August, 2026

Yes, it’s true !  JHS Sudbury is 65 years old this year !!

We celebrate our 65th anniversary in 2026 and we are definitely not retiring !  We have new signage and a new logo.   Our staff and board are quite excited !

Prisoner Justice Day Commemoration  2026

Sudbury.com  August 10, 2026   Jenny Lamothe 

As deaths inside Ontario’s provincial correctional facilities reach record highs, local organizations marked Prisoners’ Justice Day on Aug. 10 by confronting what they called a dangerous political shift in corrections, one they say increasingly trades community-based health supports for overcrowded cells and tough-on-crime rhetoric.

Rather than gathering on the front lawn of the Sudbury District Jail — which is currently under construction — more than 30 advocates, service providers, and community members gathered outside the John Howard Society’s 204 Pine St. office for the annual event.  However, this year’s solemn memorial carried an urgent, politically charged focus as local leaders confronted a shifting political tide toward “jail, not bail” and get-tough-on-crime policies.

Tracking (In)Justice

According to Tracking In(Justice), a research project from Carlton University, deaths and self-injury in custody remain a persistent crisis across Canadian correctional systems.

Quoting the research, CEO of the John Howard Society, Sara-Jane Berghammer said that since 2000, more than half of prison deaths nationwide have resulted from unnatural causes — including preventable overdoses, suicides and untreated medical conditions — with the average age of death being just 44.5 years old.

In 2024 alone, 46 inmates out of a population of 43,385 died in custody across Canada. Seventeen died from drug toxicity, 19 from natural causes, and 10 from other medical issues or unspecified causes, which include suicide and homicide.

In Ontario provincial facilities, conditions are sharply escalating. The Tracking In(Justice) report revealed 809 deaths in Ontario provincial custody between 2000 and 2025, driven by a surge of 86 deaths in the 2024–2025 period alone. Continuous staff shortages have led to widespread lockdowns, which advocates identify as a primary catalyst for institutional instability. …

Berghammer expressed severe concern over June 2026 amendments to the Ontario Coroner’s Act, which replaced mandatory public inquests of in-custody deaths with non-public reviews. While the amendments have not yet been passed, critics warn that removing public oversight hides vital evidence and deprives families of answers.

“They disrespect the families of the deceased who deserve to know the specifics of why their loved one died under the care and supervision of the Ontario government,” Berghammer said. “Those in custody are not just inmates — they are children of families, our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers. We can and must stop the violence and deaths in custody”.

A different system of justice

Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario executive director Amy Collins spoke to the group challenging the reliance on prison infrastructure and the expanding focus on incarceration.

“A sentence of incarceration should never become a sentence of death,” Collins said. “Whatever brought someone into contact with the justice system does not diminish the value of their life or the significance of their loss.”

Collins underscored that upwards of 80 per cent of the provincial jail population has not been convicted of any crime. At the Sudbury District Jail — a remand facility — Collins said at least 34 women have been in custody for months awaiting trial while legally presumed innocent.

“Some people have lost their lives in custody while still legally presumed innocent: that should make all of us stop and think,” Collins said. “Who are we to accept suffering as an inevitable part of justice? Who are we to decide that the justice system we have today is the best or only way to respond to crime and harm?”

Directly addressing arguments that reform ignores victims, Collins said questioning the current system is not about dismissing accountability.

“When we talk about changing our response to crime, we cannot forget those who have experienced crime and violence. Their experiences are real. Their safety matters. Their healing matters,” Collins said in her speech. “Questioning incarceration does not mean minimizing harm or removing accountability. We can take harm seriously while questioning whether creating more suffering is the answer. We can hold people accountable without abandoning their dignity.”

‘Help, not handcuffs’

The gaps in institutional health care and mental health support were further highlighted by Stephanie Lefebvre, director of programs and planning for the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Sudbury-Manitoulin, who noted that more than 70 per cent of incoming federally sentenced men meet the criteria for a mental health disorder.

“Too often, incarceration becomes a response to unmet health and social needs rather than a pathway to healing,” Lefebvre said.

James Sitko, who lives with epilepsy and postictal psychosis — a temporary psychiatric condition following grand mal seizures — shared his personal experience with the justice system.
After being arrested during a medical crisis and spending a month crammed inside a four-by-eight cell with two other men at the overcrowded Sudbury Jail, Sitko described how difficult it was to access adequate medical or mental health resources while locked behind bars.

Reflecting on his experiences with emergency responses during postictal states, Sitko told the crowd: “Police must remain mindful of mental health challenges and recognize that those in crisis may need help, not handcuffs.”

In early July, Sudbury.com wrote of the conditions at the Sudbury District Jail based on accounts from women inside the jail. You can find that story here.

For the full article please go to: www.sudbury.com/local-news/organizers-of-annual-prisoners-justice-day-call-for-help-not-handcuffs-12648281

We need books  !!

It’s the summer and because of vacations we are not receiving our usual donations of paperback books and magazines.  If you have some you can donate to for our librray work at the Sudbury Jail please call us at 705.673.9576.   We cannot accept hardcover books, explicit novels or romance novels due to custody restrictions.  Many thanks everyone !

Pride Season

Pride Season refers to the wide range of Pride events that take place from June to September, when 2SLGBTQI+ people and their allies come together to highlight the resilience, celebrate the talent, and recognize their communities’ contributions. Although special attention is put on the Pride events during the summer months, they happen throughout the year in many communities. In Canada, Pride Month is celebrated in June as part of the Pride Season, which happens from June to September. Other events in Pride Season include Public Service Pride Week, which is celebrated in the third week of August.

As we celebrate Pride, we recognize the progress we have made toward equality, while acknowledging there is still work that needs to be done. During Pride Season and beyond, we celebrate diversity and inclusion by fostering spaces where everyone’s unique identities are embraced and respected. “Pride” is not just a seasonal celebration but a year-round commitment to equality and acceptance.

Building more jails is a step backwards

Special to the Sudbury Star  published August 8, 2026.

   Sara-Jane Berghammer CEO

The John Howard Society of Sudbury is the leader in the field of community criminal justice in our community. As we commemorate our 65th year in 2026 of serving the Sudbury community, we are compelled to respond to recent articles regarding crime and community safety in downtown Sudbury. …

The aspect that needs to be seriously considered by our community and our elected officials in all three tiers of government is that crime is a symptom of real problems. Problems of untreated substance abuse addiction, untreated mental health issues, poverty and unemployment that many times lead to desperation in our community.

These are the problems that need to be addressed, and addressing only the crime will not change the problems. Crime is a symptom, not the cause of the problems affecting our community and city.

For example, many different provincial governments over the years have attempted to deal with chronic substance abuse and mental health issues by reducing funding for residential treatment centres and making custody facilities nothing more than a place to isolate individuals who cause criminal activity.

The City of Greater Sudbury, for instance, with a population of close to 200,000, does not have a male residential addiction treatment centre. It has fallen on the backs of the hardworking staff of the Sudbury Jail to deal with men in jail who truly should be in residential treatment centres where treatment can be implemented in the long term.

Finally, after years of lobbying by concerned community groups, the HART Hub of Sudbury has begun its work. The present provincial government has begun rebuilding what was lost over the past few decades. Unfortunately, the HART Hub cannot turn around the problems of addiction and mental health overnight. It will take years, and unless all governments enhance this funding, allow for increased capacity for individuals to receive support and guaranteed funding, we will be back to square one, speaking as individuals, business owners and municipal political leaders, about the problems of crime.

Once again, crime is the symptom of the real problems tormenting our community and communities across Canada.

A commitment by the provincial government to build more custody facilities will not solve these problems; indeed, it is taking a step backwards. We as a community need to demand that the money allocated for more jails be used to treat the problems, not the symptoms.

More residential and day treatment programs for chronic substance abuse users are needed. More trained mental health workers are needed. Increased support for agencies that train people for employment opportunities is needed.

More jails and prisons are not needed. More people exhibiting societal problems being sent to correctional facilities is not needed. In fact, if monies were allocated to deal with the above situations, our communities could reduce custody facilities and, in fact, save money for the taxpayer.

The John Howard Society truly hopes that the conversation of crime in our community can be turned into a conversation about preventing the real problems, not treating the symptom.

For the full article please go to: www.thesudburystar.com/opinion/john-howard-society-of-sudbury-building-more-jails-is-a-step-backwards

Northern Toll: The impact of the drug toxicity crisis in Northern Ontario corrections

Research finds the transition from custody to community is a dangerous period in the toxic drug crisis, with the risk of drug-related death more than 50 times higher in the first two weeks after release.     John Howard Society of Ontario report

Northern Ontario is experiencing some of the highest drug poisoning mortality rates in the province, driven by an increasingly toxic drug supply and persistent gaps in access to substance use disorder and mental health treatment and supportive housing. Drug poisoning is now a leading cause of accidental death in the province, and Northern communities have been hit especially hard with deaths more than double the provincial average.

Northern Toll, a new report from the John Howard Society of Ontario (JHSO) in partnership with the University of Toronto, finds that incarceration and the period immediately following release from custody are high-risk windows in the toxic drug crisis. People are over 50 times more likely to die from a drug-related cause in the first two weeks after release compared to the general population, and a coroner’s review found that 20% of drug toxicity deaths occurred within one week of release. Across Ontario, approximately 88 people die due to drug toxicity in the year following incarceration, representing one in ten adult drug toxicity deaths.

These risks do not occur in isolation. The report makes clear they are influenced by the conditions people are returning to, and by the gaps in the systems meant to support them.  Local experts, frontline social service workers, and people with lived experience in Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and Sudbury described complex needs related to untreated mental health conditions, intergenerational trauma, poverty, and housing instability. These challenges are compounded by services that are stretched thin and disconnected. Correctional facilities are expected to respond to health and social issues they were never designed to address, while communities face limited supports that leave people at heightened risk, especially during reintegration.

The report also documents how criminalization continues to hit Indigenous communities the hardest. In Ontario, Indigenous people are incarcerated at more than six times the rate of white Ontarians, and in Thunder Bay, approximately 72% of incarcerated people are Indigenous.  These disparities continue after release. Indigenous people coming out of jail are nearly 30 times more likely to die from drug poisoning than Indigenous people who have never been incarcerated.

The report highlights key needs in Northern Ontario:

• Make release planning a safety intervention to ensure people leaving custody have a clear discharge plan and the necessary supports to remain safe, including transportation, identification, and direct connections to housing and healthcare services.
• Expand life-saving harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services to meet substance use needs before a crisis becomes fatal.
• Improve continuity of care by strengthening collaboration between health, social, and justice systems, ensuring people do not fall through the cracks before, during, or after incarceration.
• Invest in Indigenous-led organizations delivering culturally appropriate programs that address community needs and reduce systemic barriers.
• Minimize reliance on criminalization and custody for low-risk individuals, while ensuring access to in-reach services that protect both individual and public safety.

For the full report go to:  www.johnhoward.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/JHSO-Northern-Toll-FINAL.pdf

United Way of North East Ontario

Champion of the Month

Banque D”Aliments Sudbury Food Bank

Feeding people in need and in distress…lessening their distress.

The Sudbury Food Bank is dedicated to the alleviation of hunger for those living in the region of the City of Greater Sudbury.  Using the resources of our community they bring together organizations of like mind to reach out to those in need with tangible food and support. .

The Sudbury Food Bank is dedicated to ensuring that every person in the City of Greater Sudbury has enough to eat. They do this by translating every dollar donated into food for someone in need. All funds not donated to operations are transferred to area food banks in the form of food credits at area food suppliers or used to make bulk discounted purchases for their network of member agencies. In this way they guarantee that every dollar contributed will be directly translated into food on someone’s table.

Thank you to this special group of staff and volunteers for your ongoing dedication to our community.  You are our Champion of the Month !

Delta Bingo and Gaming helps fund over 160 local organizations in Greater Sudbury.  We are excited to share the latest round of Charitable Gaming social media graphics with you, available in both English and French!  This creative aligns with the new Out-of-Home (OOH) campaign, which you’ll also see across Ontario on billboards, transit, DriveTest centres, Cineplex, and more. There is an an advertisement running at the corner of Lasalle Blvd and Notre Dame.

Welcome to JHS Sudbury

The John Howard Society believes in effective, just and humane responses to crime and its causes.  We are dedicated to creating genuinely safer communities by helping to foster a truly effective criminal justice system. The John Howard Society helps people reintegrate into society, thereby reducing alienation, crime and recidivism.

Our mission is resolute. We want to help to create a truly effective criminal justice system – one that serves us all, that confronts crime and its causes and that fosters safer communities.  In short, we help people turn away from a life of crime. Surely, that’s what we’d all like to see.

Practically speaking, we STOP Crime Now ! ^TM through the multitude of programs and services that we offer to the community.  You can help us to STOP Crime Now ! ^TM through your donation to the John Howard Society of Sudbury.  All funds raised are used to deliver our programs and services in the Sudbury and North Bay communities.   STOP Crime Now ! ^TM is a registered trademark of the John Howard Society of Sudbury.

We are proud to commemorate Prisoners Justice Day every year.  It is a day where we remember the violence within the walls of incarceration and the men and women who have died because of this violence while incarcerated.  In 2026 the commemoration will be on August 10 at 10:00 am on the front lawn of the John Howard Society.  For more information please go to the Prisoners Justice Day page on our website.

(NEW!) The John Howard Society assists people with criminal records to apply for a record suspension, formerly known as a pardon.  It is a lengthy process and can take up to two years.  If you would like more information contact the John Howard Society as soon as possible.

Some of our funders include the following and we are truly appreciative of their support.  Given that the vast majority of Canadians claim to give to charities but just less than 25% of Canadians claim their charitable donations on their tax return, you may want to make sure you know the benefits!  Your donations are important !  Please remember us.

To easily calculate the tax savings for a donation of any amount, use https://www.canadahelps.org/taxtime/.

For information on how our programs and services can be accessed in French contact the John Howard Society of Sudbury at the references located on our contact page.  Those programs and services that are available in French are noted with an (F) in the title of each service or program.  The John Howard Society is an inclusive agency serving all people in our community.  We have posted the Pride progress Flag on our website as a symbol that everyone is welcome to enter our agency for service.

Vianet is a proud supporter of the John Howard Society and the great work that we do all across Ontario to provide effective, just, and humane responses to crime and its causes. Vianet supports and helps in creating safer communities and to STOP Crime Now!

Follow us on Instagram at johnhowardsudbury or #jhssudbury.

June is National Indigenous History Month.  For more information please go to our Events page.