In the halls of justice in London, Ont. the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre is referred to as “hell.”

It is by all accounts a dangerous place fuelled by anger, overcrowding and mental health issues.

“Local judges here have actually described it as hell and believe me it is hell,” said London lawyer Kevin Egan, who has filed a class-action lawsuit with respect to the jail seeking $325 million in damages from the province.

“It is unbelievable . . . every day somebody is getting beaten up out there . . . everyday I wake up and I hear another story. Just when you think it can’t get any worse it does,” he told the Star.

The certification application, filed on behalf of scores of former inmates against the province, is scheduled to be heard in February 2015. The suit covers January 2010 to August 2013 so far.

Egan said he expects some 3,000 to 4,000 former inmates to eventually be involved in the lawsuit.

According to the statement of claim, the operators of the jail “have fostered an atmosphere of violence, brutality and intimidation” by not following proper policies. The lawsuit also claims the inmates’ Charter rights have been violated because of the jail’s “overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe conditions.”

None of the allegations has been proven in court. Egan said he has agreed the province does not have to file a statement of defence until the class-action lawsuit is certified by the Superior Court.

“It would be inappropriate to comment on this case as this matter is before the courts. The government has taken a number of steps to improve security, surveillance and health care delivery at (the London jail),” Corrections Minister Yasir Naqvi’s office said in an email.

While the London jail may stand out as one of the worst, it is by no means alone. There are 27 provincial jails, 7,643 adult inmates and 3,360 correctional officers.

“This is just a snapshot of the whole system . . . which spasms from one crisis to the next,” said Dan Sidsworth, corrections chair for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

Last year, there were about 3,000 reported prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in Ontario, up almost one-third from 2,300 attacks five years earlier, according to Ministry of Community Safety and Corrections statistics.

Overcrowding in provincial jails — many of them outdated and unable to handle the numbers — and understaffing represent a recipe for riots, shocking violence and even murder, said Egan, who is also representing current and former inmates of several other jails in separate legal actions.

Ministry statistics for 2012 reveal that on an average day about half of the province's jails held more prisoners than they were designed for.

Sarnia native Adam Kargus, according to his brother Shane, desperately wanted out of the London jail. He didn’t make it.

Adam Kargus was 29 years when he was killed in his cell Oct. 31, 2013. Three fellow inmates have been charged, one of them with second-degree murder. Besides the criminal case, there will be a mandatory Coroner’s inquest.

“Adam was in jail for petty theft. He had a history of minor crime to feed his drug habit. He had a few months to serve and was making a real effort to kick his habit,” Egan said.

Shane Kargus said his brother Adam “really didn’t like it there” and was looking forward to getting out less than two months later.

“He was really small. He could not fight his way out of a paper bag . . . he was definitely picked on,” said Shane Kargus, noting that Adam, who weighed about 130 pounds, had been moved from the jail in Sarnia because of a beating he suffered there.

“I can’t imagine what my brother went through. To die in a room no bigger than your bathroom violently like that is nothing anyone should have to go through,” Shane Kargus said.

Egan said he is representing the family and the estate of Adam Kargus in a separate lawsuit.

Egan is pushing for a judicial inquiry into the correctional system province-wide, “everything from why our population (in the jails) is going up when our crime rate is going down to the conditions of confinement and the various cultures that exist in there.”

Just recently six employees at the jail — five correctional officers and one manager — were fired in connection with Kargus’ death. That led to a work to rule by the officers, forcing a lengthy lockdown for prisoners, which in turn triggered a riot.

“The safety and security of correctional staff and inmates is our top priority and my thoughts and condolences are with the family and loved ones of the deceased. Any time there's a death in any of our facilities it is difficult for all involved,” Naqvi told the Star.

The London jail has been plagued with problems for about a decade and has often been the topic of conservation during question period at the Ontario legislature.

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“This has been going on for years. The staff there has been asking for the ministry to intervene . . . but in essence it has turned a blind eye to it,” New Democrat MPP Lisa Gretzky (Windsor-West) said.

Gretzky said among the many problems at the London jail, the guard posts do not overlook the inmates and the cameras installed a couple of years ago can’t be remotely controlled, resulting in blind spots where beatings often happen.

Inmates complain about the poor conditions and correctional officers say they don’t feel safe working in a place where you could cut the tension with a knife, but neither groups feels anybody is listening.

“With people sleeping on the floor with their heads by the toilet … I don’t think in a country like Canada that’s how we want to treat our prisoners,” said Progressive Conservative MPP Jeff Yurek (Elgin-Middlesex-London), who has toured the jail twice.

Sidsworth, of OPSEU, said the level of violence at the London jail “is through the roof . . . we have the highest level in Canada here in Ontario when it comes to violence.”

According to ministry data, 855 prison workers were assaulted by inmates across the province last year, up from 535 the previous year.

“We are more than two per day on average. When I speak to our counterparts in other provinces they talk about maybe 20 or 30 a year,” Sidsworth said.

“The shortage of staff, the level of violence, the overcrowding, more offenders coming into custody with mental health issues, lack of resources, lack of programming — it’s just a vicious cycle.”

Labour unrest is a constant at the London jail. The union that represents corrections officers complains of a high turnover of superintendents and that “no one seems to take ownership of the place.”

“The culture in corrections has always been one of poor (labour) relations,” Sidsworth said.

When correctional officers work to rule, inmates are locked up their small cells, sometimes for days — sparking a keg of violence in a jail that was originally designed to house 192 inmates, a far cry from the 400 who on occasion are now crammed into the 37-year-old facility.

Originally a standard cell — eight feet by 12 feet — was designed to house one inmate and then a second bed was added. These now house three, with one sleeping on the floor. And somewhat larger rooms that were used for reading and other activities were made into cells with bunk beds that now have as many as five inmates.

When a litany of problems was raised at Queen’s Park about two years ago, the Community Safety Ministry finally made a number of changes.

“Our government has worked with our corrections partners to improve security, surveillance and health care delivery at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre,” Naqvi said.

The minister said starting in 2012 an additional 350 security cameras, a new control module, six metal detectors, a baggage X-ray machine and new meal hatches and cell door locks were installed, 11 additional full-time correctional officers were hired and a dedicated team of correctional officers to provide community escorts was created, among other things.

With a file from The Canadian Press