Ontario jail overcrowding at six-year high, sparking violence behind bars

Nearly half of Ontario's jails are overcrowded, a six-year high that sees cells meant for two people at times hold three or more as the province struggles with a rising tide of inmates who have yet to have their day in court.

Statistics by the Ministry of Community Safety and Corrections reveal that on an average day last year 14 of the province's 29 jails held more prisoners than they were designed for.

The jump in overcrowding comes as no surprise to Shawn, who was recently released from the jam-packed Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in London, Ont., after 18 months in pretrial custody. 

He says overcrowding forced him to flop down on a narrow stretch of floor between two occupied beds in a cramped seven-by-two metre cell. Lying on a thin, worn mattress he had to rest his head next to the shared toilet. 

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