A growing number of judges presiding over criminal cases in Ontario are condemning the “deplorable” prison conditions at the Toronto South Detention Center (TSDC), where sentences continue to be shortened for inhumane conditions.
In considering a bail decision issued last week, Judge Brock Jones wrote that the near-constant closures and confinements are contributing to a “deplorable situation” at the facility, which holds inmates awaiting trial or who have been sentenced. less than two years.
“Those who suffer most are often our most vulnerable citizens: the poor, the socially disadvantaged, those with mental health issues, Indigenous Canadians and racialized Canadians,” Jones wrote in his decision, in which a man accused of eight counts of possession he was awarded a prison sentence. conditional release on bail.
According to data obtained by CTV News Toronto, the vast majority (more than 80 per cent) of inmates in provincially run jails like TSDC are awaiting trial and presumed innocent. Most of these facilities were also operating at excess capacity in 2023: in September, there were an average of 8,889 people in provincial custody, well above the capacity of 7,848 people.
“It reached a crisis level a long time ago. Something must change. And it must start to change now,” Jones wrote.
Jones’ comment adds to a growing number of court decisions in which a defendant’s time served has been reduced due to inhumane conditions at TSDC. Last year, records show At least 24 inmates have had their detention periods reduced due to repeated closures, pest infestations and other harsh treatment in Etobicoke, Ontario. facility.
When asked for comment, the Ministry of the Attorney General did not respond by the publication deadline. He had previously said that $500 million had been allocated to modernize the institution and hire more staff.
In a March decisionSuperior Court Judge Anne Malloy wrote that lockdowns typically account for at least 50 percent of TSDC inmates’ total days in custody.
During these lockdowns, inmates are held for hours, “sometimes days,” in windowless cells. They are restricted from rehabilitation programs, religious observance, showers, cleaning supplies, laundry, visits and phone calls with loved ones, fresh air, and meetings and phone calls with their lawyers until the lockdown is lifted. , wrote.
In his decision, Molloy called the circumstances “inhumane” and noted a recent report from the Ontario Human Rights Commission about conditions at TSDC. The report, prepared in 2020 after two tours of the facilities, found in part that inmates were subject to confinement, infrequent changes of bedding and clothing, outbreaks of diseases such as scabies and undue stress caused by repeated confinements.
According to Molloy, many of those issues remain routine four years later.
“If the Canadian public learned that one of our citizens was being held in similar conditions in a foreign prison, especially when presumed innocent of any charges against them, they would be outraged, as they should be,” Molloy said.
“I adopt the various descriptions that my colleagues [Justice Andras Schreck] I have used to describe the situation: It is, to use your words, unacceptable, shocking, deplorable, harsh, oppressive, degrading, disheartening, appalling, Dickensian, regressive and unforgivable,” he continued.
In that case, conditions at TSDC saw the sentencing of a man convicted on drug trafficking and possession charges. reduced in one year.
Ontario New Democratic Party justice critic Kristyn Wong-Tam said in an interview with CTV News in January that the jail is one of several parts of Ontario’s justice system that are broken due to a lack of funding and staff shortage.
“Overcrowding in detention centers leads to more conflict, illness and burnout for already overworked staff,” they said. “When there is no staff, they are forced to lock these individuals in cells and the conditions are not humane. A judge has to consider all that. And they fail to adequately sentence individuals.”
The provincial government has not provided information on staffing levels at TSDC, but said earlier this year that TSDC has deployed more than 430 new correctional officers since the summer.
The problem, according to critics, lies in an “excessive” use of preventive detention caused by staff shortages.
“Even if pretrial detention conditions were made more humane, the decision to deprive someone of their liberty before they have had a trial and the Crown has proven its case should be taken with restraint,” the judge wrote. “Given the absolutely dehumanizing conditions at TSDC, it must be made even rarer until those conditions improve.”
Ontario judges cannot change these conditions, Jones wrote in his decision, but must “consider them when making decisions that affect the lives of those who come before.” [them].”
“They deserve to have their fundamental human rights respected,” he wrote.
With files from Jon Woodward and The Canadian Press.