Coroner's inquiry will take broad look into death of troubled teen Ashley Smith
By Linda Nguyen and Carmen Chai, Postmedia News November 12, 2010
Smith, 19, was found dead in a segregated prison cell at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., on Oct. 19, 2007. She had tied a piece of cloth around her neck and strangled herself to death.
Dr. Bonita Porter, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, wrote in a long-awaited decision. "Her state of mind is part of the circumstances of her death and will be relevant to the issue of 'by what means' the death occurred.
"A commission of inquiry would be the only way to look at the systematic realities for the mentally ill in our prison system," said lawyer Julian Falconer from Moncton, N.B., where he is visiting the family. "Ashley Smith was in essence tortured over an 11-, 12-month period and anyone who thinks this was one isolated incident that never happened before or ever happened again . . . nothing short of a royal commission of inquiry will be able to address that."
Last week, Falconer and lawyers with the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and the province's advocate for children and youth made submissions to Porter that the inquest should at least include the 11 months Smith was held in federal custody.
The lawyers argued that those months were instrumental in shaping Smith's state of mind prior to her death, because she was shunted 17 times to facilities and institutions in five different provinces in what they called a failure of the prison system.
(The majority of the prison transfers were a result of staff fatigue and a shortage of beds.)
Throughout her incarceration, Smith was also kept shackled and in segregation. Inmates are only supposed to be kept segregated for a maximum of 60 days, but that time allowance was reset upon each of Smith's prison transfers.
(Reports later revealed that on the day of her death, prison guards were told ahead of time to not intervene until she had stopped breathing. Criminal charges laid against the guards were later dropped.)
They also argued that the transfers resulted in her never being properly diagnosed with a mental condition, and prevented her from benefiting from therapy.
Her family has formerly requested a criminal probe by the RCMP into how Smith was treated in prison.
According to prison documents, Smith was repeatedly pepper sprayed and drugged against her will and her requests for assistance were "routinely" ignored in these last months.
The documents, which chronicle Smith's life starting on June 14, 2007, revealed nearly 200 "use of force" incidents, 10 cases of involuntary body cavity searches and 90 instances where Smith's requests for programs, hospital treatment and calls to a lawyer were denied, said Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, a non-profit advocacy group for federally sentenced women.
About 1,000 records have been reviewed so far since the remaining documents in Smith's file were released to the group from Corrections Canada in August.
"It's clear there are many incidents, a multitude of instances of use of force against her, and we believe from the documentation that many of them were unjustified. We know there was forcible treatment — unlawful treatment — in situations where Ashley had the authority to withdraw consent and refuse treatment but she was forced," Pate said, noting these latest records from Corrections Canada are "contrary to the impression that has been created.
The inquest will no longer be limited by age, geography, date or nature of the institution where Smith was held and allow a coroner's jury to access documents, reports and evidence of Smith's experiences while imprisoned in both youth and adult facilities across the country.
Smith was first incarcerated at 15 in her native New Brunswick for breaching her probation after an original incident in which she threw crab apples at a postal worker. She racked up institutional charges that saw her time behind bars continually extended.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/Coroner+inquiry+will+take+broad+look+into+death+troubled+teen+Ashley+Smith/3819344/story.html#ixzz15DXzCFeH
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Blood Pooled Near His Head
Kenneth Hernandez's fate was sealed by a guard's grunt.
That small utterance took on larger significance at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, 200 miles northeast of Sacramento, where Hernandez was imprisoned on drug and weapons charges. He was housed in a gym filled with bunk beds and lockers – typical in the state's crowded prisons.
On May 26, 2004, Hernandez, then 21, had the misfortune of crossing paths with Officer David Sharpe between rows of beds. Sharpe said Hernandez struck the guard's chest with his elbow. Another guard said he heard Sharpe grunt. Hernandez denies any such attack.
In sworn statements, witnesses said that Sharpe, who stands 6 feet tall and weighed about 300 pounds, bear-hugged Hernandez – 5 feet 9 and 140 pounds – from behind. He threw Hernandez head-first into a metal locker. Hernandez fell to the floor, with Sharpe on top of him, then twitched and jerked violently. Blood pooled near his head.
In a subsequent court proceeding, Sharpe confirmed those events but faulted the confined area and said he did not intentionally injure Hernandez.
"He's having a seizure!" some of the prisoners said they shouted in alarm. Sharpe kneeled on the back of the convulsing prisoner.
"Shut the f--- up!" Sharpe yelled, pressing his forearm against the nape of Hernandez's neck, according to inmate witness statements in the prison investigation report.
Hernandez was airlifted to Reno for emergency surgery, his skull fractured.
Back in his cell weeks later, Hernandez suffered from facial paralysis, seizures and vomiting, according to medical records. He also had to defend himself against the serious charge of assaulting an officer.
Hernandez told The Bee he didn't get a fair hearing because key evidence was barred. The prison investigator disallowed photographs of the scene, a complaint by other inmates alleging criminal misconduct by Sharpe, and statements from FBI examiners, according to his report.
Also rejected by the investigator was Hernandez's "stress voice analysis" – a lie-detection method – conducted by High Desert internal affairs, which the inmate claimed proved his innocence.
The investigator did include in his report accounts of inmates, who said they saw Sharpe attack Hernandez without provocation. None said Hernandez attacked the officer and no guards witnessed the event.
But the hearing officer, Lt. J.L. Bishop, said the inmates' testimony "lacks credibility," because they fear revenge from other prisoners for supporting a guard.
Guards said that inmates moved to the floor reluctantly when ordered to during the altercation, Bishop wrote. That reticence, he said, "strongly colors this incident in staff-assaultive tones."
The linchpin was the officer's recollection of the grunt.
Sharpe's grunt, "prior to commanding the inmates to 'get down' strongly indicates that he was struck with force," Bishop wrote, "and without warning."
Bishop found Hernandez guilty and sentenced him to five months' loss of good-behavior credit, a year without family visits and a possible term in the hole.
Six years later, Hernandez is out on parole. He still has trouble with balance, and said in cold weather the clip that secures his skull makes his head ache. As of 2009, Sharpe still worked at High Desert.
'I'll answer to God'
Hernandez's injuries were severe, but his due-process experience was typical of accounts from dozens of inmates in state lockups.
Current and former correctional officers said guilty findings often were preordained informally and hearing officers knew they would be in trouble with higher-ups if they didn't consistently find inmates guilty.
Gerald Edwards, a former lieutenant at Calipatria State Prison east of San Diego, said he conducted about 100 rule-violation hearings in the last few years of his 24-year prison career. In 2009, Edwards alleges he was harassed by superiors after ruling in favor of inmates four or five times.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/01/2928417/rights-of-prisoners-under-siege.html?
That small utterance took on larger significance at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, 200 miles northeast of Sacramento, where Hernandez was imprisoned on drug and weapons charges. He was housed in a gym filled with bunk beds and lockers – typical in the state's crowded prisons.
On May 26, 2004, Hernandez, then 21, had the misfortune of crossing paths with Officer David Sharpe between rows of beds. Sharpe said Hernandez struck the guard's chest with his elbow. Another guard said he heard Sharpe grunt. Hernandez denies any such attack.
In sworn statements, witnesses said that Sharpe, who stands 6 feet tall and weighed about 300 pounds, bear-hugged Hernandez – 5 feet 9 and 140 pounds – from behind. He threw Hernandez head-first into a metal locker. Hernandez fell to the floor, with Sharpe on top of him, then twitched and jerked violently. Blood pooled near his head.
In a subsequent court proceeding, Sharpe confirmed those events but faulted the confined area and said he did not intentionally injure Hernandez.
"He's having a seizure!" some of the prisoners said they shouted in alarm. Sharpe kneeled on the back of the convulsing prisoner.
"Shut the f--- up!" Sharpe yelled, pressing his forearm against the nape of Hernandez's neck, according to inmate witness statements in the prison investigation report.
Hernandez was airlifted to Reno for emergency surgery, his skull fractured.
Back in his cell weeks later, Hernandez suffered from facial paralysis, seizures and vomiting, according to medical records. He also had to defend himself against the serious charge of assaulting an officer.
Hernandez told The Bee he didn't get a fair hearing because key evidence was barred. The prison investigator disallowed photographs of the scene, a complaint by other inmates alleging criminal misconduct by Sharpe, and statements from FBI examiners, according to his report.
Also rejected by the investigator was Hernandez's "stress voice analysis" – a lie-detection method – conducted by High Desert internal affairs, which the inmate claimed proved his innocence.
The investigator did include in his report accounts of inmates, who said they saw Sharpe attack Hernandez without provocation. None said Hernandez attacked the officer and no guards witnessed the event.
But the hearing officer, Lt. J.L. Bishop, said the inmates' testimony "lacks credibility," because they fear revenge from other prisoners for supporting a guard.
Guards said that inmates moved to the floor reluctantly when ordered to during the altercation, Bishop wrote. That reticence, he said, "strongly colors this incident in staff-assaultive tones."
The linchpin was the officer's recollection of the grunt.
Sharpe's grunt, "prior to commanding the inmates to 'get down' strongly indicates that he was struck with force," Bishop wrote, "and without warning."
Bishop found Hernandez guilty and sentenced him to five months' loss of good-behavior credit, a year without family visits and a possible term in the hole.
Six years later, Hernandez is out on parole. He still has trouble with balance, and said in cold weather the clip that secures his skull makes his head ache. As of 2009, Sharpe still worked at High Desert.
'I'll answer to God'
Hernandez's injuries were severe, but his due-process experience was typical of accounts from dozens of inmates in state lockups.
Current and former correctional officers said guilty findings often were preordained informally and hearing officers knew they would be in trouble with higher-ups if they didn't consistently find inmates guilty.
Gerald Edwards, a former lieutenant at Calipatria State Prison east of San Diego, said he conducted about 100 rule-violation hearings in the last few years of his 24-year prison career. In 2009, Edwards alleges he was harassed by superiors after ruling in favor of inmates four or five times.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/01/2928417/rights-of-prisoners-under-siege.html?
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