Is our jail system buckling under pressures of COVID and over-population?
Attorney V.J. Singh knows his way around Niagara courtrooms and is never at a loss for words when making a point to judges, juries and Crown attorneys, or even his own clients sometimes. So when the St. Catharines lawyer struggles to find an adjective to describe conditions at the grassroots level of the justice system, it leaves an impression. I have been doing this a long time, and it is heartbreaking to see where we are, Singh said in an interview. The bail lists are longer than ever. The video lists are longer than ever. Its becoming bedlam. Its ... insanity. The people that work at the jail are overworked and understaffed and under-resourced. They lack the technology to satisfy all the courts. There are only so many Zoom lines to attend to the issues in various courts. Our jail is overflowing. Its just inhumane.  While the Crown tries the most serious offences such as murder and drug trafficking in Superior Court with juries, the Ontario Court of Justice deals with the overwhelming majority of criminal charges. Every day is a relentless parade of people charged with such things as impaired driving, to break and enters, and simple assaults. Lawyers shorten the name to OCJ, and it is always busy, though the sheer volume means it can take months, sometimes years, for an outcome. Last Thursday was busy as usual in St. Catharines. The Ontario Court of Justice had 88 individuals on the docket facing 202 charges  with just one trial scheduled. Justin Pich, an associate professor in the department of criminology at University of Ottawa, said the return to business as usual in bail court needs to be rethought in light of the ongoing pandemic. And there are also lessons to be learned when the pandemic eventually recedes. More than a year ago, there was a systemic effort to reduce the jail population across the province that, by all accounts, was a success. The move was a reaction to epidemiologists, who include jails, as a congregate setting, among the most difficult places to control the spread of the coronavirus. Prisoners often live every minute of the day in proximity to each other. They share the same living space, toilets, showers and sinks. The ventilation is often inadequate. A crowded jail is a place where COVID-19 can spread unchecked if precautions arent followed faithfully, said Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagaras acting medical officer of health. Niagara Detention Centre was on his radar from the early days of the pandemic. Detention centres are particularly problematic because they are filled with people from different communities who are being detained in a high exposure-risk environment, before they are quickly released back into those same communities, Hirji said. In addition, front-line correctional staff go home to their families at the end of the shifts, which can spread COVID-19 into the surrounding communities.  The majority of Ontarios jails have vaccinated less than half of their inmates, with six jails vaccinating less than a third of their population, according to data obtained by the Toronto Star. The province said the average vaccination rate across all jails is 50 per cent, but institution-level data obtained from the Ministry of the Solicitor General and local public health units by The Star showed stark variations between jails, ranging from 100 per cent coverage at the Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre in Sault Ste. Marie to only 13 per cent at the Toronto East Detention Centre. About half the inmate population at the Thorold jail has received COVID-19 vaccinations, said Hirji last week. We didnt see great uptake in terms of vaccinations, I think we were a bit over 50 per cent but we certainly werent near 100 per cent or the kind of uptake if we went, say, to a long-term-care home or a retirement home, Hirji said. He said the detention centre is also a challenging environment for a vaccination program. There is a constantly changing prisoner population at a facility such as Niagara Detention Centre. The prisoners are often on remand awaiting trial and can come and go quickly. There is little time to establish trust. Following up can be problematic. A jail hotline Pich helps run often hears from inmates hesitant about getting vaccinated, something Pich attributes to a lack of trust in the health-care and jail systems. There are people in jail who have medical conditions, and others who have lived with mental health and drug use issues, he said. Many have faced discrimination, including racism, inside and outside prison walls. Given the adverse health-care experiences resulting from this, and a lack of information and trust, prisoner vaccine hesitancy should surprise no one.  Hirji said there have been incidents in the past across North America during which experimental drugs were tried out on prisoners and perhaps some of the inmates might have been concerned about that.  Within the span of a few months last year, Ontario reduced its prison population by more than 30 per cent, Pich said. There wasnt a rash of law-breaking that resulted from it. That kind of points to the whole idea that we need to keep folks locked up, Pich said. Our streets werent overrun as a result of the changes that were made in the context of a public health emergency.  The other factor Pich said is the sheer size of the prison population in Ontario jails. About four decades ago, between 23 per cent and 30 per cent of people in jail in the province on any given day were awaiting trial. That figure has now ballooned to about 70 per cent. We have an extremely risk-averse court culture that has developed over the last couple of decades, Pich said. My colleague at the University of Ottawa, Cheryl Webster, calls it a culture of adjournments where there is a lot of pushing off bail hearings and having to continually endure postponements.  Singh said overcrowding is almost always an issue at the local detention centre, but common-sense accommodations that reduced the prisoner population last spring didnt jeopardize public safety. There are certain Crowns (attorneys) that are opposing everything in bail court, and they seem numb to the second and third wave, Singh said. I had a client who already had COVID, and the Crown was still opposing bail. Sometimes they are shipped off to different jurisdictions, and they dont know when they are going to return. Nobody seems to be mindful of that. The Crown will look at the sheet, see a couple charges and oppose.  Statistics show the virus remains a problem in Ontario jails. Ontario accounted for more reported COVID-19 cases linked to prisons than all other jurisdictions combined in May. Total prisoner and staff infections grew by 485 in May alone in the province. Throughout the entire pandemic up to May 31, there had been 2,075 reported COVID-19 cases linked to Ontario jails and prisons. Of that total, 495 were among staff, including four contractors. Toronto South Detention Centre has had the most cases with 401, a total that includes 103 staff. Maplehurst Correctional Facility in Milton has recorded 377 infections, of which 98 were staff. By the end of May, Niagara Detention Centre had 16 cases since the start of the pandemic. Two of the cases were staff members. That data is from the province and it was compiled by the Prison Pandemic Partnership involving researchers from University of Winnipeg, University of Ottawa and Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...  Its to the point where they should be held accountable for anyone who gets COVID in jail, Singh said. It can be reduced if they release more people when they are charged with property offences or uttering threats or simple assaults without a bad record. Sometimes it is some breaches, because someone didnt check in with the police or missed a court date. Those are administrative offences. The police are doing what they can to help within reason on their end, but once you get into court with certain Crowns, they are opposing bail no matter what.  You hear a very different story when talking to provincial officials involved in the administration of justice. Niagaras lead Crown attorney, Michal Sokolski, directed questions about bail procedures to the Ministry of the Attorney General. Brian Gray, a spokesperson with the ministry, said the decision on whether to consent to, or oppose, bail is one of the most critical decisions in the criminal process and isnt taken lightly. The overarching principles used by the Crown are available to the public on the ministrys website. In making this decision, the prosecutor must balance societal interests in public safety, the presumption of innocence, the accuseds charter right to reasonable bail and confidence in the administration of justice, Gray said. Where the prosecutor believes that the release of the accused would jeopardize the safety or security of the victim or the public  and such risk cannot be appropriately mitigated by some form of release with conditions  the prosecutor must seek the accuseds detention.  If the accused is denied bail, he ends up at a facility in Thorold built in 1973 to hold 124 inmates, one to a cell. The introduction of bunk beds and other measures have increased the capacity dramatically. The pandemic has magnified all the issues out there, said Bobbie Walker, a St. Catharines attorney. Im not blaming anyone in particular, but I am really concerned for the mental health of my clients. Yes, they committed a crime  sort of  because they are awaiting trial and are presumed innocent. There arent much in the way of resources available. The programs are limited, if not non-existent. There is no meaningful access to their loved ones. In the first weeks, they dont have adequate access to their lawyers.  Both Singh and Walker were clear they were not advocating to release offenders who pose a danger to the public. Many inmates have mental health and addiction issues and are vulnerable, though they may not present that way, Walker said. The pandemic has cancelled all visits from family and friends. Calls to union officials who represent correctional officers at the detention centre were not returned. Much of what happens behind prisons walls stays there. An outsider trying to do research is sometimes left with the feeling that the government likes it that way. That lack of information, as well as public opprobrium, makes attempts at jail reform difficult and politically fraught. Andrew Morrison, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General, which oversees Ontarios jail system, said Niagara Detention Centre isnt overcrowded. The ministry can confirm that the Niagara Detention Centre is currently at 69 per cent of its operational capacity, Morrison said last month. Morrison said the top priority is protecting the health and safety of correctional services staff and those in provincial custody. Over the last number of months, the ministry has made important operational changes across all provincial correctional facilities, he said. The latest guidance states masks are available to inmates. New inmates remain in a separate area from the general population for 14 days, and testing inmates for COVID-19 is undertaken, with their consent, prior to joining the general population. Morrison said the Crown has also expanded the use of temporary absences, including reviewing lower-risk, eligible inmates near the end of their sentence for early release. Said Pich, Unfortunately, during the second wave and third wave of the pandemic, we have seen the jails slowly filling up again. When outbreaks are suspected, youve seen these facilities going on lockdown quite frequently. They are also going on lockdown when the staff have refused work, or they may have think they have COVID themselves and have to stay home. That leads to more lockdowns. There are already difficult conditions of confinement, and they have become even more austere during this pandemic. I dont see how subjecting people to lockdowns, which are essentially segregation-like conditions  torturous conditions  is a recipe for community safety in the long term. That is not doing anyone any good.