Families unite to push for change at London, Ont. jail

Almost a decade ago, Laura Straughan died at London's provincial jail. 

Since then, a dozen more people have died at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, some murdered, some from overdoses, others by suicide. 

After every death a Coroners' Jury makes recommendations about how to improve conditions there. 

And inmates' families have had enough. 

"People are dying there every few months. It doesn't even have the shock value it used to have," said Jessica Robinson, Straughan's older sister.

Straughan was arrested in 2009 after getting into a fight. 

An otherwise healthy 25-year-old mother of two, she was taken by police to the ER and then taken to the Exeter Street jail with flu symptoms.  

Despite her screening, she was placed into the general female population in a cell with two inmates.

Her condition deteriorated for the five days she was inside. She couldn't make a court appearance because she was too unwell. She had to use a wheelchair to get around. She fell out of bed unconscious.

Correctional officers didn't get her the medical care she needed, Robinson said, and ignored her cellmate's pleas for help.

Straughan's cause of death was pneumonia, complicated by dehydration, a strep bacteria and H1N1. 

In 2011 the jury made 10 recommendations to improve medical care at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre. Her family is still waiting for them to be implemented. 

This weekend, Robinson and the family members of a dozen other inmates who have died at the jail, will hold a rally to call attention to conditions and deaths at the detention centre. 

They will place 13 crosses, one for each that have died, outside the jail. Also attending will be family members of inmates who have died in provincial jails in Hamilton and Sudbury. 

There is also a civil lawsuit against the jail by former inmates, taken on by lawyer Kevin Egan who has been an outspoken critic of the jail. 

The Straughan family has also launched a civil suit.

A need for change

"There were 20 witnesses, 10 recommendations made by the jury. We found that uplifting, because even though it was the worst thing in the world that could have happened we thought people's lives can be changed," Robinson said. 

"Then we found out that half of those recommendations had already been recommended 10 years prior. And here we are 10 years later again and we have a body trail of 12 more people after her and those recommendations have never been put in place." 

The protest on Sunday is being organized partly by Lynn Pigeau, a sister of James Pigeau, 29, who died at the EMDC in December 2016. 

Robinson said she's encouraged by Pigeau's strong advocacy but also terrified to think about how many people have died at the jail and have been taken from their families.

"I'm kind of deflated by it. People are actually dying and nothing is being done," Robinson said. "She was my best friend. People have their sisters into their 80s and 90s and it's pretty crappy that this happened." 

The hole left by her sister's death can't be filled, she said.

"She was confident, outspoken, proud, beautiful, caring, funny — she just radiated this love." 

Straughan's children, now 10 and 14, have some of her mannerisms. 

"It's the smallest things, a giddy little thing that happens and I see her," Robinson said. 

The rally at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre on Sunday begins at 1:30.