'Tear it down and build a new one,' London lawyer says of troubled jail
Gord Cudmore says violence at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre has become more frequent
A London-based lawyer says the troubled Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre should be torn down and replaced with a more modern facility in order to stop the increasing violence at the provincial jail.
Questions have arisen about the safety of inmates after a London judge released security camera video from 2013 that showed one inmate killing his cellmate and then hiding the body without guards at facility seeming to notice.
"That, as tragic and horrible as it is, doesn't come as a big surprise to a lot of defence lawyers," Gord Cudmore said of the video released by the court on Wednesday.
It's becoming more and more common for assaults, fights, people being attacked, people dying.- Gord Cudmore
As a criminal defence lawyer, Cudmore has made the trip from his downtown London practice to visit clients at the provincial jail located on the city's southern rim on Exeter Road many times.
Client hospitalized after jail beating
"I have a client in there now. He was taken into custody Friday and was beaten so badly he had to be taken to the hospital on Saturday."
"It's becoming more and more common for assaults, fights, people being attacked, people dying," he said, noting the 40-year-old facility is overcrowded, understaffed and poorly designed.
Cudmore says poor sight lines in the jail mean guards can't adequately supervise prisoners, who are often billeted two or three to a cell that was originally designed for one.
"If something happens in a cell, the guards can't see it," he said.
'Very isolated and lonely'
Mechele teBrake, who is a community mental health outreach worker with Mission Services of London, often works with people who have spent time at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre.
She said violence is a common experience for people who end up in the jail.
"I think that it's part of the culture," she said. "It's kind of a culture of don't trust anyone and it's survival mode for a lot of folks in the experiences I've heard."
Worst of all, teBrake said, many people who go to jail with mental illnesses can be taken off their medications, which can have life-altering consequences.
Mentally ill forced to 'start over again'
"It can be very traumatic," she said. "Prescriptions get changed, which changes how a person feels or even a person behaves. Then, when they get released, there's not really a continuing care plan."
Much of teBrake's work involves helping people find a doctor, or housing after they've been released from jail, which she said is extremely complicated for someone with a mental illness who recently changed their medication.
"They have to start over again," she said.
In terms of how to fix the system, teBrake said it's a matter of giving people the life skills and the supports they need in jails in order to prepare them for life on the outside.
Protecting prisoners 'doesn't sell'
The Ontario Liberal government has promised to overhaul the province's corrections system with new legislation this fall, aimed at rewriting the Ontario Corrections Act, which hasn't been updated in more than three decades.
"I'm not optimistic," lawyer Gord Cudmore said from his downtown London law practice. "The state doesn't care enough."
"There's no political advantage to taking steps to making prisoners safe."
"It's one thing to say we'll put money into healthcare or education, but to put money in the prison system, that's not going to win you any votes.
"It doesn't sell."
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