stardust
Ashley Smith Inquest Streamed Live on the Internet
Posted on: 01/14/2013 19:53
Again.... I'm not sure where to post this so I'm picking politics. Ashley's experience is beyond the pale. There are no words. Its a horrific gut wrenching tragedy, almost unbelievable. In the Fifth Estate video "Behind the Wall" there is another video depicting her actual death. Sad...sad....sad...and mind boggling.....!
TORONTO — The inquest into the death of Ashley Smith is being streamed live on the internet via the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services website. See below.
Shocking old video released:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/13/ashley-smith-inquest_n_2466059.html
Live stream: Ashley Smith inquest begins
The inquest adjourned today Jan. 14 about 2:30 p.m. on the livestream link below. It starts at 9 a.m. I believe.
http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/DeathInvestigations/office_corone...
The Ashley Smith inquest is a coroner's inquest in Ontario related to the institutional death of Ashley Smith, a teenager who committed suicide on October 19, 2007, while she was under suicide watch at the Grand Valley Institution for Women. Despite guards watching her on video monitors the prisoner Smith was able to strangle herself with a strip of cloth, and it was several hours before guards or supervisors realized she was dead. The warden and deputy warden were fired after the incident, and though the guards and supervisors were initially charged for negligence, those charges were dropped a year later. Smith's family brought a lawsuit against the Correctional Service of Canada for negligence; this lawsuit was settled out of court in May 2011.
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stardust
Posted on: 01/14/2013 20:04
Fifth Estate -
First Program on Ashley
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2009-2010/out_of_control/
Fifth Estate Documentary #2 - warning : "death video" of Ashley.
Another girl also featured.
Behind the Wall http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/behindthewall/
"Every single person in this country should be concerned that what happened to Ashley is happening to so many others," said Kim Pate, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Societies of Canada.
Pate was actively intervening, attempting to help Smith when she died. The prison system has become the dumping ground for the mentally ill, according to Pate. "It's the only system that can't say 'No'," she said. "Instead, they should be being assessed and moved over to the Mental Health System for the requisite supervision, support, whatever is needed, treatment mostly.
" http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2013/01/14/ashl...
stardust
Posted on: 01/24/2013 23:23
I'm reading about this in the Toronto Star everyday. I haven't managed to catch it live too often on the net. I think its extremely involving for the lawyers and jurors and totally devastating for the average person to hear, read, or see all that happened to Ashley.
People are interested. There are 100 lurkers stopping by so I'll bump it up. God give Ashley's family and all involved strength and courage as they go through this sad ordeal.
Pinga
Posted on: 01/24/2013 23:27
I was a mentor of women at GVI. All that i can say is that there are many levels of complexity here.
stardust
Posted on: 01/24/2013 23:58
Pinga.....Yes.....I can imagine it all very well.....extremely complex.
Jurors visit the prison where she died in 2007 -short video
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-inquest-jurors-tour...
Toronto Star - Inquest Jan. 22/13
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1318710--ashley-smith-s-reputati...
CBC Jan.24/13
On the eve of her death, a distraught Smith awoke after a nightmare that her mother died, Phibbs said. It was one of only two occasions he ever saw the teen cry. Her mom was the most important person in her life and if she was dead, Smith felt she had no reason to get out of prison, the officer recounted.
Smith, adopted as a five-day-old infant, also mused who her biological mother was and where she fit into her family. Phibbs said he talked with her about her feelings and problems because she had no one else, even though management had warned him not to.
Smith also said she wanted to go for proper psychiatric assessments but was told hospitals had no space.
"We made a deal that she would try to go back to sleep. She did." The next morning, Smith showed Phibbs she had a ligature. She was "begging" him to let her strangle herself, he said. "Just let me do it. I won't die. I know what I'm doing." A short while later, Smith was seen on her cell floor, gasping for breath, a ligature around her neck. By the time the officers went in — Phibbs in the lead — and started pumping her chest, it was too late to save her.
"I thought she was joking around," he said. When paramedics finally arrived and cut open her gown, Phibbs said he was angry — not because he thought she had died — but because he believed he would be in trouble for being around the exposed female. Several managers, he said, would act that day as if nothing untoward had happened. "They all knew." The inquest adjourned until Monday, when Phibbs is expected to face about 10 hours of cross-examination.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/01/24/canada-ashley-smith-inque...
stardust
Posted on: 01/25/2013 00:01
Continued:
A week or so earlier, briefly moved to a regular range and given a cell with a TV set, Ashley had smashed it to bits.
That in turn had so enraged a middle manager that he frog-marched her back to segregation and put her back in her old cell without so much as a pat-down search — even though, as they walked the corridor, some of the glass Ashley had hidden all over her body tinkled noisily to the floor, like a trail of shiny bread crumbs.
This particular morning got off to a bang-up start when Ashley tied up — her face went purple, the ligature so tight there was blood at the back of her neck — and the guards rushed in to cut it off. The video, mandatory as a “use of force” incident, was played Thursday for the jurors now examining Ashley’s death at a coroner’s inquest; she could be heard gasping for breath.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/01/24/ashley-smith/