Another inmate dead at Barton Street Jail

One man was found dead and another was rushed to hospital early Friday at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre.

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Const. Steve Welton told CBC News that officers were called to the jail just before 1 a.m. One man was dead at the scene and another was taken to hospital "with vitals [signs] then," Welton said.

The second man has since returned to the jail, said Brent Ross, spokesperson for the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

No foul play is suspected, Welton said, but he cautioned that the investigation is still going.

"It doesn't look like it will be a criminal matter, and it looks like it will be a coroner's investigation," he said.

If the coroner determines that the death wasn't from natural causes, there will be a mandatory inquest, Ross said. If it was from natural causes, it will be at the coroner's discretion whether there is an inquest.

There have now been several deaths inside the jail in recent years, and many have been linked to drug overdoses. A coroner's inquest was called in late August to examine drug use in the jail.

No information has yet been put forward to confirm that this latest death was a drug overdose.

The inquest will probe the deaths of William Acheson, Martin Tykoliz, Stephen Conrad Neeson, David Michael Gillian and Louis Angelo Unelli, who all died in drug-related incidents inside the jail from 2012 to 2015.

adam.carter@cbc.ca