ANOTHER SUICIDE AT GRAND VALLEY WOMEN'S PRISON

Apparently our authorities including Corrections Service Canada (CSC) are quite willing to expose themselves as being incompetent, uncaring, insensitive, negligent jerks. How else do you explain in the wake of the Ashley Smith scandal and death here at the women's prison in Kitchener yet another suicide by an inmate in solitary confinement? How do you explain the use of restraints for extended periods of time because officers allegedly could not control an inmate's behaviour? This was an inmate with demonstrated and proven mental health issues who was in serious need of ongoing psychiatric help not of physical abuse.

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carrys the story titled "Grand Valley prison scene of another death in solitary confinement". The inmate had already been identified in a report by chief correctional officer, Howard Sapers, as an inmate at high risk due to the use of solitary confinement. Top officials at both the CSC and in the federal cabinet need to be made accountable, up to and including criminal charges, when the law demands the protection and safety of citizens within our correctional systems (jails). This message clearly has not gotten through as perhaps our politicians would prefer to short budget these institutions while demanding impossible goals from top administrators. Perhaps guard and administration safety get the appropriate dollars while inmate safety is comprimised by underfunding. If you are going to throw people in jail then you must fund these institutions to be able to followthrough on humanitarian goals and requirements.