Inquest recommends steps to prevent inmate suicides

Twenty-nine suggestions follow 2016 death of accused serial rapist

An corner’s inquest looking into the hanging death of accused serial rapist Yousef Hussein at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre has made 29 recommendations aimed at preventing inmate suicide.

Hussein, 27 at the time of his death, was not considered at risk of harming himself when he entered the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre in May 2014.

On April 12, 2016, still awaiting trial, Hussein was found hanging by a sheet from the upper bunk railing in his cell shortly after 3 a.m., only 12 hours after he had been removed from suicide watch.

The jury heard that a psychologist had recommended that Hussein be “housed for support” — that is, placed in a cell with another inmate after taking him off suicide watch, which had been initiated three days earlier when Hussein became distraught about being moved to another jail in Lindsay.

When Hussein was removed from suicide watch, he was moved into another segregation cell because it was unclear whether he faced a misconduct order and there was no electronic record that could be checked.

Hussein’s death was one of three suicides in segregation cells within 10 months in the detention centre, all during a time when the jail was under scrutiny for overcrowding and numerous lockdowns.

The five-person jury spent last week listening to testimony from more than 20 witnesses.

Among other recommendations, the jury suggested improving procedures around keeping surveillance on inmates who had been released from suicide watch, mental-health training for workers in the corrections system and replacing paper records with electronic versions.

Jurors also recommended: The transition from suicide watch to final housing should be a clear, documented process. If the mental-health professional’s recommendations can’t be put in place, for operational reasons, when suicide watch is cancelled, there should be a discussion between a medical professional with mental-health expertise and the person making the operations decision. To reduce the chance of error, everyone should be aware of the expectations and next steps.

Documentation should be electronic and accessible to correctional officers, social workers, nurses, physicians or psychologists, depending on privacy.

Daily briefings of correctional officers should be clearly documented with issues, action items with responsibilities, and followup.

The detention centre should consider assigning corrections officers with a demonstrated interest in mental health to areas such as segregation, and these officers should have additional, regular mental-health-care training.

There should be a central intake for requests for psychiatric or psychological care, overseen by a triage worker.

The recommendations also addressed the question of recruiting and retaining mental-health professionals for correctional facilities, including requiring programs in social work, nursing and physician and psychologist training to offer exposure to detention and correctional institutions, so students have an opportunity to learn about these under-serviced areas.

Jail conditions were also the subject of some recommendations. The jury recommended that when new facilities or construction are being considered, attention should be given to better lighting, space and outdoor exercise areas, and that the ministry should consider offering “virtual visiting ” of inmates through telecommunication technologies such as Skype.

Russel Molot, the lawyer for Hussein’s family, said if the recommendations are properly implemented, they should have a long-lasting effect on the Ontario corrections system.

However, Molot said in a statement the evidence made it clear that there were major problems at the detention centre, including a lack of training of staff, deficient communication among staff and poor understanding of mentalhealth issues in general among correctional officers.

“It is equally clear that a major reason for all of the above was the complete lack of political will to correct problems that have been glaring for almost 20 years.”

Everyone, including corrections officers and staff, is put at risk, he said.

A civil lawsuit is in the works on behalf of Hussein’s family, Molot said.

“I can say that we are putting the blame squarely at the feet of the government for failing to take care of people in its charge,” he said.

“There is a presumption of innocence, regardless of the allegations, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that the trial of Mr. Hussein was never held. The system let everyone down.”

I can say ... we are putting the blame squarely at the feet of the government for failing to take care of people in its charge.