TORONTO — Ontario can address correctional capacity concerns without abandoning dignity, safety, and accountability. Removing minimum‑space protections moves the province in the wrong direction.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is sounding the alarm over the Ontario government’s decision to eliminate the minimum sleeping‑space requirement for provincial correctional facilities, a basic safeguard that helps protect the health, safety, and dignity of people in custody. Removing this standard does nothing to address the root causes of overcrowding and signals a troubling willingness to normalize conditions that courts, experts, and frontline staff have long warned are unsafe.
The Building Code amendment scraps the 4.7‑square‑metre minimum sleeping area previously required for each person held in a provincial jail. This change was introduced quietly, without public consultation or a clear explanation from responsible ministers about how safety and legality will be maintained.
“The normalization of double and triple bunking will continue to undermine prisoners’ physical and mental health,” said Shakir Rahim, Director of the Criminal Justice Program. “Judicial decisions in Ontario have resoundingly held that these practices are unacceptable. Most people in provincial jails are in pre‑trial detention awaiting their day in court.”
Overcrowded cells increase the risk of illness, heighten tensions, disrupt sleep, and make it harder for correctional officers to safely manage units. Putting more people in the same space means less privacy, greater difficulty maintaining cleanliness, disrupted sleep and increased exposure to infectious illness. These foreseeable harms affect both the people detained and the staff responsible for their care.
Harsh and abusive conditions of confinement will harm everyone in custody, including those in pre-trial detention, many of whom will never be convicted of the offence they are charged with.
“Placing prisoners in crowded and abusive conditions increases the risk of conflict and undermines rehabilitation,” said Howard Sapers, CCLA Executive Director. “This thoughtless policy change compromises public safety.”
The CCLA calls on the Premier and Solicitor General to:
- publicly explain the rationale for eliminating the minimum sleeping‑space requirement;
- release data on current occupancy, cell configurations, staffing levels, and safety indicators;
- commit to ending double and triple bunking in Ontario’s correctional facilities; and
adopt evidence‑based measures that reduce unnecessary remand, expand alternatives to detention, and maintain enforceable minimum living standards.
