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Saskatoon

Mother of inmate who died in Sask. prison says he wasn't healthy enough to be in general population

The mother of a man who died inside a federal prison in Prince Albert, Sask., on Wednesday says her son should not have been in back in prison.

Chris Van Camp was only days removed from overdose coma when he was sent back to prison, his mother says

Chris Van Camp was found unresponsive inside his cell at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary on June 7, 2017. RCMP are treating his death as suspicious. (Facebook)

The mother of a man who died inside a federal prison in Prince Albert, Sask., on Wednesday says her son should not havebeen back in prison.

I want to know exactly what happened.- LaurenLaithwaite

Correctional Service Canada says Chris Van Camp was found dead inside his cell. His death is being treated as suspicious.

Van Camp's mother says she wastold her son was beaten in his prison cell before his death.

"I want to know exactly what happened. I want to know if there any people being looked at and I want to know if he was able to fight back, because I don't think he was," said LaurenLaithwaite.

Overdose a week before death

Laithwaitesaid Van Camp was let out of prison earlier this year. He had been serving time forarmed robbery, fraud and theft.

She said her son suffered from a drug addiction, and a week before his death, he ended up doing a line of cocaine that was laced withfentanyl. He overdosed.

That overdose, she said, put him in a coma for five days.

About a week before he died, Van Camp was in a five-day coma following a drug overdose. (Lauren Laithwaite)

While he was in hospital in Calgary, Van Camp was arrested for breaching his parole by doing the drugs that put him in the coma,his mother said.

"I get it was a breach of conditions and there is asystem set up, but the system went really wrong here," she said.

Van Camp was sent to prison in Saskatchewan. Laithwaitesaid her son, who was only days recovered from thecoma,was in no state to be put back in general population.

"I think any medical doctor would say someone coming out of a coma on life support shouldn't be able to go back to main jail in three days," she said.

Van Camp was at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert. (Thomas Porter/The Canadian Press)

Lee AnneSkene, the deputy warden with the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, said she could not comment on Van Camp's medical condition.

She confirmed thatRCMPwere at the prison Thursday afternoon. In a news release,RCMPsaid an autopsy will take place later this week.

RCMPMajor Crime Unit North, Forensic Identification and General Investigation Sections are investigating the death.

Second death inside prison in 1 day

Van Camp's was the second death inside the prison Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Correctional Service Canada announced that another inmate at the penitentiary, Daniel JamesTokarchuk, haddied.

The 44-year-old man had been serving an indeterminate sentence since Dec.16, 2004, for second-degree murder, mischiefand failure to comply with a courtappearance.

Correctional Service Canada has not release details about what happened in either case, or whether the deaths were related.