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The 50-year-old institution also carries another ignoble title. It is Ontario’s deadliest jail, at a time when more people are dying behind bars than ever before.

Forty-six inmates died in provincial jails last year, according to government data obtained by the Star. It’s a stark rise compared to 10 years ago, when there were 14 inmate deaths across the province. The 46 deaths from last year matches the record number that occurred in 2021, capping a four-year period in which 162 inmates have died.

More than a quarter of last year’s deaths — 12 of 46 — were at Maplehurst, which has been home to the most inmate deaths in each of the last six years.

‘The worst in every respect’

Even accounting for Maplehurst’s large population — it is one of four “superjails” in the province with more than 1,000 inmates — the percentage of inmates who died there last year, based on December occupancy data, is twice the provincial average.

“I wish I could say it was surprising,” said Alison Craig, a criminal defence lawyer who regularly has clients at Maplehurst. While jail conditions have deteriorated across the province, she said, Maplehurst is “the worst in every respect.”

For years judges have decried the conditions at Maplehurst, which have been described as inhumane, unhygienic and intolerable. But most observers say things have only gotten worse.

In addition to inmates being routinely triple-bunked in cells meant for two and regularly locked down for entire days due to staff shortages, inmates have also recently testified about black mold in their cells, stained sheets and clothing, and a lack of shower access. Inadequate medical care comes up repeatedly.

Overflowing toilets, insufficient toilet paper

A former Maplehurst inmate named Ezekel Vincent wrote in a sworn affidavit that his cell’s toilet clogged on several occasions and it took days to be fixed. When this happened, he wrote, “we have to defecate into noodle cups.”

Vincent wrote that sometimes they ran out of toilet paper and would tear clothing or use their hands to wipe. He also said he suffered from itchy rashes during his time at the jail, which he attributed to not being able to shower regularly.

“The lack of hygiene on a day-to-day basis has been very difficult mentally, physically, and emotionally,” he wrote.

Vincent was not cross-examined on his allegations, and the judge declined to make factual findings about them except to say that Vincent was subject to “harsh conditions” at the jail, including extensive lockdowns. He reduced Vincent’s sentence by a year as a result.

Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General, which is responsible for provincial jails, did not directly respond to a detailed list of questions for this story. Solicitor General Michael Kerzner declined to be interviewed, but a spokesperson issued a short statement, blaming previous Liberal governments — which have been out of office since 2018 — for leaving the province’s jails “in shambles.”

“Our message to repeat and violent criminals is clear – we have room for you in our jails,” said Chelsea McGee, Kerzner’s director of communications.

Roughly three quarters of inmates in Ontario’s jails are awaiting trial and have not been convicted.

Outbreak of dangerous disease has killed two inmates

The latest crisis at Maplehurst is an outbreak of invasive group A streptococcal disease, which has killed two inmates. The outbreak has led to even more lockdowns at the jail than usual, as inmates on the affected units have been confined to their cells for days at a time while their families have been left largely in the dark.

Marnie Ritchie, the mother of a Maplehurst inmate, said when she heard on social media about the outbreak and the deaths, she felt panicked.

“Your first thought is, ‘Is it my family member?”

The jail wasn’t providing any information, she said, and her son wasn’t able to call her for days because of the lockdowns. He has since been transferred to another jail because of the outbreak.

Ritchie said her son, who the Star agreed not to name because Ritchie feared he could face retribution, had been at Maplehurst for nearly four months prior to his transfer. He spent all of that time triple-bunked, sleeping on the floor of a cell with his head by the toilet, she said.

“I know it’s not a hotel,” Ritchie said. “I know they’re there for a reason. But we’re also not in a Third World country.”

Ritchie said her son is addicted to fentanyl and was not coping well with the constant lockdowns. “I’m just really concerned about his mental health.”

Detailed information on the causes of the deaths that occurred last year has not been disclosed, but a coroner’s report looking at provincial jail deaths from 2014 to 2021 found that nearly two-thirds were due to drug overdoses and suicides.

Among the report’s findings were that “capacity limitations” within jails “sit at the core of the unsafe and unhealthy conditions that must be improved considerably if further deaths and serious harms are to be prevented.”

Crammed cells and constant lockdowns

Nearly every jail in the province is overcrowded. The system as a whole was 22-per-cent overcapacity in December, according to occupancy data obtained by the Star via a freedom-of-information request.

Maplehurst was 45-per-cent overcapacity, meaning there were 430 more inmates than the jail was built to hold. As a result, most inmates are triple-bunked.

“You’ve got somebody basically sitting on your lap the whole time,” Maplehurst inmate Claude Simon recently testified in court. He had been triple-bunked for more than half of the 15 months he spent in jail awaiting trial. Simon had also been locked down 179 times, equal to about 40 per cent of his days at Maplehurst.

During lockdowns, which occur almost daily and are usually due to staff shortages, inmates are confined to their cells. All visits are canceled and there is no access to phones or programming.

“They’re treated worse than caged animals,” said Craig. “Caged animals get out and get to wander around once in a while. People in Maplehurst generally don’t.”

Bryan Adams, a former Maplehurst inmate who has spent time at several jails across the province, said Maplehurst is by far the worst. “It’s the worst for lockdowns, for food, for (guards), for everything.”

Maplehurst has also come under fire in recent months for an incident that occurred in December 2023, when correctional officers in full riot gear carried out an alleged act of collective punishment against an entire unit of the jail after a guard was assaulted by an inmate.

The actions taken by the jail’s Institutional Crisis Intervention Team (ICIT) involved nearly 200 inmates being strip-searched, zip-tied and left in their underwear for hours while cold air was blown into the unit. Dozens of criminal cases have been affected as a result, as inmates seek to have their charges stayed or sentences reduced on the grounds that their charter rights were violated.

Lawyers for the province have since conceded that the actions taken by the ICIT team were “unreasonable, disproportionate to the threat posed and contrary to ministry policy.”

Lindsay Jennings, a prisoners’ advocate and a member of the chief coroner’s expert panel on deaths in custody, said Maplehurst’s death toll and its other recent controversies should compel provincial authorities to take action.

“The deaths, the ICIT situation, now we have an outbreak. At what point does somebody step in?”