'I felt hollow': Jurors at Faqiri inquest hear of overcrowding, overuse of segregation in Ontario jails

Lindsay Jennings still remembers the sound of women screaming, the banging on the jail cell walls and the smells from her time in what she calls "the hole."

Now a researcher with Tracking (In)Justice and advocate for incarcerated people, Jennings detailed her "zombie-like" experience for jurors at the inquest into the death of Soleiman Faqiri on Tuesday, at times seemingly transported back to her 10 days in segregation in an Ontario jail cell.

"I felt hollow inside," she recalled. "You internalize that you're powerless, that you're a bad person, that you're not worth anything.

"If you don't come into jail with a mental health issue, depending on how you spend your time, you're definitely walking out with one."

With no sunlight, limited human contact and only the cracks in the brick wall in front of her to stare at, Jennings, by no means religious, says she asked guards for a Bible.

Reading it was the one thing that kept her sane, she recalls. 

After a gripping first day where video of the final moments before Faqiri's death was made public for the first time, the inquest focused Tuesday on the conditions inside Ontario jails. 

Jurors heard from Jennings about her lived and professional experience, as well as Howard Sapers, former federal correctional investigator and former Ontario independent advisor on correctional reform. In the coming days, the inquest will also hear from corrections management with Ontario's Solicitor General as well as other jail staff.

On any given day, approximately 80 per cent of people in Ontario jails are not serving sentences for crimes they've been found guilty of, but rather are legally innocent and awaiting trial, said Sapers, describing an "overuse of remand" in the province. Remand refers to being placed back in custody pending a further court appearance.

That was the case with Faqiri, who died in 2016 at the Central East Correctional Centre while awaiting a mental health assessment following a violent altercation with guards. Faqiri, who suffered from schizoaffective disorder, was being held at the jail after allegedly stabbing a neighbour. The 30-year-old, who had no prior criminal record, had previously been taken into custody multiple times under the Mental Health Act. He was held in segregation during his 11 days at the jail, dying on the floor of his cell on Dec. 15.

Sapers painted a picture of an overcrowded jail system with a highly transient population, where it isn't uncommon to see double or triple-bunking in cells originally intended for a single person. 

"You may have two or three people sleeping in a cell that was designed for only one and these cells are not spacious to begin with," he said.

"I've seen in Ontario jails, mats on the floor where somebody's head is at the base of the toilet in their cell because they're sharing the cell with a couple others." 

Sapers also described Ontario's correctional service as one that "overuses and/or abuse segregation," which Jennings and Faqiri both found themselves in.