'Institutional resistance' to treating inmates with mental health issues, Senator Bob Runciman says

There is a 100-bed unit at The Royal mental health centre in Brockville, Ont., that is dedicated to provincial male inmates, and in 14 years, there has never been a suicide and no one has ever escaped.

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• Inmate's death in Kitchener prison calls for new approach with mentally ill offenders, says senator

"They've had a tremendously successful track record of reducing reoffending rates and turning lives around," Senator Bob Runciman told CBC Radio's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris Monday.

Despite this success, Runciman said, there is still resistance in the correctional system to treating people with mental health issues by placing them in a secure facility like the one in Brockville.

That needs to change, he said. Especially after it appears a female offender being held at the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Terry Baker, took her own life last week.

Baker's death a re-run of Smith case

Runciman said reports Terry Baker was found unresponsive in her cell at the Kitchener facility on July 4 and died July 6 in hospital were like "déjà vu all over again" – a re-run of the circumstances that led to the death of Ashley Smith at the same federal prison in 2007.

"I suspected it might happen at some point given the intransigence of Correctional Service Canada to look at better ways of dealing with mentally ill in the federal correctional system," he said.

Smith choked to death in her cell at Grand Valley Institution on Oct. 19, 2007. A provincial coroner's jury ruled her death a homicide after it was revealed guards stood outside her cell door and watched her place a piece of cloth around her neck. Guards had been ordered by senior staff not to enter Smith's cell as long as she was breathing.

Prison system ignored key recommendation

The coroner's inquest made more than 100 recommendations following Smith's death, but Runciman said the key one – of offering alternative treatment options for offenders with mental health concerns – has been ignored.

There was a pilot project where Correctional Service Canada had one bed in the Brockville facility, but those at The Royal said it wasn't enough, they needed at least 10 beds, according to Runciman. That didn't happen and the pilot project failed, Runciman said.

"I think the whole effort on the part of correctional services was designed to fail, to temporarily placate the public who were concerned about Ashley Smith until it faded away," he said, adding he has filed a Freedom of Information request to get more information about that pilot project.

The only way we're going to see significant change is change of staffing at the senior levels.- Senator Bob Runciman

"There's this institutional resistance within the senior management levels of correctional services," he added. "I cannot understand it."

Kyle Lawlor, the communications manager for Correctional Service Canada, previously told CBC News staff at Grand Valley Institute had worked with Baker.

"A tremendous amount of work was undertaken with this inmate, including by mental health professionals and frontline staff, and there have been many interventions with her over the past few months," Lawlor said.

'Keep your nose out of my business'

Runciman said higher ups at Correctional Service Canada fought the Ashley Smith inquest as well as releasing video footage that showed how staff at the institution handled her.

When Correctional Service Canada commissioner Don Head appeared at the inquest, he did not dress appropriately and lounged in his chair as he took questions, Runciman said.

"When Mr. Head ultimately appeared, he looked like he had been out working in the back garden," Runciman said. "To me, it was a very visible indication of his contempt for the process, you know, keep your nose out of my business approach and I think that's reflective of the whole approach to dealing with [the] mentally ill in the federal system."

Runciman said there needs to be a change in leadership for federal corrections in order to get offenders with mental health concerns the help they need.

"It just leaves you scratching your head and in my view, the only way we're going to see significant change is change of staffing at the senior levels in Correctional Service Canada and at some point the government will have to step in," he said.