Officials tailored reports involving use of force on Ashley Smith

Grand Valley Prison, 7 guards, watched without rescuing suicide victim Ashley Smith

Corrections Canada deeply mired in scandal, corruption and inhumane treatment of the teenage prisoner.

From the Globe and Mail, Toronto, ON, Canada, March 10, 2009

Managers at a federal prison repeatedly tried to curb the instances where they had to report the use of force when dealing with Ashley Smith, a troubled inmate who eventually killed herself in her segregation cell, court transcripts obtained by The Globe and Mail show. In one instance, after guards reported that they applied a wrist lock on Ms. Smith to stop her from choking herself, a manager refused to rule that force had been used, insisting that she couldn’t see proof of it on video.

The new details bolster allegations that Ms. Smith’s controversial 2007 death occurred amid efforts by the managers at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., and even regional managers, to contain the amount of paperwork generated by her near-daily attempts at self-harm. The focus on bureaucratic rules stands in stark contrast with the prison’s failure to deal with Ms. Smith’s mental distress. She was supposed to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital, but there were no beds. Also, a grievance she filed, asking to end her solitary detention, went unopened until after her death.

The new evidence is contained in a 142-page transcript of the cross-examination of Launa Gratton, the prison’s security intelligence officer. She testified at the preliminary hearing for four GVI employees charged with criminal negligence in Ms. Smith’s death. Ms. Smith had entered the prison system at 15 for minor crimes but spent most of the next four years in segregation because she was unruly. She was alone 23 hours a day in a bare cell.

“She had indicated to staff that she was bored and was looking for attention, and she wanted staff to enter into her cell so that she could fight with them,” Ms. Gratton said. Incidents in which guards used force had to be videotaped and documented with several memos in a package that had to be reviewed by the prison warden, then regional headquarters.

Ms. Gratton said the warden in the spring of 2007, Brenda Wilson Demuth, told her to tailor some reports so they wouldn’t be considered as involving force. “I was directed to classify it as a different classification.”

One incident report from June 2007 showed that guards were ordered by a manager, Eric Broadbent, to limit their interventions when Ms. Smith choked herself.

“As per direction from A.T.L. Eric Broadbent, staff were not to enter her cell to cut the ligature off as long as inmate Smith was breathing, talking or moving,” the report said.

The day Ms. Smith died on Oct. 19, 2007, seven guards tried to talk her into removing the garrote she had tied around her neck. They were, however, reluctant to touch her, entering the cell, then leaving when they saw she was breathing.

Ms. Gratton also testified that she bundled several incidents into a single report even though it involved separate attempts by Ms. Smith to strangle herself over several hours.

She was also questioned about an Oct. 15 incident when guards reported that they had to use a wrist lock while removing a garrote from Ms. Smith’s neck.

She ruled there was no reportable use of force because “I couldn’t tell from the video.”

Julian Falconer, a lawyer for Ms. Smith’s family, said he is “completely confounded” that Ms. Gratton’s testimony didn’t lead to further accusations of the higher-ups who gave the orders. Instead, the four defendants were discharged.

“This is about accountability,” he said. “Watching a 19-year-old die and saying you were following orders should have gone out with Nuremberg. It doesn’t hold water.”

Julie Doering, a Correctional Service of Canada spokeswoman, would not Tuesday provide the names of GVI personnel who were disciplined after Ms. Smith’s death.

However, she said the warden and deputy warden were dismissed, along with one manager and three guards. Four other guards and two managers were suspended, she said.