of May, correctional workers are recognized in Ontario during Correctional Services Staff Recognition Week for their challenging, often dangerous but also rewarding work which is essential to public safety.
This year’s Correctional Services Staff Recognition Week is May 5-11, 2025.
Why is Correctional work rewarding?
The correctional system in Ontario has a lot of problems. Infrastructure issues, overcrowding, understaffing, violence (including daily workplace violence against staff), overdoses and deaths in custody. Unmanageable caseloads in community corrections. And in the last three years, a mental health crisis among correctional workers that has resulted in at least eleven suicides. For years, OPSEU/SEFPO has been advocating for concrete ways to address the crisis in corrections to make the system safer and healthier for both staff and offenders in custody and in the community.
Despite these challenging working conditions, OPSEU/SEFPO members across the province show up daily to keep Ontarians safe. Correctional workers are good people doing good work who take pride in their important role in the criminal justice system, one that is often out of sight of the general public. They go into correctional work to keep our communities safe, to meet the needs of those in custody, and to help rehabilitate and reintegrate people in conflict with the law into our communities.
Usually when the public hears about corrections in the media, it’s when something goes wrong. It would be easy for people who read endless negative stories about corrections to wonder: how could correctional work be rewarding?
Here are some typical correctional work stories that you don’t hear about in the media:
- Correctional workers in every position who provide support to adults and youth in custody with a wide variety of needs, and who respond quickly and expertly every day to protect and save the lives of people who experience violence or overdose on toxic drugs.
- Correctional Officers who do the complex job of maintaining safety within institutions while also meeting the individual care and rehabilitation needs of each inmate under their supervision.
- Probation and Parole Officers who keep communities safe by monitoring offenders on community supervision, facilitate programming, and help offenders reintegrate into the community after incarceration, and Probation Officers who help youth do the same.
- Youth Services Officers who provide support and care to youth in custody.
- Correctional Nurses who provide health care services to adults and youth in custody whose physical and mental health care needs are growing in complexity.
- Rehabilitation Officers who facilitate programming and prepare adults and youth in custody for life in the community.
- Social Workers, Psychologists and Addictions Counsellors who help offenders with addiction and mental health issues that are so prevalent in incarcerated populations, and who facilitate programming to reduce criminal behaviours.
- Recreation Officers who help adults and youth in custody to find healthy and rehabilitative activities.
- Chaplains who attend to the spiritual needs of people in custody from a vast variety of religious backgrounds.
- Cooks and kitchen staff who prepare meals, and mentor inmates who are given the opportunity to work in the kitchen with them.
- Administrative staff who work with fellow correctional staff and stakeholders to greet visitors and clients, review court records to properly admit and release inmates, provide administrative support, and generally keep the system running smoothly.
- Trade workers who maintain the infrastructure in institutions and facilities, often while mentoring inmates assigned to their work details.
- Volunteer Coordinators who plan all aspects of volunteers coming in to provide programming and support to inmates.
- Custodial staff who work hard to keep institutions clean.
Correctional Services Ceremony of Remembrance: Thursday, May 8, 2025
What many people in the public also don’t hear about in the media is the daily workplace violence directed at correctional staff. Every day in Ontario at least two correctional workers are assaulted on the job – and that’s in addition to the daily threats and attempted assaults faced by correctional workers. This exposure to ongoing and escalating violence takes a physical and mental health toll on correctional workers.
Every year during Correctional Services Staff Recognition Week, a Ceremony of Remembrance is held at Queen’s Park to recognize the twenty correctional workers who have died in the line of duty over the past 140 years. The ceremony takes place at the Correctional Services Memorial in Queen’s Park Circle and is attended by the Minister and senior ministry staff, OPSEU/SEFPO and Correctional Bargaining Unit leaders, correctional workers, and the public.
Ceremony of Remembrance 2025
Thursday, May 8 at Noon
Correctional Services Memorial monument
Queen’s Park Circle, Toronto
(Nearest TTC stop: Queen’s Park subway station)