Judge slams jail’s grasp of suicide risk

EDMONTON An Alberta judge criticized the Edmonton Institution’s ability to recognize suicide risk among prisoners following a fatality inquiry into the 2013 death of a 22-year-old inmate.

Jesse Ryan McAdam was found hanging by a strip of torn bed sheet in a segregation cell in the maximum security federal prison on July 16, 2013 — less than a week after learning of his mother’s death, according to a report prepared by provincial court Judge Michelle Doyle.

In his cell, a form he’d filled out requesting a transfer back to a Saskatchewan penitentiary to be closer to family support was found.

In a report made public Thursday, Doyle found the prison’s “institutional culture” was demonstrated by the “callous disregard” shown for McAdam’s loss, as well as an adherence to “warehousing ” inmates while failing to recognize them as humans.

Judges who oversee fatality inquiries are not allowed to assign blame, but they can make recommendations.

Doyle made three detailed recommendations for changes within the Correctional Service of Canada, including the creation of an inmate advocacy agency to be embedded in every prison to counter the culture of expecting prisoners to advocate for themselves.

The system that requires inmates to request services such as mental health care for themselves seems “intensely naive and perhaps deluded,” Doyle wrote.

Another recommendation by Doyle called for a “sea change” on the Correctional Service of Canada’a perception of how segregation affects inmates, and said the current understanding is “not founded in reality.”

She said the placement of an inmate in administrative segregation should be deemed “extraordinary.”

Doyle also found the prison’s internal report on McAdam’s death was an exercise in blaming him for the institution’s failure to recognize his elevated suicide risk factors.

Doyle’s third recommendation called for better training for staff in assessment of suicide risk.

She found the training undertaken by people who had interactions with McAdam wasn’t “impactful or meaningful.”

In an email Thursday, a Correctional Service of Canada spokesperson said the recommendations would be reviewed and given “full consideration.”