Overcrowding at YK jail sparks worry of ‘inhumane conditions’

Advocates are voicing concerns as the number of inmates housed at the North Slave Correctional Complex exceeds the Yellowknife jail’s capacity.

According to the NWT’s Department of Justice, between June 28 and July 8 there were 152 inmates at NSCC, which has a capacity of 148.

Lydia Bardak, a longtime advocate for people in the NWT’s justice system, told Cabin Radio she is worried about the safety of both inmates and corrections staff.

“It really raises the tension level in there,” she said of overcrowding at the jail.

“When you fill a place and stress people out, bad stuff happens.”

Bardak said there is “a very big mixture of offenders” at NSCC, including both high-risk and low-risk inmates, and people accused of serious crimes as well as those facing more minor charges.

Of the inmates currently at the jail, the justice department said 26 are serving sentences and 126 are on remand, meaning they are awaiting the outcome of charges and are legally presumed innocent.

One security issue Bardak pointed out is that court orders often prohibit co-accused from having contact with one another while awaiting trial. She said overcrowding makes it more difficult to keep inmates physically separated.

That’s an issue defence lawyer John Hale also raised. He said he has a client living in the same pod as a co-accused, which has meant they are restricted in the amount of time they can spend out in the yard and in the gym, among other areas of the correctional facility.

Triple bunking and programming strains

Hale said overcrowding at the Yellowknife jail “results in really inhumane conditions.”

Ngan Trinh, a spokesperson for the justice department, told Cabin Radio that when NSCC is over capacity, two inmates may be housed in single-occupancy cells and, in some cases, the jail may triple-bunk inmates in double-occupancy cells.

Both Bardak and Hale said housing three inmates in a two-person cell means one inmate must sleep on the floor near the toilet.

“When you put a mat on the floor, is he going to put his feet or his head next to the urinal and get sprayed?” Bardak questioned, adding the cells are the “size and shape of your household bathroom.”

Hale said the jail does not have the resources to provide programming to that many inmates, particularly those on remand. He said that means people are just “being warehoused” while waiting for trial.

“We can’t really expect the jail to be a place where, at least on remand, somebody is rehabilitated to prepare them better to go back into the community,” he said.

“They’re just going to be building up dead time in pre-sentence custody.”

Sentencing judges often grant a convicted person 1.5 days’ credit for each day they spend in pre-trial custody due to limited access to rehabilitative programming, parole or early release, among other challenging conditions in remand facilities.

The Union of Northern Workers, which represents staff at NSCC, did not respond to Cabin Radio’s request for comment prior to publication.

‘A culture of caution’

Hale said he has noticed increasingly high numbers of inmates at the jail since late December 2025, with that number recently exceeding capacity.

“It just becomes a pressure cooker in the jail when you pack more people into a confined space,” he said.

According to data from the justice department, the number of inmates at the jail has been steadily rising over the past month, with 139 inmates from June 1 to 3, 140 from June 7 to 13, 144 from June 14 to 20, and 146 from June 21 to 27.

Hale attributed the issue not to a higher crime rate but what he described as “a culture of caution.” He said while RCMP have the authority to release people from custody to appear in court on charges at a later date, police often leave that decision to the court at bail hearings.

NWT RCMP said when assessing whether a person can be released, officers consider factors including risks to public safety, victims and witnesses; whether the person is a repeat or violent offender; the seriousness of the charges they face; the need to ensure court compliance; and legislative requirements.

RCMP said that approach has not changed.

The uptick in inmates at NSCC comes after years of NWT jails being at less than half capacity following efforts to reduce the number of people in custody during the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2022, for example, there were 74 adults and three youth in custody across three correctional centres in the territory.

The NWT government closed the men’s unit at the Fort Smith Correctional Complex in 2024 due to its persistently low inmate population. Premier RJ Simpson said at the time the number of inmates in the territory had dropped every year since 2020 and there were no inmates in Fort Smith.

The Salt River First Nation has since begun using the former men’s unit as a wellness centre according to the CBC.

A therapeutic community model is currently being piloted at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River with a focus on rehabilitation. The centre can accommodate up to 36 male residents at a time. To be eligible, offenders have to be sentenced to at least 90 days’ imprisonment, meet risk level criteria and agree to participate in the program.

Bail and sentencing reform

Hale and Bardak said they worry the number of inmates on remand at NSCC could increase further with federal changes to bail and sentencing laws coming into force on July 15. The reforms are intended to make it more difficult for some accused people to get released on bail.

“We’re going to have more people in jail in an increasingly crowded space, which is going to lead to flare-ups within the jail as we pack these people in like sardines,” Hale said.

He said the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act is an echo of Stephen Harper-era “tough on crime” legislation. In Hale’s view, the legislation will turn bail hearings “almost into sentencing hearings” before a person is found guilty of a crime.

“We’re just going to end up with more people in bail court, and right now our bail courts barely have capacity to do a single bail hearing in a day because we’ve got so many people in bail court,” he said.

Hale added he is concerned the changes will lead to more people pleading guilty to crimes they have not committed, make it more difficult for jails to focus on rehabilitation due to overpopulation, and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody.

Mark Carney’s government has said the legislation is meant to target extortion, organized crime and car theft – and make getting bail more difficult for repeat and violent offenders and people accused of organized-crime related auto theft, breaking and entering into a home, extortion involving violence, and human trafficking.

The act shifts the burden in some cases onto accused people to show courts why they should be released from custody, rather than requiring prosecutors to show why a person should be kept in jail while awaiting trial. The act also directs police to detain an accused person for a bail hearing when necessary to protect the public, victims and witnesses.

The new federal legislation follows a push from premiers and police organizations across Canada for stricter bail laws to protect the public. Supporters include the NWT’s premier and other leaders across the territory as well as the NWT RCMP, who have voiced concerns related to the illicit drug trade and organized crime.

Some legal and civil liberties experts have argued harsher bail laws aren’t the best solution to addressing public safety concerns. Criticisms of stricter bail laws include that they do not address the root causes of crime and could disproportionately impact Indigenous, racialized and marginalized people that are already overrepresented in the justice system.

Justice department spokesperson Trinh said the impact of bail and sentencing reforms on the number of remand inmates in custody in the NWT is not presently known. She said the territory’s corrections service has “reviewed its internal capacity, policies, and existing infrastructure to prepare for a potential increase in daily counts.”