Prisoners in Hamilton put in segregation at far greater rate than any other Ontario jail, data shows

After spending nearly a solid month alone in a jail cell in Hamilton, Cedar Hopperton remembers how the deafening quiet and isolation impacted her. 

"The main thing that strikes you is the silence … it definitely aggravated feelings of anxiety and fear, like listening to every little sound in this totally silent environment, just being really worried and stressed," she said. 

While at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre (HWDC) in 2018, Hopperton was put in what the province calls segregation — or what prisoners often call "the hole," she said.

"You're literally in a little cream-coloured box with nothing … usually all your possessions are taken away from you and you have to bargain for them back," said Hopperton, who is now an advocate for incarcerated people.

Segregation, also known as solitary confinement, is when prisoners are physically and socially isolated in a cell for 22 hours or more.

A CBC Hamilton analysis of data shows segregation in Ontario jails has been ramping up since 2019, despite the Ontario Human Rights Commission urging the province to phase out segregation in its jails since 2016.

In Hamilton, it has been happening at a far greater rate than the rest of Ontario and has met the United Nations' threshold for torture, with some segregation periods lasting as long as 21 days. 

Under its Mandela Rules, the UN considers segregation of over 15 consecutive days a form of torture, calling it "cruel" and "inhuman." The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has been calling for an end to segregation globally since 2011. Ontario's ombudsman also says, in a 2017 report, that segregation should only be used as a last resort, noting research shows the health and suicide risks associated with extended segregation.

The CBC analysis of provincial data shows the Hamilton jail accounted for roughly one out of every five segregation placements reported in Ontario's 25 correctional facilities between April 2022 and March 2023.

During that period, more than 1,408 prisoners were placed in segregation 11,494 times at HWDC. That's the equivalent of an estimated 31 placements per prisoner in a year. 

When factoring in jail population data, obtained through a freedom-of-information request, Hamilton's segregation rate was four times the provincial rate of seven placements per prisoner.

"The numbers are so high, it's hard to believe … we've got a problem, 100 per cent," said Peter Boushy, a longtime local criminal defence lawyer who was shown CBC's figures and has many clients who have been imprisoned at HWDC.

The province lists six reasons for putting people in segregation:

The Ministry of the Solicitor General declined an interview and didn't address detailed questions about CBC's findings in its emailed statement.