Overcrowding at the Niagara Detention Centre (NDC) reached its highest levels since 2019 in the first half of 2025 — with an occupancy rate of 136 per cent, according to data analyzed by CBC News.
The data, obtained through freedom of information requests to Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General, breaks down jail populations and lockdowns held in 24 provincial institutions in operation between January 2019 and July 2025.
In 2019, with an average jail population of 215 prisoners, the NDC’s occupancy rate was at 97 per cent. In the first six months of 2025, it had an average population of 302 prisoners, or around 40 per cent more than in 2019. The facility has 240 operational beds.
Those numbers are concerning to Angela Case, the mother of a 22-year-old who was detained in the jail in Thorold, Ont., back in 2018. Her son Jordan Case died while in jail after an overdose in his cell, according to his autopsy.
Case said she learned about jail conditions through the inquest into her son’s death and says overcrowding was an issue at the NDC even before 2019.
During the inquest, which was held in early 2025, Case was given access to review photos and footage of the cell Jordan shared with another inmate.
“There are really thin mattresses on the floor,” Case said, describing the cell as built for one person with one concrete bed, which she says was forcibly taken by his cellmate. “[Jordan] had two mattresses on top of each other and his bed was on the floor.”
Walls get ‘pushed further and further’: NDC union president
Dave Haine, correctional officer and union president representing NDC correctional workers, said staff have also been struggling with the impact of overcrowding.
“Prior to COVID, we — at the time — thought we were stretched to our limits,” Haine told CBC News.
“I would almost call it Tetris,” he said about correctional officers constantly moving inmates around to fit the number of operational beds at the Niagara jail.
“With the influx of programming that the [Ministry of the Solicitor General] is continually pushing forward … we have not been provided any extra resources to make that programming successful.”
“It does cause significant staff burnout,” Haine said, as NDC staff struggle to provide the ministry and inmates the programming they want as the number of detainees increases.
According to Haine, the NDC employs about 93 full-time and 60 contract correctional officers. Although some were hired part-time, he says they’ve been mostly working full-time hours.
“Our building was built in 1973,” said Haine. “As a result, the logistics of our building make it very difficult to make all these programs fit within what our building can handle.”
“Every day, the walls get pushed further and further.”
89% of Niagara inmates on remand
In 2024, 89 per cent of inmates at the NDC were on remand, meaning they were awaiting trial and presumed innocent.
Case’s son Jordan was one of many inmates on pre-trial detention. His mother said he was struggling from drug addiction and mental health issues before his arrests for property crimes and probation breaches in 2018.
At the time, Case wished her son had access to a detox bed or a halfway house to provide him the treatment he needed, whereas jail felt “like a revolving door for a lot of people.”
“Several of those folks will exit prison, never having been convicted of anything,” said Justin Piché, a criminology professor at University of Ottawa.
With Ontario’s support for “jail not bail” reforms, legislative proposal and funding limiting access to bail to violent, repeat offenders, Piché was not surprised to find Ontario jails working over capacity.
“[The provincial government] is [putting] in place this approach to policing and bail that is going to result in more people going into the Niagara Detention Centre,” said Piché.
On July 17, 2025, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner announced a $180 million investment in the expansion of three Ontario jails, including the Niagara Detention Centre. The NDC is slated to get 50 additional beds and a new section at the inmate yard to accommodate the new beds.
The project will “add more multi-use programming space where a variety of inmate programs can be delivered, including a multipurpose spiritual room,” wrote Saddam Khussain, senior issues advisor and press secretary to the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General, in an email to CBC News.
Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2026.
“You’re going to have this additional capacity that does nothing to address the crowding issues that exist,” Piché added.
Following Kerzner’s announcement, Niagara West Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff wrote on Facebook: “Our message is clear: if you do the crime, you’ll do the time. Violent crime has to be addressed, and we are calling on the federal government to fix our broken bail system in this country.”
Adding, “If you commit violent crime in Ontario, we’ll have the room to lock you up.”
The cost of putting someone behind bars
According to Statistics Canada, the average daily cost of Ontario’s correctional services was $357 per inmate in 2023 and 2024 — adding up to about $130,305 for one year.
Piché urges the government to look at alternatives to incarceration, such as permanent supportive housing that provides wraparound services for mental health, drug addiction and employment support.
“[Permanent supportive housing’s] daily cost is $131 a day, $4,000 a month,” said Piché, referencing the costs to operate Dunn House, a supportive housing project that helped relieve overflowing emergency rooms in Toronto.
“We want to prevent victimization,” said Piché. “Why not invest more in permanent and supportive housing instead of investing more and increasing the jail population, which doesn’t produce safety in the medium- and the long-term.”
