Change urged in jail intake process
Privacy eases mental-health queries: jury
The Ottawa Carleton Regional Detention Centre should improve how it handles the intake of mentally ill patients and the speed with which it responds to suicide attempts, an inquest jury ruled Tuesday.
Cornwall grandfather Renaud-Louis Grenier died in his cell at the Innes Road jail on the morning of Oct. 18, 2011, after hanging himself with a bed sheet. He had been in custody for two weeks after being charged by Cornwall police with assault with a weapon. He had no criminal record.
After one and a half days of testimony, the jury made five recommendations to improve procedures at the detention centre. It proposes:
A review by the jail of its communications devices to determine whether each officer can be equipped with a personal radio;
Creation of a confidential consultation area where health-care staff can interview new inmates;
An increase in the number of defibrillators. Currently there are just two in the entire institution;
A review of education and training of staff, with particular attention to scenario training;
Increased availability of pocket masks for use during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation efforts.
The purpose of an inquest is not to assign blame but to make practical recommendations that might prevent deaths in similar circumstances.
Grenier, who used a pencil to write a suicide note to his wife, died shortly after his cellmate left to prepare for a court appearance.
A Cornwall justice of the peace had sent Grenier to Ottawa with an order that he undergo a mental-health assessment to determine whether he was criminally responsible. It remains unclear whether the assessment was done.
Grenier told a nurse during his formal intake process at the jail that he wasn’t suicidal and had no intention of harming himself. But two nurses who testified at the inquest said the lack of privacy during the intake process — the presence of other inmates and guards within hearing distance — discouraged inmates from admitting to mental-health issues.
Jail guards had testified that there is also a chronic shortage of personal radios at the institution.
The guard who found Grenier had no radio and had to run from the cellblock to get help. There was no evidence, however, that Grenier could have been saved and video evidence clearly showed that the response from jail staff was rapid and co-ordinated.
There have been two suicides and 47 suicide attempts at the Innes Road jail in the past decade, according to provincial Correctional Services figures.