Segregation

The Ontario Youth Segregation Class Action lawsuit includes everyone who, while under the age of 18, were placed in segregation for more than six hours between April 1, 2004, and December 17, 2018, at these Ontario youth detention facilities:

• Bluewater Youth Centre
• Brookside Youth Centre
• Cecil Facer Youth Centre
• Donald Doucet Youth Centre
• Invictus Youth Centre
• Justice Ronald Lester Youth Centre
• Roy McMurtry Youth Centre
• Sprucedale Youth Centre
• Toronto Youth Assessment Centre

The settlement was approved on October 14, 2021. $15 million was paid out, with compensation ranging from $1,000 to $40,000 per qualifying segregation placement, depending on duration. the claims period closed on August 26, 2022. ^{[1] [2]}

Strip searching

There is a proposed class action that alleges that Ontario routinely conducted unlawful and degrading strip searches of youth in juvenile detention. The claim covers all minors strip searched while detained in Ontario youth justice facilities from January 1, 2000 onward. The lawsuit argues that these searches were often conducted without lawful grounds, in violation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and provincial policy. The action was launched in 2021 and remains ongoing. ^[3]

Suicides

• Ashley Smith (January 29, 1988 – October 19, 2007) was first sent to a New Brunswick Youth Centre at age 15 after being sentenced for a minor offence. During her almost three years in the facility, she was involved in hundreds of behavioral incidents and frequent self harm attempts. After turning 18 and being transferred into an adult custody system in Ontario in October 2006, Smith's self‑harm got worse as she was moved repeatedly between institutions. She died by self strangulation while under observation in a segregation cell. Her death made The provincial ombudsman call for the closure or major reform of youth detention centres and practices to better protect youth. ^[15] Four guards and supervisors were originally charged with criminal negligence in relation to her death but those charges were dropped. ^{[15] [16] [17]} It is alleged that a guard smuggled drugs to her for sex. ^[17]
• 17-year-old Gleb Alfyorov ^[18] committed suicide in Syl Apps Youth Centre While awaiting a mental health assessment in May 2008. He hanged himself with his black shoelace from a ceiling grate in his cell. Fifty-six minutes passed before a guard checked and found him hanging. It was five days after his 17th birthday. Due to a series of errors, the court-ordered assessment never occurred during Gleb's month-long stay. ^[19] Gleb was also strip-searched at least once. ^[20]

• Sixteen-year-old David Meffe committed suicide in his cell in October 2002 while on suicide watch at the Toronto Youth Assessment Centre inmates had bullied him before his suicide, forcing him to lick spit from the floor and eat excrement from a toilet. ^{[4] [21] [22]}

• In September 1996, a sixteen-year-old named James Lonnee was beaten to death by another minor at the now closed Wellington Detention Centre in Guelph. Other inmates at the time say they heard Lonnee screaming for help for hours. He was the first young offender to die in an Ontario juvenile detention centre. ^[23]

• On July 3 2001, fourteen-year-old Paola Rosales, after being charged with assault, hanged herself at a youth detention centre in Milton, Ontario. ^{[24] [25]}

• An unnamed fourteen-year-old girl committed suicide at the MacMillan Youth centre. ^[26]

Bluewater Youth Centre

On February 29, 1996, there was a riot and a fire at the Bluewater Youth Centre which occurred during a strike of the prison guards. It has been alleged that the guards incited the riot to support their cause. ^{[27] [28]} Because of the riot the Ministry transferred on or around 40 of young offenders to different provincial institutions, one if them was the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre which is a strictly adult facility. many youths sent to Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre claimed that they had been mistreated by staff and claiming they were humiliated, verbally and physically intimidated, struck and kicked, with some sustaining injuries. ^{[29] [28]} The riot caused $175,000 in damages.

Roy McMurtry Youth Centre

• On March 28, 2023, two people broke into the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre by breaking a window hoping to extract an inmate but they did not succeed. ^{[30] [31] [32]}
• A 17-year-old male who was facing multiple charges for robbery with a firearm has escaped weather or not he has been caught is unknown. ^[33]
• On June 24, 2012, two males escaped. ^[34]

Brookside Youth Centre

• In August 2012 a youth escaped from Brookside Youth Centre. ^[35]
• On April 3 2005 four youth escaped for a little over an hour but were all caught. ^[36]