Deaths In Custody: Findings & Analysis
Looking for some analysis of the deaths in custody data? Here’s where to start.
Understand The Context
Overall, the number of people in custody has fluctuated over the past 20 years. From 2008/09 to 2012/13 incarceration rates across Canada were approximately 90 per 100 thousand adults, decreasing to 85 per 100 thousand adults in 2014/15 and increasing back to 87 per 100 thousand adults in 2015/16. From 2017/2018, rates of incarceration decreased to 78 per 100 thousand adults. In 2020/2021, due to COVID-19 decarceration efforts, there was a drop to 61.6 per 100 thousand adults. Since 2021/22 incarceration rates are increasing again to 66.8 and 71.6 in 2022/2023.
In 2022/2023, there were 7,287 admissions into federal custody and 163, 387 in provincial/territorial custody across Canada. About 73% of people in provincial/territorial custody are on remand while 27% are sentenced and 1% under other statuses. People can be held in different types of custody including in police holding cells awaiting bail hearing or release. Adults sentenced to time of incarceration for two years or more will be in a federal prison run by the Correctional Service of Canada. People can also be held in remand awaiting trial or sentenced to two years less a day in a provincial/territorial jail. Across the country, there has been a significant increase in remand rates as more people are held in custody instead of being released on bail or diverted to community support.
People can also be held in immigration detention in a separate facility or provincial jail. On average, about 264 people are held in immigration detention daily in fiscal year 2023 to 2024. Although all 10 provincial governments announced ending agreements with the Canada Border Services Agency for immigration detention, the federal government has stated it will use federal penitentiaries to detain ‘high-risk’ people on an immigration hold.
Lastly, some people are placed into custody under the mental health act where they will be forced to stay in a secure section of a hospital or forensic psychiatric facility.
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Deaths In Custody By Year In The Database
Over the 24 years of data collected, there is an average of 87 deaths per year in the database. However, over the 10 year period from 2013 to 2023 - where we believe we have more robust data in the database - the average number of deaths in the database is 118 per year.
According to the data we currently have access to, there were 129 deaths in 2018, 134 deaths in 2019, 165 deaths in 2020, and 169 deaths in 2021, which is the highest number of deaths per year we have documented thus far. This could indicate that overall deaths in custody are on the rise.
Factors impacting this potential rise are a challenge to disentangle with the limited information available, but could include COVID-19, along with increased use of remand, and higher incarceration rates.
Data for 2022 to 2024 is limited due to outstanding Access and to Information requests, and thus the data for this timeframe likely represents under-estimates.
Until more analysis can be conducted, we urge caution in interpreting the database findings as a real world understanding of deaths in custody across Canada. But as this is the largest dataset on deaths in custody ever created in Canada, and our data sources are mostly directly from government sources, we believe the data can give us a strong indication of potential trends which warrant further investigation. Read more of our analysis on patterns of deaths in custody, here.
Deaths In Custody By Province/Territory
Each province/territory has differing populations of incarcerated people. There are more deaths in provinces/territories which have higher populations of incarcerated people, inclusive of prisoners in federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions. Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia as the ones with the highest number of deaths. Read more of our analysis on patterns of deaths in custody across Canada, here.
Causes of Deaths In Custody
More than half of the deaths are due to unnatural causes with the average age of death being 44 years old. Many deaths are preventable overdoses, suicides, and untreated illnesses or medical conditions. There are many unknowns due to lack of access to information on deaths in custody available to the public. See more of our analysis on causes and manner of death here.
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Analyze The Data
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