Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended his government’s plan to build many more jails, saying the billions in cost will be worth it.

Ontario’s jails are well over capacity and the overcrowding has been worsening for years under Ford’s tenure as premier.

The province plans to add upward of 6,000 new jail beds by 2050, government documents obtained by The Canadian Press show.

About 80 per cent of inmates in provincial jails are awaiting trial and presumptively innocent. The provincial institutions hold people who are accused of a crime but not on bail, as well as those serving sentences of two years less a day. Inmates with longer sentences are housed in the federal prison system.

  • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    5·
    9 days ago

    "We aren’t building Four Seasons hotels for these people, they’re going to jail, and again, I don’t care if you stack them 10 high, these are criminals that broke the law and they’re going to be held accountable," Ford said.

    Pot/kettle Druggie.

    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
      4·
      9 days ago

      In my still traumatized experience, he isn’t far off.

      I was on one unit that had 5 guys in a cell with one bunkbed.

      I spent 2 years in remand because of lawyers and delays.

      I had so many bail hearings canceled because there wasn’t enough time I just gave up.