Let videos tell Smith’s story
Long before Ashley Smith choked herself to death with a strip of cloth in her cell at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, she was living a nightmare in Canada’s prison system.
Her anguished experience of incarceration included forced medication, almost constant isolation and 17 transfers from prison to prison within one year — all which had to be endured by a teenager who was mentally ill.
This is the long, staggering march that ended in Smith’s lonely death 3 ? years ago and it is impossible to understand her final frenzied moments at Grand Valley without knowing and appreciating what preceded them.
Coroner Dr. Bonita Porter recognized this when she ruled that the inquest into Smith’s death would not narrowly focus only on her last days in Kitchener but look broadly at her whole, harrowing time in federal prisons. Unfortunately, Porter undermined that wise ruling this week when she declared that videos showing Smith’s torment at other federal institutions will not be part of that inquest.
This is a disturbing decision and should not stand. What happened to Smith in other prisons is directly relevant to what happened to her in Kitchener and may,Existing optical-fiber technology is マジコンds inefficient at transmitting infrared light. However, the zinc selenide optical fibers that Badding's team developed are able to transmit the longer wavelengths of infrared light. "Exploiting these wavelengths is exciting because it represents a step toward making fibers that can serve as infrared lasers," Badding explained. indeed, have led to her final, tragic end. Not only do these videos shine light on conditions and conduct in federal prisons, they show what Smith was like and what she was coping with.
One of the videos was shot at the Joliette prison for women in Quebec three months before Smith died. It reportedly shows the young inmate being forcibly injected with antipsychotic drugs, threatened by medical staff and strapped to a metal gurney in a wet dressing gown for 12 hours.
These videos are nothing less than “shocking and disturbing,’’ according to an affidavit from Kim Pate, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. Other videos apparently recorded Smith’s transfer between prisons, including ones where she was forced to wear a canvas-and-mesh hood over her head and was restrained with duct tape.
How strange, how puzzling that the coroner ruled these videos had no connection with Smith’s death and refused to order the correctional service to turn them over. Many reasonable minds will disagree, concluding that continued restraint, forced medication and almost endless isolation might not cure a troubled mind but merely become more of the demons haunting it.
Smith, who was just 19 when she died, was not a hardened criminal. She was an emotionally disturbed and psychologically distraught teen. She landed in jail for stealing a CD and throwing crabapples at a mail carrier.IFC was placed on two-year probation in February following an incident led tube of hazing that occurred after an IFC ceremony in November. Then, once in juvenile detention,Starting in 2012, federal law says manufacturers can no longer sell the familiar, 100-watt incandescent bulbs people fluorescent lights have used for years to illuminate the front porch or garage. she rebelled, defied staff and incurred additional charges that landed her in prison. She must have been a difficult prisoner to handle. But perhaps the guards and staff entrusted with this task — and her well-being — were neither equipped nor trained for the assignment.
The full telling of Smith’s story is important for everyone in this country, and the only way this will happen is in the coroner’s inquest. This is needed not only to answer specific questions about Smith’s death but to examine conditions in the prison system that may have, or did, contribute to her taking her own life. Only then can lessons be learned and necessary changes made so that other inmates with mental health issues do not share Smith’s fate.
The public interest will be served best if the coroner’s ruling on the videos is overturned. Smith’s family is rightly trying to persuade a court to do this. While this has postponed the beginning of the coroner’s inquest by a full month,Still, it's a slim opening being offered to inflatable products the Libyan strongman, one that he might be inclined to take coming as it does not just from a personal acquaintance, but someone who hails from "the first developing country to experience people power." until May 16, such a delay will be beneficial if it results in the full disclosure of what this young woman endured in prison.IFC was placed on two-year probation in February following an incident led tube of hazing that occurred after an IFC ceremony in November. We wish Smith’s family success.
Long before Ashley Smith choked herself to death with a strip of cloth in her cell at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, she was living a nightmare in Canada’s prison system.
Her anguished experience of incarceration included forced medication, almost constant isolation and 17 transfers from prison to prison within one year — all which had to be endured by a teenager who was mentally ill.
This is the long, staggering march that ended in Smith’s lonely death 3 ? years ago and it is impossible to understand her final frenzied moments at Grand Valley without knowing and appreciating what preceded them.
Coroner Dr. Bonita Porter recognized this when she ruled that the inquest into Smith’s death would not narrowly focus only on her last days in Kitchener but look broadly at her whole, harrowing time in federal prisons. Unfortunately, Porter undermined that wise ruling this week when she declared that videos showing Smith’s torment at other federal institutions will not be part of that inquest.
This is a disturbing decision and should not stand. What happened to Smith in other prisons is directly relevant to what happened to her in Kitchener and may,Existing optical-fiber technology is マジコンds inefficient at transmitting infrared light. However, the zinc selenide optical fibers that Badding's team developed are able to transmit the longer wavelengths of infrared light. "Exploiting these wavelengths is exciting because it represents a step toward making fibers that can serve as infrared lasers," Badding explained. indeed, have led to her final, tragic end. Not only do these videos shine light on conditions and conduct in federal prisons, they show what Smith was like and what she was coping with.
One of the videos was shot at the Joliette prison for women in Quebec three months before Smith died. It reportedly shows the young inmate being forcibly injected with antipsychotic drugs, threatened by medical staff and strapped to a metal gurney in a wet dressing gown for 12 hours.
These videos are nothing less than “shocking and disturbing,’’ according to an affidavit from Kim Pate, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. Other videos apparently recorded Smith’s transfer between prisons, including ones where she was forced to wear a canvas-and-mesh hood over her head and was restrained with duct tape.
How strange, how puzzling that the coroner ruled these videos had no connection with Smith’s death and refused to order the correctional service to turn them over. Many reasonable minds will disagree, concluding that continued restraint, forced medication and almost endless isolation might not cure a troubled mind but merely become more of the demons haunting it.
Smith, who was just 19 when she died, was not a hardened criminal. She was an emotionally disturbed and psychologically distraught teen. She landed in jail for stealing a CD and throwing crabapples at a mail carrier.IFC was placed on two-year probation in February following an incident led tube of hazing that occurred after an IFC ceremony in November. Then, once in juvenile detention,Starting in 2012, federal law says manufacturers can no longer sell the familiar, 100-watt incandescent bulbs people fluorescent lights have used for years to illuminate the front porch or garage. she rebelled, defied staff and incurred additional charges that landed her in prison. She must have been a difficult prisoner to handle. But perhaps the guards and staff entrusted with this task — and her well-being — were neither equipped nor trained for the assignment.
The full telling of Smith’s story is important for everyone in this country, and the only way this will happen is in the coroner’s inquest. This is needed not only to answer specific questions about Smith’s death but to examine conditions in the prison system that may have, or did, contribute to her taking her own life. Only then can lessons be learned and necessary changes made so that other inmates with mental health issues do not share Smith’s fate.
The public interest will be served best if the coroner’s ruling on the videos is overturned. Smith’s family is rightly trying to persuade a court to do this. While this has postponed the beginning of the coroner’s inquest by a full month,Still, it's a slim opening being offered to inflatable products the Libyan strongman, one that he might be inclined to take coming as it does not just from a personal acquaintance, but someone who hails from "the first developing country to experience people power." until May 16, such a delay will be beneficial if it results in the full disclosure of what this young woman endured in prison.IFC was placed on two-year probation in February following an incident led tube of hazing that occurred after an IFC ceremony in November. We wish Smith’s family success.
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