More than three weeks after a number of jails across Ontario were emptied out in advance of a possible strike by correctional workers, signs of life are returning.

At the Stratford Jail, six inmates have spent the week painting the facility. The rest of Stratford’s prisoner population was expected to start returning on Friday.

In Brantford, prisoners started returning to that city’s jail on Wednesday. By Friday afternoon, about half of the 85 prisoners it had before the move-out began had returned.

As inmates return to those cities, so too do the correctional workers who had been transferred elsewhere in the days before a contract was reached between the province and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Most employees at the Stratford Jail had been sent to London for the duration of the transition, while workers in Brantford were reallocated to Hamilton.

To hear them tell it, it was nearly a month of long hours, high pay, and a little less work than they were expecting.

“Because the staff don’t work at Hamilton, they were unable to perform the duties of the (correctional officers) in the institution,” said Dan Wardell, who as president of OPSEU Local 247 represents workers at the Brantford Jail.

“They ended up just job shadowing, and just sitting around – more or less in the way of the correctional staff down there.”

Wardell says Brantford’s jail guards were paid for what amounted to 15-hour days, given their travel time from Brantford to Hamilton was covered.

Meals and mileage were also paid for by the province, he said, even though it seemed at times like there was little reason for the workers to be in Hamilton at all.

“They probably could have been better utilized at the Brantford jail to paint, help with repairs, get the place back in order before the inmates returned,” he said.

The president of the OPSEU chapter representing workers at the Stratford Jail says his colleagues found themselves in the same situation in London.

“Basically while they were there, they sat around and did nothing because they’re not trained to work at that facility,” Todd Snider told CTV News.

“They were being paid their regular wage, plus they were being paid travel time … plus mileage to drive there, and meals on top of that.”

Snider says some of the Stratford group suggested using the time to do mandatory training programs slated for later this year, but were turned down.

“They had their own plan worked out and didn’t want to hear from us,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services says that correctional workers had plenty to keep them busy in their new locations.

 “Jail staff received an orientation to the facility, engaged in job shadowing and performed regular duties associated to their positions,” Brent Ross said in an email.

Questions about the total cost associated with the moves, why using the time for training was not permitted and why it took more than two weeks to move inmates back to Brantford and Stratford were not answered.