Prior to 1972, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice had carriage of the responsibility for policing and public safety in the province.
These included 52 common gaols, the largest single type of institution, 4 lunatic asylums, 2 hospitals, 2 reformatory prisons, and one large penitentiary.
It vested control of all the above types of institutions located in Ontario, 49 in total, in the Office of the Inspector of Prisons and Asylums in the Department of the Provincial Secretary.
In addition to prisons, the office was also responsible for the superintendence of various public institutions that served social service functions, such as orphanages, houses of refuge, asylums for the insane, and hospitals.
[1] In the following decade, the development of its administrative structure reflected the evolution from punitive custody to correctional services.
[4] In 2010, the ministry began to administer tests for new applicants and existing security guard or private investigator cardholders.
Prior to 2010, any individual (as long as they were free, or pardoned, of a criminal charge) could obtain one or both licences just by paying 80 dollars for each.
The new requirements came after a coroner's inquest into the death of Patrick Shand, who died from asphyxiation while in the custody of an untrained private security guard and staff at a Loblaws store in Scarborough.
[5] In response to the inquest's recommendations, applicants for security guard or private investigator licences must pass a 40-hour training course before writing a test.