The province's jails are bursting and have been significantly over capacity for years, with the situation worsening. Ontario plans to add ne
Ontario is planning a massive expansion of jails over the next decades, The Canadian Press has learned.
The province's jails have been significantly over capacity for years, with the situation worsening. Ontario plans to add nearly 6,000 jail beds by 2050, documents obtained by University of Ottawa researchers through freedom-of-information laws show.
The plan is broken down into three phases, with the first phase underway, says the transition binder prepared last year for Solicitor General Michael Kerzner.
KIDS AS YOUNG AS 12 SENT TO SOLITARY 'FOR EXTENDED PERIODS WITH NO RECOURSE TO SECURE THEIR RELEASE'
All of them are operated by a state agency called the Division of Juvenile Justice and Opportunities for Youth, a bureau within the state's Office of Children and Family Services—known as "OCFS." Both agencies and their leaders, Norman Hall and DaMia Harris-Madden respectively, are named as defendants. The plaintiffs are four children jailed in the prisons.
One of them, Marcus F. , a Black, 18-year-old from the Bronx, has been in OCFS custody since 2024. Before that, he was in the juvenile equivalent of pre-trial detention for 11 months in New York City. There he showed a “remarkable level of respect and cooperation towards the facility’s staff members” and earned two dozen certificates verfiying his successful completion of rehabilitative programs.
Since his transfer to OCFS facilities, Marcus F. has been locked in solitary several times and deemed by staff “problematic,” the lawsuit alleges.
Another plaintiff, Garratt M., was also born-and-raised in New York City. The 16-year-old is diagnosed with three mental illnesses, according to the suit. He’s been in solitary “for at least half of his time in OCFS custody.”
Garrat M. is currently confined at the Industry Residential Center outside Rochester. There, when “insufficient staff are available to supervise a full unit,” administrators give staff “discretion to lock in all youth and then permit small groups of residents out of their cells simultaneously for brief periods of time to shower or make phone calls,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit was first reported by Chris Gelardi at New York Focus.
Other Sources: Legal Aid Society Sues to End Solitary Confinement of Children
