Custody
Youth detention centers – and prisons – are different facilities altogether than adult detention and prisons. Sometimes a youth may be held separately in an adult center until a transfer can be completed, where there is not a youth custody facility nearby.
You can be held in custody before you are found guilty. This is called being remanded into pre-trial detention. You can also be held in custody as a punishment for a crime – this is called serving a custodial sentence.
Youth facilities can be “open” and “closed”. Closed facilities are secure, and more like a traditional jail or prison. There may be fences and locked doors. Open facilities tend to be more like a youth group home, sometimes also with locked doors. Youth of different genders are always kept separated.
When a young person serving a youth sentence reaches the age of 18, a judge may authorize their transfer to an adult facility. If there is no transfer, a youth will be automatically transferred to an adult facility at the age of 20 if they are still serving a custodial sentence.
Racism and Ableism in Custody
Those who are Black, Brown, Indigenous, Disabled, or neurodivergent are several times more likely to end up in custody that those who are not, likely to be sentenced to longer terms of imprisonment, and less likely to receive their release on time.
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For example, people with an acquired brain injury (ABI) are 14 times more likely to incur a serious criminal charge. They are also 12 times less likely to receive a discretionary release or discharge. Approximately 50% of youth charged have a documented history of a traumatic brain injury.​
Some of the other ways in which those who are racialized or disabled face discrimination in the criminal legal system (CLS) include:
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Those who are racialized are more likely to receive a higher overall "risk score" while being detained in custody. This can give them less access to programming, which in turn impacts their likelihood of successful parole or release. Scores are based on things like postal codes with assumed gang involvement, or eurocentric and neurotypical understandings of body language and behaviour
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A lack of institutions that provide barrier-free access, including halfway houses, meaning those who require barrier-free access must sometimes rely on other prisoners to access parts of the prison, or delayed release if beds in an accessible parole institution are not available
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Those who are racialized or disabled are sometimes subjected to dehumanizing language from correctional staff
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Those who are racialized and disabled are more likely to have their behaviour seen as problematic, or be seen as an instigator, resulting in institutional charges or being put in segregation
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Those with mental health issues are most likely to spend an extended period of time in segregation without consent, often for stated reasons of "safety"​
Prisons Causing Disability
An often overlooked area around disability and prisons is that being remanded or sentenced to custody can not only agitate existing disabilities, but create or catalyze entirely new ones, shorten life expectancy, and result in death. This is by-design, and happens through the mental and emotional stressors, as well as the physical conditions of a facility. Prisons are meant to warehouse and disable individuals.​
Below are some of the ways detention centres and prisons create or catalyze disabilities and cause death.​
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Poor air quality and mould can cause severe respiratory issues or infections, sometimes leading to death
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Food quality can agitate or result in the development of diabetes, obesity, poor cardiovascular health, malnutrition, seere GI-complications, and poor mental health
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A lack of physical exercise and outdoor time impacts physical and mental health
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A lack of opportunities to develop or update skills ensures that those being release from prison are even less-equipped to navigate the world than when they entered.​
Adult Sentences
A youth can be given an adult sentence if they are over the age of 14 and they were charged with a serious violent offence. This is only allowed in some circumstances, and the crown must make a successful argument to a judge about why a youth sentence would not be sufficient. A youth given an adult sentence is not transferred to an adult facility until they reach the age of 18.
School in Jail
Youth are entitled to receive an education until the age of 17, even when held in custody. Education for youth in custody is usually delivered through on-site or special “Section 23 schools” which function more like a single classroom with independent work and education.
While youth are guaranteed by law to receive an education, there are no standards within custodial settings about what is being taught or how. Learning experiences can be very different across facilities, but are generally not consistent with public school systems, or even other youth facilities.
Trans Youth in Custody
While the Ontario Human Rights Code is supposed to guarantee the following rights to trans folks within the criminal legal system – including police and prisons – facilities and individuals do not always follow the guidelines.
At times, you or others may need to advocate for your own rights. Trans people continue to face a lot of discrimination and harassment within the criminal legal system.
See our "Resources" section for writings from other Trans folks on prison.​ If you are a trans youth who is arrested, you have the following rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code:
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The right to self-identify your gender, regardless of what any legal documents say, and even if you were admitted under a different gender previously
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The right to be referred to using your chosen pronouns, except in rare situations where your birth name is required for legal identification
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The right to choose the gender of the person searching you, including someone of different genders searching different parts of your body
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The right to be searched in a private area, including any prosthetic devices
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Any conversations about your gender identity or expression should take place in private
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The right not to have information about your gender identity or expression shared with anyone to whom it is irrelevant or who is not directly involved with you
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If the facility isolates you, they must provide access to programming and social opportunities.
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The right to keep personal items, including prosthetics, that are necessary for your gender expression – both while imprisoned and when being transferred
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The right to individual and private access to showers and toilets
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To file a complaint if these rights have been violated, you can contact the Client Conflict Resolution Unit (CCRU) at
1-866-535- 0019 from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.​
Other Entitlements
Indigenous youth have the right to access some ceremonies, such as smudging.
People who have a disability are also entitled to accessibility. See our “Accessibility & Culture Entitlements” section for more information.
A Special Note on New Year's Eve
If you ever locked up on New Year’s Eve and hear or see a bunch of fireworks outside your prison walls – they are there for you! Every year on December 31 prison abolitionists, prison rights activists, anarchists, friends, family, and people of all kind attend prisons throughout the world to set off fireworks and remind those inside the walls that they are not alone.
There are so many prisons it is impossible to do all of them every year – but be sure to spread the word if you are ever inside the walls during one of these demonstrations – or (carefully) leave notes about it in books or hidden by bunks!
If you bang on the walls & bed frames, others in the facility will know something is happening too – and if you bang on the windows or wave in front of them the people outside will be able to hear or see you.
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Noise demos do not just happen on new years – they also sometimes happen when people who are abolitionists are arrested or put in prison to show solidarity, and remind them they are not alone. They can also happen to show solidarity with prisoners inside who are engaging in hunger strikes, or facing difficult times such as happened during COVID.