FORD NEEDS TO BUILD COMMUNITIES, NOT MORE PRISONS
More jail capacity just enriches companies without making us safer, Justin Piché says.
Premier Doug Ford was in office when Ontario's jail population decreased 31 per cent, from 8,269 prisoners before the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020 to a low of 5,709 prisoners in May 2020, the largest decline of its kind in the province's history. Although thousands were diverted or decarcerated from custody because of the pandemic, the province didn't heed the advice of experts who called for a shift in funds from caging to supporting those on bail and the newly released. As a result, many criminalized people were without housing and other necessities to survive. The effects of neglecting to invest upstream of jails reverberate today.
Meanwhile, Ford's administration invests millions more in policing and directing Crown attorneys to fight bail applications. It has also appointed more former police officers in recent years than in previous ones to serve as justices of the peace, the people who issue bail decisions. The message is clear: if you're charged in Ford's Ontario, you're presumed guilty.
Recently, Ford said he wants more “like-minded” judges appointed who think like he does, a statement that, although uncontroversial to some, arguably undermines the independence of the judiciary. Such words echo what his government is already doing, with Crown attorneys and lawyers involved in prosecution work comprising the majority of judges Ford's team has appointed to the bench.
In this context, it's unsurprising that Ontario's jail population has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, rising to 8,889 prisoners by the end of September 2023. Facing questions this month about provincial jails being over capacity, Ford declared “I'll build as many jails as we need,” revealing himself to be both ignorant of his administration's record and of measures that will actually make a positive difference.
The province is already in the wasteful business of jail construction. For instance, it has earmarked up to $200 million for a new “correctional complex” and expanding the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre in Brockville. It has also allocated up to $499 million for a new prison to be built on prime agricultural land with a creek and floodplain in Kemptville, at a time of food insecurity and climate catastrophe. Due to its infrastructure development incompetence, the Ford government's Kemptville prison dream is behind schedule: It's currently in a lengthy legal battle with local residents who say the province failed to follow its own planning laws and policy obligations, including not consulting the municipality before announcing the project.
The planned new builds above are happening in former cabinet minister and disgraced MPP Steve Clark's riding. The province is also planning a multimillion-dollar expansion of a detention centre in Napanee and is currently building the $1.2-billion Thunder Bay Correctional Complex.
Spending billions on designing, building, financing and maintaining new prison spaces through 30-year public-private-partnerships will line the pockets of corporations that secure these contracts. However, increasing jail capacity and imprisoning more people — at an average cost of $365 per day, $10,950 per month or more than $130,000 per year — will do little to enhance community well-being and safety for the rest of us. After all, we've long known that for every $1 spent upstream to prevent law-breaking, we save $7 on cops, courts, cages and victim services.
Yet the premier seems intent on expanding policing and imprisonment, while his newly released provincial budget once again shortchanges our education, health and mental-health systems, and fails to do the government's part to build enough permanent and supportive housing for marginalized people. Meanwhile, roughly 80 per cent of people caged in Ontario's jails are awaiting their day in court, many of them because they have no fixed address to be released on bail to or sureties to put up money for them. They're legally innocent pending the outcomes of their legal ordeals. Some will die while in pretrial detention; many more others will eventually be released without a conviction, if recent trends hold.
We have a bail crisis in the province and country, but it's not the one Ford's team and always resource-hungry police chiefs and associations have been talking about. If the premier truly wants to enhance our collective well-being and safety, he should build communities — not cages.
Roughly 80 per cent of people caged in Ontario's jails are awaiting their day in court, many of them because they have no fixed address to be released on bail to or sureties to put up money for them.
They're legally innocent pending the outcomes of their legal ordeals.