ASHLEY SMITH CORONER"S INQUEST MOVING SLOWLY

I commend the Waterloo Region Record for their ongoing detailed coverage of the Ashley Smith coroner's inquest. Reporter Rosie DiManno's story starts on the front page and is titled "Ashley Smith's journal tells tale missing in dry testimony".

The back page (A8) of the first section continues with evidence allegedly describing procedures within women's prisons in Canada. These procedures dealt with things like solitary confinement as well as body cavity searches. There are also policies in regards to tranfers of prisoners from one institution to another. It appears that both the solitary confinement procedures and the transfer procedures were not followed in Ashley Smith's case. Repeated transfers and extended time in solitary confinement exacerbated a deteriorating mental health condition. Certainly Ms. Smith's unyielding and contrary behaviour are understandable considering she was originally sentenced between 30 and 45 days at age 15 and yet was still in prison at age 19. I have often wondered if her unrepentant, aggressive behaviour was taken personally by so called professionals within the system. Could her attitude have personally offended individuals who then used their authority to try and break Ashley Smith's will? If this was the case then those individuals who would abuse their authority, have no place within our correctional system.