The official start of construction Friday for the new $247-million regional jail means the cramped, deplorable conditions at the old Windsor Jail will be history by 2014.

That date can't come too soon for the 115 correctional officers who work the 86-yearold jail that's cramped when at capacity of 138, and even nearintolerable on weekends when the jail population can swell beyond 200.

"The conditions are horrible," for both the inmates and the staff watching them, said Renzo Anzolin, a corrections officer for 22 years. "It's just a bad place."

More than a dozen corrections officers were present at Friday's groundbreaking at the new site on the Eighth Concession, just north of Highway 401.

Instead of the cramped quarters with poor ventilation and no air conditioning at Brock and Peter streets, this place will have about 200,000 square feet of space on a 30-acre property. Capacity will be 315, and the staffing will rise to between 250 and 300, as the maximum security South West Detention Centre consolidates Windsor's and Sarnia's current jails. The savings realized by closing Sarnia is estimated at $2 million a year. The net increase in employment in Windsor is expected to be about 100.