Winnipeg Remand Centre rules pose challenges for inmates with prescriptions, lawyer says

Rules at the Winnipeg Remand Centre could be keeping inmates from accessing their prescription medications, a local defence lawyer says, following the death of an epileptic inmate earlier this week.

Bradley Errol Green, 26, experienced two epileptic seizures while in custody at the remand centre on May 1. He later died.

• Death investigated after Winnipeg Remand Centre denies epilepsy drugs to inmate

A provincial government investigation into Green's death is pending.

His wife, Rochelle Pranteau, and his cellmate told CBC News that Green had asked for his epilepsy medication for the three days he was detained, but he was denied.

Green was supposed to take the medication three times a day. The cellmate, Stephen King, said Green feared being off his medication and having a seizure.

Saul Simmonds, a criminal defence lawyer in Winnipeg, said even when a person goes into custody with their prescriptions, it's not guaranteed they will have access to their medications.

"There is some degree of suspicion as to whether or not the medication is what it purports to be, and as a result of that it creates an ongoing series of problems," Simmonds said.

"I've certainly had clients in the past who have been concerned about whether or not they're getting their medication as they should."

Simmonds said there are a number of protocols at the Winnipeg Remand Centre that make it difficult for an inmate to access medication, including the need to verify a prescription through that person's medical records or by consulting an in-house physician.

"Unless it's emergent, in the sense that there is a person who passes out or who is in the kind of physical condition that is obvious to people observing them, the vast majority have to go through those protocols," he said.

At the time of his death, Green was in custody for breaching a probation order not to consume alcohol. He was under the probation order for a mischief under $5,000 charge.