It was just before 3:15 p.m., and there were no corrections officers in sight when Trevell Greene and another inmate attacked Dashawn Sinclair at the Toronto East Detention Centre on July 23, 2022. 

Greene and the other assailant punched, kicked, and stomped on Sinclair for more than five minutes as security cameras rolled. Staff did not intervene, apparently unaware of the prolonged assault in progress, in which Greene used an apple concealed in a sock to beat Sinclair. Security footage shows a group of officers in a nearby corridor as the beating dragged on before passing beneath a camera.

Staff arrived at 3:21, according to time-stamped security footage. By then, Greene and the other assailant, who is not identified in court records reviewed by Ricochet, had broken Sinclair’s jaw. His face was streaked with blood as officers escorted him out of the room. 

When Superior Court Justice P. Andras Schreck sentenced Greene for the assault and another crime last September, he highlighted the harsh conditions Greene had endured inside the Toronto East facility, citing several recent decisions in which judges described the sorry state of the institution. 

“The government’s response to these criticisms has been to do nothing,” Schreck said in his September 2024 sentencing reasons.  

In rulings published last year, Ontario judges described the province’s detention centres as “disgraceful,” “unworthy of us as a society,” “abusive,” “abhorrent,” filthy facilities “plagued with violence, unsanitary conditions, inadequate dental, mental health and medical care,” where prisoners, and not the “beleaguered overburdened staff” are in charge, and inmates are subjected to “corporal punishment” and “torment.” The majority of prisoners in these institutions are legally innocent, awaiting the resolution of pending charges.   

Again and again, judges bemoaned the overcrowding in detention centres that necessitates “triple bunking,” the practice of housing three inmates in a cell designed for two. Ricochet surveyed recent rulings and found the province’s judges treated triple bunking as a mitigating factor during sentencing 50 times in 2024. This is far from a comprehensive survey, comprising only decisions that are published and easily located online in which judges clearly acknowledged a negative impact of triple bunking on an inmate.  

The crowding would not surprise anyone informed on the inner workings of the province’s justice system, but the consistency among judges’ rulings shows the decay of Ontario’s detention centres routinely softens sentences in criminal court. 

In a 2021 decision, Ontario’s Court of Appeal noted that credit for time in difficult situations is not a hard number deducted from an offender’s sentence, but “a mitigating factor to be taken into account… in arriving at the appropriate sentence.” Mitigating factors, which also include early guilty pleas or an absence of a criminal record, can lead to a lesser penalty. 

“If there’s no lockdowns and there’s no triple-bunking and they’re getting all their yard time and no one’s sleeping on the floor, that’s a qualitatively different carceral experience than someone who’s locked down for months at a time with two other people in a cell and never getting outside,” said Scott Reid, a criminal defence lawyer. 

In Greene’s case, Schreck deemed his time in the Toronto East as a “substantial” mitigating factor to his sentence, noting that he’d spent 565 nights as one of three prisoners in a cell designed for two. 

Most inmates in Ontario jails have not been convicted, awaiting trial

“You couldn’t even fathom the circumstances unless you’re actually going through this,” said Lennie Middleton. “I understand when people say, if you don’t like it, don’t go to jail but… a lot of us are innocent until proven guilty.”

Middleton is one of several inmates currently triple-bunked at the Toronto South Detention Centre who spoke with Ricochet by phone. He faces two counts of violating a supervision order after allegedly being in a section of Toronto he was not permitted to enter except when attending court and work, according to court records.   

Middleton arranged for a Ricochet reporter to speak with several inmates, including two men who identified themselves as his cellmates. 

“You’re always in somebody’s space — to eat… to use the washroom,” said Richard Iraheta, another prisoner in the facility, who told Ricochet he sleeps on the floor of the cell he shares with two other inmates. 

Middleton and other inmates described difficulties staying clean in the crowded facility.

“It smells like disease to me,” Middleton said. 

Affidavits filed in court also reveal persistent overcrowding in detention centres.

Pablo Banton said he was triple-bunked while detained at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex. In a June 2024 affidavit filed in court and released to Ricochet, Banton said he had been triple-bunked since February of that year. Banton said he volunteered to sleep on the floor because one of his cellmates had bad knees and was, by his estimate, around 45 years old. 

Crowding also exacerbated other problems in the detention centre, Banton wrote. Too many inmates compete for access to the phones and lockdowns force them to use the toilets in their cell with limited privacy.

Records filed in another matter show a defendant was triple-bunked for 435 of 770 days he spent at the Toronto East Detention Centre. As the newest arrival in his cell, the 37-year-old defendant, who said he had a bullet lodged near his spine after being shot as a teenager, slept on a mattress on the floor. He moved to a bunk around a year later when one of his cellmates left, but still lived with two other inmates. 

Part of Premier Ford’s commitment to keeping more people in jail

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government has promised to expand the province’s capacity to detain prisoners by building new facilities and adding space at existing detention centres.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General said no one was available for an interview. In a prepared statement attributed to a representative for the Office of the Solicitor General, the government described “historic investments” in the correctional system, claiming there is room in the province’s jails, despite the triple bunking documented by Ontario’s judges.      

And although the province has touted its recruitment of new corrections officers, records reviewed show lockdowns — periods when prisoners are confined to their cell without access to amenities — caused by staff shortages were regular occurrences in 2024.

Nicole Myers, an associate professor at Queen’s University, said more beds will draw new prisoners without addressing the issues that cause overcrowding. 

Writing in a study for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Myers and two other researchers said Canada’s courts are swamped with defendants facing “administration of justice” charges, like failing to abide by bail conditions connected to an earlier charge. Low-level offences drain valuable court time, Myers said in an interview.  

“If you sit in court all day long and write down everybody’s outcome, the most common outcome is that most matters are adjourned,” said Myers, describing observations researchers conducted in bail courts. 

The CCLA’s researchers also observed dozens of cases in Ontario court that went unheard as courts ran out of time, even though counsel were prepared for bail hearings. Offenders in adjourned matters returned to their cells for at least another night.

Federal legislation that came into effect last year expanded the instances in which defendants must demonstrate why they should be granted bail. This is a reversal of the common arrangement, in which prosecutors must establish why bail should be denied. Ministry of the Attorney General spokesperson Keesha Seaton said the province will spend $26 million to fund and expand the work of prosecution teams focused on bail hearings — part of Premier Doug Ford’s commitment to keeping more defendants in jail.   

Alison Craig, Middleton’s lawyer, said the alleged offences were minor, and should not require time in custody. The Ford government’s approach to bail has contributed to the overcrowding in detention centres, Craig said.    

“Contrary to what politicians would tell you, we do not have a catch and release system — quite the opposite,” said Craig. “And for it seems like the majority of offences… they basically make you jump through hoops and set special bail hearings, which takes… days, if not weeks.”

According to a CTV investigation last year, the vast majority of people in Ontario jails, about 80 per cent, were awaiting trial.

Middleton will return to court on March 31, and could have a bail review some time in April at the earliest, Craig said. 

In the meantime, judges’ rulings released this year show triple-bunking continues. 

“It seems like when guys leave, they just bring more guys in,” Middleton said.