Death brings facility’s 2019 total to seven

An inmate at the Edmonton Remand Centre died over the weekend after being found unresponsive in a cell, raising the number of people who have died at the facility so far this year to seven.

Partway through 2019, the annual death toll at the Edmonton remand is at its highest since 2013, the year inmates were moved out of the dangerous, overcrowded remand centre downtown.

In response, Alberta’s justice minister is promising to review the inmate’s death, as well as the province’s corrections system more broadly.

Remand centre staff found the inmate unresponsive in a cell Sunday morning. The inmate was rushed to hospital, where medical staff declared them deceased. While provincial officials would not say how the person died, police said the death is considered non-criminal.

A government spokesperson would not provide any further details about the incident, including the person’s name or their gender.

The majority of remand inmates are being held prior to trial and have not been convicted of their alleged offences.

The Edmonton Remand Centre, in the city’s northwest, was completed in 2013 to replace the aging downtown remand. With room for over 1,900 inmates, the new centre is the largest correctional facility in Canada.

The latest inmate death comes just weeks after 57-year-old sex offender Bruce Donald Windsor was killed at the facility. Investigators said they have identified a suspect in the homicide, but have yet to lay any charges.

According to court records, Windsor was jailed for causing someone to fear for their safety and for breaching conditions of a recognizance. He was convicted in 2013 of two child pornography offences and sentenced to four years. Windsor’s death was the second homicide at the new centre.

A week after Windsor’s death, a woman incarcerated at the facility was also injured in an undisclosed incident. Officials said she was rushed to hospital July 8 in stable, non-life-threatening condition and housed there for several days.

Alberta’s justice minister says he plans to review the recent death.

In a statement, Doug Schweitzer, who is also the province’s solicitor general, said he also plans to meet with the province’s correctional service “to discuss the state of our correctional facilities.”

“I always find any death concerning and that is why we have called for a review of this incident,” he said. “Our government is always looking for any improvements we can make to our criminal justice system and we will take the appropriate action to implement any necessary change.”

Six inmates died at the Edmonton Remand Centre in 2013, the previous high. Inmates were housed in both the old and new centres that year.

OVERDOSES AN ISSUE

Sixty-three people have died in the Alberta corrections system since 2012, 27 of them Edmonton remand inmates.

Deaths of inmates in Alberta provincial correctional facilities are typically reviewed by the Fatality Review Board.

While officials would not disclose how the seven inmates died this year, citing privacy issues, a number of the deaths are likely overdoses.

Last July, eight Edmonton Remand Centre inmates overdosed in just three days — one of whom died. Overall, the Alberta Corrections system has responded to hundreds of inmate overdoses since 2016.

Provincial correctional facilities typically house remand inmates and people sentenced to two years or less.

Our government is always looking for any improvements we can make to our criminal justice system.