A spokesperson for the family of a teen who died in custody says they are devastated by new revelations about their daughter's death, but hope something positive will come from the tragedy.
Â鶹´«Ã½ revealed new details on Monday about allegations against Corrections Canada officers charged with criminal negligence in connection to 19-year-old Ashley Smith's death.
Staff members at a Kitchener, Ont., prison monitored Smith's cell with a video camera, and allegedly saw the girl with a ligature around her neck on Oct. 19. But they chose not to intervene immediately, believing she wasn't seriously harming herself.
Smith, who suffered from a mental illness, died from self-asphyxiation.
"They're quite devastated," Kim Pate, spokesperson for the Elizabeth Fry Societies of Canada, told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday, speaking on behalf of the parents.
"They agreed to have their daughter taken away from them believing the promises that she was going to get help, and she was sent back to them in a body bag, so they're quire devastated."
Four officers at Kitchener's Grand Valley Institution have been charged in connection with the girl's death, under a section of the Criminal Code that relates to "omitting to do anything that it is his (or her) duty to do, shows wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons."
Travis McDonald, 36; Karen Eves, 52; Valentino Burnett, 47, and Blaine Phibbs, 31, will appear in court on Dec. 18.
Their union has protested the charges.
Pate said the officers should have acted quickly on any possible sign that Smith would kill herself.
"People should have been watching very closely and there should have been a great deal of concern, and certainly a much different intervention," she told Â鶹´«Ã½ on Monday.
Pate said her organization has requested video footage taken on the day Smith took her own life, and hopes to piece together a more complete picture of what happened during the last few hours of her life.
Pate said Smith's parents hope a valuable lesson will be learned from their daughter's tragic death, and more efforts will be undertaken to properly care for mentally ill prisoners.
"Those with the greatest amount of need often end up horribly in the most isolated conditions," Pate said on Tuesday.
Smith had spent more than two years in segregation at the jail, after being transferred from various institutions across the country. In 2003, she received a six-year prison sentence.
While in prison she received further charges, connected to unspecified incidents involving staff members.
There are four ongoing investigations into Smith's death, conducted by:
- The federal Office of the Correctional Investigator;
- Kitchener-Waterloo police;
- Correctional Service Canada; and,
- New Brunswick's youth advocate -- Smith grew up in Moncton, N.B.
Â鶹´«Ã½ has learned that another corrections officer is facing charges in connection with a separate incident with Smith at a Saskatoon prison.
Correctional supervisor John Tarala was fired from his position last September for allegedly assaulting Smith. Last week, after Smith's death made headlines, he was formally charged.
He maintains his innocence.
