At least five inmates mistakenly released from Ontario’s jails remain unlawfully at large, Doug Ford and his solicitor general indicated, despite a promise from the premier to recapture them.
After Global News revealed issues with Ontario routinely releasing inmates by mistake, Ford admitted in mid-April that at least six were still on the loose.
“There’s still six prisoners at large and they’re going to be captured,” he said on April 21.
But roughly two weeks later, neither Ford nor Solicitor General Michael Kerzner could provide any update on the status of the inmates, one of whom the solicitor general clarified had been “immediately put back in jail.”
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“The premier has said, I have said, we’re not going to accept one as being acceptable,” Kerzner said of mistakenly-released inmates. “We’re on our way to make sure that number goes to zero.”
Pressed on whether the five inmates were still missing and what they had found out about them, Ford and Kerzner offered few details.
The solicitor general said that, because police hadn’t issued any alerts about the missing inmates, they likely don’t pose a threat to public safety.
“Where there is any threat of danger to any community, the police services of jurisdiction will never hesitate in making a public service announcement,” Kerzner said.
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“In the absence of that announcement, then there’s no threat to the community. But we’re not going to accept having even one person who’s released improperly.”
The Ford government faced more than a week of questions over mistakenly-released inmates.
In mid-April, Global News revealed more than 150 inmates were improperly released from Ontario’s jails over the past five years, something the government is notified about.
Despite receiving the notifications — and being briefed on the topic in January 2025 — Kerzner implied he was unaware of the issue, promising to “get to the bottom of it.”
He has since been forced to apologize “unreservedly” to legislators for repeatedly and incorrectly claiming inmates who are wrongly released are immediately re-apprehended, when some are actually still missing months after their release.
How exactly does one “accidentally” release a prisoner?