Warehousing Humans: The Moral Cost of Ontario's New Jail Space Policy

### OPINION

Ontario is no longer managing a correctional system; it is managing a warehouse.

Last month, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing quietly amended the Ontario Building Code to strip away the minimum sleeping area requirement for provincial adult correctional institutions. As CBC Toronto first reported, the previous standard required at least 4.7 square metres of sleeping area per person; now, that floor is gone.

The province justifies this erasure as a means to "optimize space" and "strengthen the bail system." Oleksandr Shvets, a spokesperson for the Solicitor General of Ontario, told CBC News that the previous 4.7 square metre rule would have prevented the installation of top bunks in single cells measuring eight square metres. The government's goal is ambitious and cold: the creation of more than 2,500 permanent jail spaces over the next decade to keep "dangerous offenders behind bars."

But the cost of this "optimization" is human dignity. By removing these limits, the province is effectively sanctioning the normalization of double and triple bunking. Shakir Rahim, director of the criminal justice program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), warned in a news release that these practices undermine the physical and mental health of prisoners—many of whom are in pre-trial detention and have not been convicted of a crime.

When you compare Ontario's retreat from standards to other jurisdictions, the decline is stark. CBC Toronto notes that Correctional Service Canada maintains federal standards of seven square metres for wet cells and six and a half square metres for dry cells. Internationally, the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders recommends 5.4 square metres for single cells, a standard backed by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Ontario isn't just falling behind; it is actively regressing.

This policy will hit the hardest in Northern Ontario, where facilities are already buckling under pressure. L. Martin, who serves as executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario and acting president of the Council of Elizabeth Fry Societies of Ontario (CEFSO), recently visited the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre, Fort Frances Jail, and Kenora District Jail. Martin described these facilities to CBC Toronto as "decrepit spaces that are falling apart, full of mould, aging, archaic."

To add more bodies to these crumbling shells is not a strategy for public safety; it is a recipe for disaster. Rahim pointed out the grim reality of current conditions, noting that people are sleeping next to toilets. He further argued that such conditions border on torture and punishment not authorized by law.

While the Solicitor General's office claims other health and safety requirements remain unchanged, the removal of basic living space is a fundamental failure of oversight. The province is treating its incarcerated population as inventory to be stacked, ignoring the fact that the very environments they are creating fuel the systemic failures they claim to be solving. As Rahim told CBC Toronto, it is unlikely the government will change course without litigation. Until then, Ontario is trading human rights for square footage.