Previously, I started an excerpt of Lawyer Egan’s Statement of Claim against Ontario jail conditions. This post will continue to summarize that Claim by focusing on the issue of overcrowding.

 

Overview

10. The staffs’ action and inaction resulted in an unsanitary, unsafe and overcrowded EMDC during the Claim Period, which violates the inmates’ basic human rights under Section 7 and 12 of our Charter.

11. As well, they have fostered an atmosphere of violence, brutality and intimidation.

 

OVERCROWED CONDITIONS AT EMDC

13. In the 1970’s, the EMDC was designed to hold about 150 inmates.

14. Little has changed since then despite of alternations.

15. However, the number of prisoners regularly exceeded 400 during the Claim Period.

 

16.

Original design:

One cell block, ten cells for ten single inmates, plus two rooms for recreations.

 

Later modifications:

add concrete slab to ten cells, so now twenty inmates per ten cells. During the claim Period, these cells routinely housed more than two prisoners.

 

17. Later modifications: the two rooms were converted to “welfare cells” which were supposed to hold two prisoners, but often held as many as five, despite of the out-dated ventilation and plumbing system designed for only ten prisoners in one single cell block.

 

19. Overcrowding at EMDC resulted in unhygienic conditions such as,

a) sleeping beside toilet b) that were frequently left unclean or broken so it overflow.

c) cells were not cleaned d) where black mold and bed bugs were common

 

21. The staff didn’t do anything despite of this knowledge.