/PG/ Toronto, Canada (Signal High) —– Recently released public records show that the vast majority of inmates in Ontario jails are innocent, having never had their day in court, having never faced their accuser.
Government data shows that there were approximately 9,000 people in custody on any given day last year, and of those 9,000 people, 82 percent were in “pre-trial custody,” meaning they were in jail awaiting trial, but were still innocent. The remainder, were either serving a sentence (15%) or related to immigration matters, federal sentences, etc. (3%).
Contrast this with the following data from just a few years ago: In Ontario, 43 per cent of charges laid by police are ultimately stayed or withdrawn, and of those that actually do make it to trial, the conviction rate is just 55 percent. That means that of the 9,000 inmates in jail today 7,380 have never been tried and are, therefore, innocent; and 3,173 will have their charges dropped; and while the remaining 4,207 will make it to court, only 2,314 will be convicted.
There are 5,066 people sitting in jail right now who are not only innocent (because they haven’t been proven guilty) but who will, according to the government’s own statistics, never be convicted. What makes matters even worse is that 20 percent of inmates will become jobless and homeless while in jail, meaning 1,013 innocent will leave jail having lost everything.
Another exacerbating factor is “reverse onus offences,” charges that require the accused to prove they are suitable for bail and not the other way around. Guilty until proven innocent. The new Canadian way.
What all of this means is that a police officer can fudge the facts, not that police would ever do that, causing someone to be arrested, imprisoned, refused bail and left to rot for 18 months without being accountable to anyone. This is the unchecked power that police officers have in Canada, and this has led to the creation of charges like “driving while black” and “contempt of cop.” Police are now judge, jury and executioner.
Premier Doug Ford, the leader of the Ontario government, is in favour of making even more offences “reverse onus,” even though many have come forward outing Ford as a former drug dealer and neighbourhood thug. Ford denies the accusations.
It has been widely reported that conditions in Ontario jails are horrible. They are overpopulated, filthy and lacking in amenities. Rehabilitation and corrective programming is a pipe dream. In some cases, raw sewage routinely coats the floors due to broken pipes. The air is unclean and prisoners are often denied even the most basic of human dignities.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one corrections official said “Jails are supposed to be a lockup for people where they can get off the drugs and into some programs. But a lot of these men are put here just to punish them. We all know the cops put people here just to get back at them. And a lot of it is the same cops going after the same people: the poor, homeless and people who question their authority. It’s like judge fucking dread. But there is nothing [we] can do about it.”
Signal High News Corporation will be following this story.
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