As N.S. jail death toll mounts, father grieves son and calls for corrections reform

The ashes of Christopher Young rest in a box as part of a memorial at his father's home in Halifax on Monday, July 8, 2024 after dying by suicide while inside the Burnside Jail. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

HALIFAX — A memorial plaque with a laser-etched image of Christopher Young wearing a Santa hat sits on a shelf at his father's Halifax home.

"That's how I'll always remember my son, as a happy guy," said Gerry Young, 61.

However, the grieving parent said his 33-year-old son's suicide on April 26 -- the fifth of six deaths in Nova Scotia jails in the past 18 months -- should be remembered as an example of how the provincial corrections system is failing to protect inmates' lives.

"I guarantee you this could have been prevented," he said during a recent interview in his home. Young said his son had tried and failed to kill himself years ago at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility -- commonly known as Burnside jail, where five of the deaths have occurred. Staff at the facility should have been on alert for a repeat attempt to hang himself, Young said.

Christopher had been readmitted to the jail shortly before his suicide, after he violated parole conditions for theft and shoplifting convictions.

"Given he was just re-incarcerated I think they should have had him in one of those cells where they put people who are in danger of hurting themselves," Young said.

After the deaths of Christopher and five other Nova Scotia inmates since January 2023, advocacy groups are calling for deep reforms to the provincial system.

In March, the East Coast Prison Justice Society held a series of panels calling for such things as open and mandatory inquiries into all jail deaths; supports for Indigenous and Black inmates; and improved mental-health and substance-abuse treatment both in jails and in the community.

Its annual report -- dedicated to the six dead inmates -- says the province must also end the use of prolonged isolation of inmates during staff shortages. Letters obtained by The Canadian Press written by Richard Murray, an inmate who took his own life on Jan. 17 at the Burnside jail, linked his growing distress to the confinements, which he called "the four walls of hell."

The Progressive Conservative government says it's committed to improving conditions in the corrections system, pointing to increased staffing at the jails, and a new review committee chaired by the medical examiner, who is charged with looking into deaths in custody. Barbara Adams, the minister of Justice, said after a recent cabinet meeting that the deaths are "tragic," but that changes have been made to address the concerns over inmate health care.

"Nova Scotia Health is responsible for ensuring that those being admitted to facilities do get assessed by health-care professionals," she said. She added that inmates "get the health care they need if they should exhibit any suicidal thoughts or behaviours."

Adams said she'll look to the recommendations from the review committee chaired by the province's medical examiner to see if further measures are needed.

However, family members of deceased inmates and advocates say the inquiries into the deaths have been behind closed doors, and that the public is being given almost no details on the circumstances of what occurred in each case. For example, when the Justice Department announced Young's death, it said only, "he succumbed to his injuries," leaving out whether he died because of negligence, suicide, violence or untreated health issues.

By contrast, in Ontario a mandatory inquest is held when an inmate dies a non-natural death. In neighbouring New Brunswick, the chief coroner can order public inquests into prison deaths when they are deemed to be in the "public interest."

Young said the public needs to know the circumstances of his son's death in order to understand what reforms are needed in the corrections system. Christopher wasn't dangerous, but rather had turned to petty thefts after becoming addicted to opioids following a workplace accident at the Irving shipyard when he was 19, he said.

He wishes his son had been given access to long-term addiction treatment, rather than warehoused in prisons. "If I'd been a rich man, he would have been in a two- or three-year treatment program," said the father.

"He could have made a comeback. He had a lot of support with me," said Young, who had purchased equipment to open a pressure-washing business and was helping him look for other employment options.

Some relatives of other dead inmates have also gone public with their dissatisfaction, and are calling for improved care of inmates, quickly.

The mother of Sarah Denny, a 36-year-old Mi'kmaq woman from Eskasoni First Nation who died in hospital on March 26, 2023, has said her daughter died after being transferred from Burnside because of complications from pneumonia.

In a recent panel discussion held in Halifax by the East Coast Prison Justice Society, Kathy Denny said infection had compromised her daughter's lungs, kidney and heart as she entered Burnside -- but the seriousness of the risk wasn't picked up quickly enough. The province has declined to comment on the case.

She is calling for the creation of "a Sarah Denny check," for which health issues are canvassed upon admission. "A basic check for temperatures, weight, blood pressure, simple things that could have saved Sarah," she said.

The brother of 27-year-old Peter Paul said the Mi'kmaq man took his own life at the Cape Breton Correctional Facility in Sydney, N.S., in January 2023. Gilbert Paul said in an interview that his brother had cuts on his arms from previous self-harm attempts, but he says he has learned in followup meetings that he wasn't evaluated by a doctor when he was admitted to the jail because it was late at night and no one was available.

"(The suicides) shouldn't be happening," he said. "In my view we should be able to prevent the deaths in jail."

Dr. Matthew Bowes, the province's chief medical examiner, said in a recent interview that a committee reviewing deaths in custody is looking into the Paul case and it will probably be "months" before a report is released. The committee also plans to probe the Sarah Denny case, he added. A committee hasn't yet been struck for the other cases, including Young's, he said.

"I want to deliver a really solid set of recommendations and hopefully the public will judge us on the basis of the product we put out there," he said, noting that provincial regulations prohibit the release of summaries of the cases.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2024.

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