For years, Ontario has sat on legislation meant to tackle chronic problems inside its jails — with laws passed years ago left on the books as issues of violence, overcrowding and mental health behind bars swell.
Now, a new bill being tabled by the New Democrats seeks to hold the province’s feet to the fire.
The private member’s bill being introduced Monday by the NDP’s critic for the attorney general, Kristyn Wong-Tam, pushes Ontario for a timeline to implement the Correctional Services Transformation Act. Officially passed in 2018 just before Premier Doug Ford took office, the act has been effectively mothballed and has yet to be brought into force.
At the time, “the crisis in corrections was at a breaking point,” Wong-Tam told CBC News. Since then, the party has heard “heartbreaking stories” of the changes still needed today. “This bill is driven by the abuses workers and inmates are facing, and families’ calls for real safety in and outside of correctional institutions,” she said.
The bill, shared exclusively with CBC News, would also bring in new protections for whistleblowers and give more teeth to a corrections watchdog, known as an inspector general. The latter would have more freedom to not only investigate jails and make recommendations, but also to compel information from officials and even high-ranking cabinet members on safety, training and funding.
The inspector general could also require the province to post up-to-date information online on just how many people are housed inside Ontario’s 25 jails.
The concept of an inspector general isn’t new. The law passed in 2018 already creates this role, though because it remains shelved, Ontario still has no inspector general for corrections.
The proposed legislation comes as Ontario’s correctional system has been under increasing scrutiny and as provincial judges have, in some cases, made headlines for handing down reduced sentences, citing the troubling conditions inside as the reason.
In a scathing decision in 2024, for example, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy detailed extensive lockdown periods at the Toronto South jail, with those in custody cut off from everything from fresh air to rehabilitation programs and visits with loved ones.
Conditions at Windsor-area jail are leading to reduced sentences
“These conditions are not humane. If the Canadian public heard that one of our citizens was being held in similar conditions in a foreign prison, especially while presumed innocent of any charges against them, they would be outraged, as they should be,” Molloy wrote.
“And yet, these dehumanizing conditions have continued unchecked and unimproved for years, despite many judges raising the issue vociferously.”
The bill also comes as the province plans to tackle overcrowding by increasing jail capacity by 1,170 new beds by 2032 and thousands more in the coming decades, according to documents obtained by University of Ottawa researchers. Meanwhile, nearly 80 per cent of those held in Ontario jails are legally innocent and awaiting trial.
“Even with investments, we won’t see overcrowding diminish to the levels seen early on under this Conservative government any time soon,” Wong-Tam said. “Moreover, having real accountability in corrections will build public trust.”
The 2018 legislation was supposed to overhaul Ontario’s corrections system by setting clear limits on the use of segregation, define minimum standards for living conditions and ensure those in custody had access to appropriate care and rehabilitation support.
Instead, the Ford government “let it lapse,” said Howard Sapers, now the executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Sapers spent more than a decade as Correctional Investigator of Canada and two years conducting an independent review of Ontario’s correctional system — work that underpinned the 2018 act.
Asked about the NDP’s bill, Sapers said he is “happily anticipating” its debate in the legislature.
But he added: “I think that the real issue here is the failure of the government to put into force a bill that received royal assent, which of course is their prerogative. But having chosen to do that, I think they owe Ontarians an explanation as to why.”
“The pre-existing inadequate law continues to be the law in Ontario and the new modernized law has just been collecting dust,” he said.
As for Ontario’s plan to boost jail capacity, Sapers called the move “foolish.”
“All that does is 10 years later, you’re in the same place and you have to build more space … You’re never going to build your way to public safety.”
Ontario’s Minister of the Solicitor General did not respond to the question of why it has not brought the 2018 legislation into force.
In a statement, spokesperson Brent Ross said only that the government “has updated the existing Ministry of Correctional Services Act and its regulations to modernize the provincial correctional system.”
Establishing a corrections watchdog was among the top five of 57 recommendations made at the inquest into the 2016 death of Soleiman Faqiri at the hands of jail guards at the Central East Correctional Centre.
Faqiri, who had schizoaffective disorder, died in a segregation cell face-down and restrained, with a spithood covering his face. The inquest deemed Faqiri’s death a homicide, though no charges were ever laid.
The long-awaited inquest into his death pulled back the curtain on what was described as a broken system plagued by a lack of training and staff, tensions between layers of management and an overreliance on segregation.
Since the inquest, Ross says the province has made “enhancements to policies and procedures,” though he did not provide specifics.
Nearly a decade since Faqiri’s death, his brother Yusuf says his family is throwing its full support behind the NDP’s bill, adding while it may not necessarily have saved his brother, it could have saved his family from the agonizing years-long push to find out what happened to their “Soli.”
“Families should not be given their loved ones in a body bag and then fight for 10 years. If their families are tragically dying in these systems and are vulnerable, then we need answers,” he said.
“I do believe that if his tragedy took place within this bill, there would be accountability … and I think that’s the difference.”
Soleiman Faqiri’s family demands apology, action from Ontario government following inquest
The hope is that Faqiri’s death will leave a mark of change in the system where his life was cut short.
There’s another legacy too: Yusuf became a father to a baby boy, just before the last anniversary of his brother’s death.
“I named my son Soleiman. And you know, my brother’s legacy lives and lives through him as well.”
