Record-breaking prison deaths in Canada

Deaths in Canadian prisons have been on the rise in recent years; amid concerns about this, Canadian laws have also allowed assisted dying for prisoners and the crisis of drug addiction and mental illness among prisoners has become challenging.

In most cases, officials in the Canadian prison system and prison authorities refuse to provide explanations and evidence about the deaths of prisoners.

A review of deaths that have occurred in Canadian prisons shows a pattern to this disastrous trend; deaths in Canadian prisons are not an isolated issue. Deaths in Canadian prisons follow a pattern, and preventing more incidents means addressing patterns of violence and a culture of inhumanity to prisoners.

Canadian prisons reported 68 inmate deaths in 2024. That's the second-highest number of inmate deaths in Canada since at least 2020.

Of those, one died from beatings; 22 were listed as "natural" with no explanation. No cause was given for the remaining 45 deaths. Ontario had the highest number of inmate deaths, with 27. Quebec followed with 14, British Columbia with 12 and Alberta with 6.

Of the 68 recorded inmate deaths in Canada in 2024, 24 facilities had just one death, seven of which had one. Ontario’s Millhaven Prison had the highest number of inmate deaths, with nine.

The highest number of deaths in Canadian prisons in a single month occurred in May and June, with nine deaths. The lowest number of deaths in a single month was in November, with three deaths.

According to the Globe and Mail, findings from a Canadian prison monitoring project showed that more than 2,100 inmate deaths have been recorded in the past 24 years at the facilities across the country.

According to the study, the average age of death in Canadian prisons is 44 years old; this figure is worth considering when compared to the average life expectancy in Canada by 2022, which was 81 years old.

Canadian experts emphasized that this is not a normal age to die; what this data tells us is that many deaths in custody do not occur from natural causes, but are caused by the conditions of imprisonment.