'We have space': PCs dismiss jail overcrowding while demanding more bail reforms

Ontario's Progressive Conservative government is once again pressuring its federal counterpart to keep more people accused of crimes in pre-trial custody instead of being released on bail, while also dismissing the likelihood that the reforms would exacerbate overcrowding in provincial jails.

In a letter sent Monday to the federal government, the province called on Ottawa to make several changes to the Criminal Code, including:

• restoring mandatory minimum sentencing rules struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2023;
• barring bail for anyone accused of murder, terrorism, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, drug trafficking, criminal possession or use of restricted or prohibited firearms, and robbery;
• creating a new "three-strike rule" to forbid bail for repeat offenders;
• adding more restrictions on the availability of conditional sentences for "serious crimes";
• requiring ankle monitors for everyone released on bail after being accused of "serious crimes";
• and not counting pre-trial custody towards prison sentences for "repeat and violent offenders."

If the federal government decides to enact these changes, it would likely increase the number of people being held in Ontario's already overburdened jails. Ontario's recently appointed Associate Auto Theft and Bail Reform Minister Graham McGregor said he is not concerned about that prospect.

"Just because a jail is unpleasant doesn't mean that criminals shouldn't be there, (and) we appreciate that Ontario jails may not be as pleasant to be in as some of the federal prisons," said McGregor, who also criticized "weak-kneed judges" who decide not to keep suspects in custody due to the poor conditions inside jails.

"Jails are not supposed to be nice places. ... It's not a luxury hotel," he said. 

The union representing correctional officers, OPSEU, has warned the government that "Ontario’s correctional system is in crisis," noting that at the jail in Thunder Bay, "up to four inmates are held in a 40-square-foot cell that was designed for two."

Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, meanwhile, insisted that "we have space" for any influx of inmates.

According to internal government data obtained by the Canadian Press in June, however, jails in Ontario are operating at overcapacity. In September of 2023, there were 1,000 more inmates than beds in the system, putting jails at 113 per cent capacity on average, with some institutions exceeding 130 per cent capacity.

A 2019 value-for-money audit by the auditor general’s office concluded the optimal occupancy capacity for an Ontario jail is 85 per cent. 

Of this inmate population, 80 per cent are people awaiting trial and, therefore, are legally innocent of the charges against them.

In his 2023-24 annual report, Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé noted that his office frequently receives complaints from inmates about the conditions inside correctional facilities across Ontario, including "poor living conditions" caused by overcrowding, mouse infestations, not getting enough time outside of cells due to understaffing, lack of access to medical care, and more.

"The systems are struggling," Dubé told reporters in June. “Urgent attention is needed.”

McGregor said on Monday that the province is "making do with the space we have," and that it "will build as many jails as we need to to keep criminals locked up."

Over the summer, the PC government announced it was working to alleviate jail overcrowding by creating 430 more minimum and medium security beds by converting two intermittent centres in London and Toronto — typically meant for people allowed to serve their sentences on weekends — into regular jails. These facilities are not expected to be ready until next year.

The province also completed expansion projects to the Thunder Bay and Kenora jails in 2022. OPSEU said a year later that the expansion in Thunder Bay "has not generally entailed any physical expansion to the institution but, instead, means that inmates are double-, triple- or quadruple-bunked, or even required to sleep on mattresses in the shower.”

The province has also been attempting to build a new 235-bed jail in Kemptville since 2020 to help relieve overcrowding at the Eastern Ontario Correctional Complex. That project appears to have stalled in the face of fierce resistance from the local community.  

Asked when the province will have enough capacity for all of its inmates, McGregor replied, "We are ready right now."

Provincial opposition parties argued the Ford government should focus on improving the court and correctional systems by addressing issues under its control, rather than attempting to wring more bail reforms out of the feds.

"The state of our correctional facilities, detention facilities, is so bad at the provincial level that people are getting extra credit because of the conditions in those centres, which means they get out earlier," NDP Leader Marit Stiles said. 

Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser noted that his father worked in corrections and argued that putting more inmates into the system without adequate capacity would put correction officers at risk as well as inmates.

"Overcrowding is not unpleasant, it's dangerous," Fraser said. "It is dangerous for everybody that's in there. Not just from the point of violence, which is a problem, but also disease."

For its part, OPSEU has taken a neutral stance on the Criminal Code changes the province is calling for.

"It's all about ... balancing those different risks," OPSEU corrections committee member Adam Cygler told The Trillium. "Do we need more resources and infrastructure and staffing levels to meet an influx of an inmate population? Absolutely. But we're also talking potential inmates who ... shouldn't be out in the community."

The federal government, meanwhile, dismissed the demands as "political gamesmanship" by McGregor, who supposedly refused "to meet in person to discuss real solutions for bail reform."

"These proposals are divorced from any evidence that they reduce crime — or that they even meet Charter standards," said federal Attorney General Arif Virani, who singled out the three-strikes proposal as a "slippery slope."

"The responsibility for administering bail and the criminal courts is Ontario’s. Today’s letter does not address serious concerns I have previously raised about the adequacy of court resources ... as well as the need to ensure there are sufficient jail spaces and resources for people on remand."

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.