‘Ad hoc’ system of investigating jail deaths needs reform: minister
Posted August 25, 2016 12:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s health minister says that the province’s system of investigating jailhouse deaths is “ad hoc” and he’d like to reform it so that health care problems are considered.
But Leo Glavine isn’t indicating precisely when or what he’ll do to ensure that future deaths in jail cells include a review of whether health care norms are being met by the Nova Scotia Health Authority.
A police report obtained by The Canadian Press says a man who died from a drug overdose in a Cape Breton jail on Jan. 31 appeared intoxicated and told a nurse he had taken five “nerve pill(s)” but was nonetheless returned to a prison cell rather than a hospital.
The report says Jason Marcel LeBlanc was seen twice by health staff at the Cape Breton Correctional Facility before he was placed in a cell where he fell asleep and died from a combination of methadone ingested before his arrest and bromazepam pills he smuggled in.
The 42-year-old labourer was brought to the facility after missing a midnight deadline for his return to a halfway house.
The provincial Justice Department has already issued a redacted report saying that correctional officers made mistakes, but that the health staff didn’t provide information due to privacy laws under the Health Information Protection Act.
