With just over a month left in their current contract, Ontario Corrections workers are back at the bargaining table.
The contract was settled in 2016 after 15 months of talks for the 9300 workers.
More than 300 OPSEU staff work at the Southwest Detention Centre.
Chris Jackel is the chair of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union bargaining committee for the corrections staff.
He says the chronic overcrowding and understaffing at institutions across Ontario is a key issue.
"There is a crisis in corrections and it has been ongoing for several years, it's gotten worse." says Jackel " We do believe that a good solid collective agreement would do wonders in helping alleviate some of that crisis"
Jackel says it's unlikely a new contract will be in place before the current one expires, but he says if there's a will it's possible.
He says there's a long road to go to reach a contract, they've only had preliminary talks.
Jackel says there are no dates yet for resuming the talks which opened earlier this month.
The contract expires December 31st, 2017.