Families want London jail replaced with a new facility

Floyd Deleary's family had more questions than answers, as jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon during a coroner's inquest tasked with looking into the deaths of two inmates at London's troubled provincial jail.  

Deleary, a 39-year-old inmate at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), died from a fentanyl overdose in August 2015. His niece, Raquel Hilliker, said her family didn't know the circumstances around his death until the inquest got underway in late February.  

"To know that he had an acute level of fentanyl in his system is a shock to us," she explained.

Her family and the family of Justin Thompson, who died from a fentanyl and cocaine overdose in October 2016, have asked the jury to recommend that EMDC be replaced with a new facility that has more space for inmates.

"We want a new structure to be able to have programs and stuff available for people with mental health issues," said Hilliker. "I really do think that would be the ultimate goal out of this."

Liz Thompson, Justin's mother, agrees. The facility, originally built to house 150 inmates, is often on lock down and the jail's design makes it difficult for correctional officers to monitor all inmates properly, she explained.

"I'm hoping that any recommendations that are made, that they are heard by the Ministry."

The jury is charged with answering five questions about each inmate's death: who died, when they died, where they died, how they died and the manner of death.

The jury can also choose to make recommendations, but it doesn't mean the province has to follow them. Thompson and Deleary's families, the Coronor's counsel, the Aboriginal Legal Service and the Prison Harm Reduction Coalition jointly submitted 69 recommendations for the jury to consider.

Ministry takes issue with recommendations

The lawyer representing the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Lorenzo Policelli, took issue with dozens of the recommendations, including the one that calls on the Ministry to randomly search staff and visitors to prevent contraband from entering the jail.

Policelli said the evidence points to inmates bringing contraband into the facility in their body cavities.

Policelli submitted his own version of the 69 recommendations, crossing out several sections that the Ministry didn't want the jury to consider.

That includes recommendations to put emergency call buttons in every cell, give naloxone to all staff who interact with inmates, put up posters that provide public health information, not investigate inmates who provide information about drugs or someone in medical distress, and offer some form of compensation for Spiritual Elders.

"The most effective recommendations are the ones that can be realistically implemented," said Policelli.

The Ministry also doesn't want to the jury to recommend dropping a zero tolerance policy toward drug-use in favour of a harm reduction model.

Vilko Zkogar, the lawyer representing the Prison Harm Reduction Coalition, argued that's exactly what the jail needs.

"We need to approach the issue of drug-use by people in prisons as a health care issue first, not a security issue," he said in his closing arguments. "Naloxone has never killed anyone, it's only saved peoples' lives."

'Let's keep them alive'

Coroner Dr. David Eden spoke about an experience that changed his perception about people with addiction in his final charge to the jury. He said he was working in a busy emergency room with a man who was "psychotic, violent and extremely threatening" when he asked for help from a colleague who specialized in addiction.

"Over the course of an hour, he talked down this aggressive, dangerous person into a reasonable state."

When Eden asked the colleague how he was able to respond with patience and kindness, the colleague explained that he had been in the patient's position five years earlier.

"As a society, let's do what we can to help opiate abusers get to the other side of this illness," said Eden. "And let's keep them alive until they get there."

The inquest was originally tasked with looking into the death of a third inmate, Murray James Davis. Kevin Egan, the lawyer representing the families of the inmates, said a witness gave testimony that suggested further police investigation was needed, and so the inquest into his death was stopped.

It's unclear when the jurors will deliver their recommendations.