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Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest correctional facility has an overflow of inmates being housed on cots in the gymnasium, and the situation isn’t expected to change any time soon.
The issue was raised during a provincial court hearing with Judge Paul Noble last Friday in St. John’s. Noble toured Her Majesty’s Penitentiary the previous day, asking staff to show him “every inch” of the complex.
“I found the staff excellent. I found the facility horrible,” he told the lawyers in the courtroom while waiting for the next matter to be called.
A few moments later, an inmate was ushered into the video room at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary for a virtual appearance in Noble’s courtroom. The two men had met during Noble’s tour.
Noble asked him what unit he was staying on, and the man said he’d been sleeping in the gymnasium, while “avoiding the raindrops and the mice.”
“Not a very nice place to be living, in the gym,” Noble said. “Those cots don’t look very comfortable.”
“Oh, I’m broke up,” he replied.
“Yeah, I bet. I wouldn’t be able to sleep on it,” Noble said.
“One bathroom in the morning for 30 fellas. It’s crazy,” the man said.
CBC News reached out to the Department of Justice and Public Safety to ask how many men were staying in the gymnasium, and if this was a long-term plan.
The department said there were 25 inmates in the gymnasium as of March 27.
“Since July 2025, and for the foreseeable future, when there is an overflow of inmates, they will be accommodated in the gym,” wrote department spokesperson Vaughn Hammond. “However, when beds become available, inmates staying in the gym are given priority for those beds.”
Hammond said the justice minister has met with union officials to “discuss alternative ways to address the concerns with accommodations at HMP,” as a replacement to the decrepit facility is still three years away.
There have been frequent complaints about the condition of the facility, which was first constructed in 1859. Inmates have flagged issues with heating, cooling, a persistent rodent infestation, and more.
It’s become common practice for judges in the province to award extra credit to inmates held in pre-trial custody at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary, given the negative effect of the overall conditions.
On Monday, the province’s chief justice reduced a man’s sentence by 200 days because of the conditions he endured while staying on the jail’s east wing — one of the oldest parts of the complex.
“The severely deteriorated conditions of Her Majesty’s Penitentiary certainly present unusually harsh conditions for inmates,” Chief Justice Raymond Whalen said in his sentencing decision.
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