Ontario is adding 150 new jail beds. Experts say they aren't enough to address overcrowding

Ontario's solicitor general says the province is adding 150 beds to three jails across the province using modular construction — a "Band-Aid" solution, experts say, that doesn't do enough to address overcrowding. 

The announcement comes not long after the province's ombudsman raised concerns about an overcrowding "crisis" in Ontario's correctional facilities, saying some are operating at more than 150 per cent of their capacity, compromising safety for inmates and staff alike.

Solicitor General Michael Kernzer said Thursday that the investment was not just about new beds or buildings, but a message to criminals from Ford's "tough-on-crime government." 

"If you commit a violent crime in Ontario, you will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will be locked up," he said. 

Kernzer made the announcement Thursday at the Niagara Detention Centre, which will expand by 50 spaces, as will the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, and the Cecil Facer Youth Centre in Sudbury, which is also being converted to an adult facility.

Construction is expected to begin next year and cost the province more than $180 million.

While Kernzer said the investment would uplift a "strained and overburdened" correctional system, experts and people who deal with Ontario's correctional institutions say the province needs to hire more staff, alleviate overcrowding in jails and fund community-based solutions. 

"Realistically there need to be hundreds and hundreds more beds if we are going to truly try and treat people with a modicum of dignity and humanity," said defence lawyer Alison Craig, who works with many clients currently in provincial jails.

The ombudsman's June report found a "state of crisis" in the province's jails, hearing complaints about a range of issues, from frequent lockdowns to overcrowding. In some cases, the report found three inmates were bunking in cells made for two.

More beds, modern institutions needed: union rep

Janet Laverty, chair of the ministry employee relations committee for Ontario Public Services Employees Union, which represents corrections officers, says the new beds are a "medium-term solution" to help modernize facilities. 

"There are no simple fixes to these challenges," she said, saying appropriate staffing resources will be added when the expansions are operational. 

"The reality is we need more beds across our system. More beds means we need new and modern correctional institutions and building new institutions takes time."

Premier Doug Ford has also recently been pushing the federal government for stricter bail laws and urging judges and justices of the peace not to let violent, repeat offenders out on bail when they are charged with a new crime.

Provincial jails hold people accused of a crime but not out on bail, as well as those serving sentences of two years less a day, but advocates have pointed out the vast majority fit into the first category and have not been convicted.

Staffing, community solutions more important, say others

Craig says nearly all of her clients are "triple-bunking" in tight cells and overcrowding is a concern in all of the province's facilities.

She says before beds are added at facilities, the province needs to address under-staffing.

"The conditions at all of the jails at the moment are absolutely inhumane," she said.

"What they need to invest in is people to make the beds that we currently have livable and then after that is addressed, perhaps additional beds is the next step."

Stacey Hannem, criminology professor at Wilfred Laurier University, says the new beds barely alleviate issues in the correctional system. 

She says the province needs to first address the root causes of crime and fund communities to manage mental health, substance use and access to housing.

"Throughout history, you look at periods of economic crises and periods of great disparity and inevitably that leads to more people coming into conflict with the law," Hannem said.

"My first thought is that 150 beds across the Ontario system is like putting a Band-Aid on a giant gaping wound," she said.