Changes needed in criminal justice system: prisoners' rights activist

The head of the Elizabeth Fry Society saysthe challenges facingwomen in the criminal justice and health care systems must be addressed.

Kim Pate, executive director of theprisoner advocacy group, met with corrections officers, civil servants and outreach workersin Saint John on Thursday.

The meeting, though planned months in advance,comes in the wake of thedeath of 19-year-old Ashley Smith of Moncton, who was serving a six-year sentence for a range of offences, including assault with a weapon and assaulting a peace officer.

Smith died of what police are calling "self-initiated" asphyxiation. She was found unconscious in her cell at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., on Oct. 19 and later died in hospital.

Governments are pulling funding from mental health centres,shelters for abused women and homeless shelters,and are sending the money to prisons, Pate said. But correctional institutions are not a substitute for those services, she said.

Pate told CBC News she hopes the details of Smith's case will prompt the government to make changes to Canada's prison system.

Several investigations are being conducted into Smith's death, by Correctional Service Canada, local police, the federal prison ombudsman and the youth and child advocate in New Brunswick.

Urges federal politicians to examine prisons

Earlier in the week,Pate testifiedbefore a federal prison review panel in Ottawa.

She saidinmates like Smith who aredealing with mental health issues are suffering in institutions and are sometimes neglected and abused by guards.

The treatment Smith received in jail before her death was inadequate, Pate said.

When anadvocate met with Smith at the jail on Sept. 24, the teen was being held in segregation without a mattress or a blanket, and waswearing only a gown, she said.

She'd been kept in segregation for almost the entire time she was in the adult correctional system.

Smith had wanted someone to look into herrights, Pate added.

"Suffice to say we had already been investigating the conditions of confinement and the way she was being treated,and more will likely come out about that," she said.

MPs urged to tour correctional centres

Moncton-area Liberal MP Brian Murphy said he is watching the case closely.

"It's quite a disturbing set of facts," Murphy said, "and I think we need to get to the bottom of what happened, keeping in mind the sensitivity of the situation."

MPs should be exercising their right to tour Canadian correctional centres to see their conditions, Murphy said. But he hasn't yet made plans to visit the institution where Smith died.

She was a young offender when she began serving her sentence in October 2003. She would have been eligible for release in November.

Four guards have been charged with criminal negligence in connection withher death.They are scheduled to appear in court in December.

Four others have been suspended without pay and the warden and deputy warden have been transferred to different positions since Smith's death.