Ontario jail AI faces lawsuit over Black prisoner security scores
A class action says Ontario’s SAFER tool is sending Black prisoners into maximum-security conditions at disproportionate rates.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
An artificial intelligence tool used inside Ontario jails is under fire in a class action that alleges Black prisoners are being pushed into maximum-security conditions at disproportionate rates.
The claim, filed against the province by law firm Koskie Minsky, targets the Security Assessment for Evaluating Risk, known as SAFER. According to reporting by The Breach journalist Desmond Cole, the system has been used in Ontario jails since 2021 to help classify prisoners by assigning a risk score.
The Breach reported that SAFER draws on factors including a prisoner’s arrest history and disciplinary record. The lawsuit alleges that reliance on past justice-system data can reproduce racial disparities already documented in policing and charging practices.
Government data reviewed by University of Toronto criminologist Scot Wortley showed a sharp racial gap, according to The Breach. Black people account for about 5 percent of Ontario’s population, but made up nearly 27 percent of prisoners held in maximum security between 2022 and 2025, the outlet reported.
White people, by comparison, were substantially underrepresented in maximum security compared with their share of the province’s population, according to The Breach’s account of Wortley’s analysis.
The class action alleges Ontario knew SAFER’s design could harm Black prisoners because it used historical criminal-justice data shaped by racial inequities. The claim also says the province adopted protections for Indigenous prisoners but did not provide equivalent safeguards for Black prisoners.
Internal Ministry of the Solicitor General training materials cited by The Breach said assessments such as SAFER would likely add to the overrepresentation of Indigenous and racialized people in maximum security.
The case puts Ontario’s use of algorithmic risk scoring under a harsh spotlight, with the lawsuit arguing that a tool presented as a classification aid can carry the weight of past discrimination into present jail conditions.
The Breach reported that Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General did not respond to questions about SAFER’s methodology or accuracy. Grant Duwe, the researcher credited with creating the tool, also did not respond to the outlet’s requests for comment, according to the report.
An Ontario Ombudsman report cited by The Breach said the office had received complaints about SAFER’s disproportionate effect on Black and Indigenous prisoners. The same report noted that a ministry review of the program is underway.
The lawsuit seeks to challenge how Ontario classifies people in custody through SAFER, while the reporting raises a broader question for jail systems using automated tools: whether risk scores based on old records can fairly decide who is placed under the toughest conditions.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.