Inquests to be held into deaths of 6 inmates linked to Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre

Inquests will be held for six men who died while in custody or after transfer to hospital from the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre.

On Monday, the Ontario government announced the hearings for the following individuals, with their dates of death:

Dr. Karen Schiff, regional supervising coroner for west region, Hamilton office, said in a news release that "inquests into their deaths are mandatory under the Coroners Act" and "the jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing further deaths."

The announcement comes days after Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General announced inquests for six people connected to the Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold.

Cedar Hopperton, who leads the Barton Prisoner Solidarity Project, said she felt "mostly grief" after hearing about the inquests.

"I feel like every one of those lives lost is just a huge blow to the community," Hopperton told CBC Hamilton.

Hopperton said she doesn't have a lot of faith in the system's ability to investigate itself and produce meaningful change. 

"I think what we've seen so far is a pattern of blaming prisoners for their own experiences when actually everybody who died in jail dies because of jail. So, I don't see a lot of the system actually taking responsibility. I see them just putting the responsibility back on prisoners."

While an inquest is mandatory if someone dies in custody or while being detained, except if it's determined the death was from natural causes, jurors are prohibited from making any finding of legal responsibility or expressing any conclusion of law.

Hopperton said even if the inquests show overdoses were the causes of death, she's worried "the role of overcrowding in the prisons" may be overlooked.

"All the prisons in southern Ontario right now are grievously overcrowded — three people in cells that were in many cases built for one person," she said.

She also pointed to the "extensive use of solitary confinement," with Hamilton have the highest numbers of any jail in the province. CBC Hamilton reported on the use of segregation earlier this year. 

"I think it's important to point out that these conditions are deadly," Hopperton said. "This is not a problem with drugs getting into the jail. This is not a problem that's going to be solved by more body scanners. It's not going to be solved by more searches. It's going to be solved by getting people out of the prison system because the system is killing people. It's not the drugs."

In January 2019, more than a year after Archer's death, his sister — Sharla Archer — told CBC Hamilton that the family had received no details about what happened to him, how exactly he died or if there was any investigation. The coroner's office suspected he had died of a drug overdose.