Request into death of federal inmate

Request into death of federal inmate

Jury recommends that Correctional Service Canada do more to prevent and assure prisoners do not self-harm or commit suicide.

Executive director of West Coast Prison Justice Society, Jennifer Metcalfe, has suggested that the jury’s propositions are insufficient and similar to those that CSC has repeatedly failed to previously employ.

The investigation surrounds a 33-year-old man found unresponsive in his cell at Kent Institution in May 2013, named as Jesse Lahn.

She states, “once again, the recommendations for CSC are limited to attempts to stop people from successfully committing suicide instead of helping people who are at the end of their ropes.”

The jury suggested that CSC inspect cells for materials and can be used to self-harm, and to amend how guards check on inmates. It also proposed that the B.C. Ministry of Health “create a facility where people with mental health and addiction problems can be intercepted before they enter the correctional system.”

Barely one year after Lahn’s death a trio of suicides occurred throughout 2012, which were issued similar recommendations. They transpired at Mountain Institution.

Having attended the inquest, Metcalfe criticized the CSC for inadequate examinations in preventative measures that could have improved mental health issues. He states “CSC, to its credit, is arguably doing what they can with the limited resources they have…but the change has to come from higher up. And there is no political will to do that.”

The Office of the Correctional Investigator conducted a study in 2011-2012 which unravelled almost one-third of recorded self-injuries transpire when they are kept in solitary confinement. They also produced data reporting that out of B.C.’s eight federal prisons, more than one in five inmates were placed in isolation. Between the years or 2013-2014, 856 prisoners were placed in solitary confinement.