Ford Government loses 150 inmates

More than 150 inmates were mistakenly released and the Ford government purposely failed to tell Ontarians.

The Ford government says that it is tough on crime, but according to public reporting this week, Ontario has improperly released at least 118 inmates between 2021 and 2024, with another 39 mistakenly released in just the first nine months of 2025.

That is more than 150 people who were let out of jail in Ontario when they should not have been. How does that even happen?

How can someone be accidentally released from custody? Does the government know who these people are? Does it know where they are now? Were they serving sentences? Were they violent offenders? Are they a risk to our communities?

And perhaps most troubling of all: what happens if one of these individuals commits a serious crime while out when they should still have been in jail?

The government has no good answers.

And Ontarians only know about this because journalists obtained internal documents through freedom of information requests. The government did not proactively disclose that more than 150 inmates had been mistakenly released. It did not warn the public. It did not explain who these individuals were, whether they had been located or whether communities were at risk.

Those same freedom of information requests are now becoming harder to use. The government is moving ahead with legislation that critics warn will make it more difficult for the public and media to obtain information from government in the future.

Internal documents obtained through those freedom of information requests describe these releases as “unacceptable.” Most were caused by “errors or oversight at the institutional level.” In plain English, that means mistakes made inside Ontario’s jails.

This is not simply a one-off error. It is a system under significant strain.

Ontario’s jails are operating at an average of 130% capacity. Some are over 160%. Cells built for one person now hold two or three. Lockdowns are increasingly common because there are not enough correctional officers to safely run the institutions.

When jails are overcrowded and understaffed, mistakes happen.

Paperwork is rushed. Records are missed. Court dates are entered incorrectly. Staff are stretched way too thin and eventually, someone who should still be behind bars walks out the front door.

The consequences do not stop there.

Because our jails are overcrowded, courts are increasingly pressured to move cases along quickly. Charges are reduced. Sentences are shortened. Offenders are released earlier than they otherwise would have been because there is simply no room.

Now we are learning that even some of those who are supposed to remain in custody are being accidentally released.

This government cannot tell the public that they are tough on crime, while allowing the correctional system to completely fall apart.

The Premier is right when he says that dangerous people belong behind bars, but that requires more than slogans and press conferences.

It requires enough correctional officers. It requires functioning record systems. It requires enough space in our jails and it requires a government that knows who is in custody, who has been released and where they are.

Because if Ontario cannot answer those basic questions, then the public has every right to ask: who is really keeping our communities safe?