A commemorative plaque with a laser-etched image of Christopher Young wearing a Santa hat sits on a shelf in his father’s Halifax home.
“I’ll always remember my son as a happy-go-lucky guy,” Gerry Young, 61, said.
However, the grieving parents said their 33-year-old son’s suicide on April 26 — the fifth of six deaths in Nova Scotia’s jails in the past 18 months — should be remembered as an example of how the provincial corrections system is failing to protect the lives of inmates.
“I guarantee you it could have been prevented,” he said during a recent interview at his home. Young said his son tried but failed to commit suicide several years ago at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility — commonly known as the Burnside prison, where five deaths have occurred. Young said staff at the facility should have been alert to a second attempt to hang himself.
Christopher had been readmitted to prison shortly before his suicide after violating the terms of his parole for burglary and shoplifting.
“Since he was sent back to jail, I think he should have been put in one of those cells where people are held who are at risk of hurting themselves,” Young said.
Following the deaths of Christopher and five other Nova Scotia inmates since January 2023, advocacy groups are calling for deep reforms to the provincial system.
In March, the East Coast Prison Justice Society held a series of panels covering topics such as open and mandatory inquests into all prison deaths, support for Indigenous and Black inmates, and improvements to mental health and substance abuse treatment in prisons and the community.
Its annual report — dedicated to six dead inmates — says the province should also stop using prolonged isolation of inmates during staffing shortages. Letters obtained by The Canadian Press written by Richard Murray, an inmate who committed suicide at Burnside jail on Jan. 17, linked his increasing distress to confinement, which he described as “four walls of hell.”
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The Progressive Conservative government says it is committed to improving conditions in the correctional system, pointing to increased staffing in prisons and a new review committee headed by the medical examiner tasked with investigating deaths in custody. Justice Minister Barbara Adams said after a recent cabinet meeting that the deaths are “tragic” but that changes have been made to address concerns over inmate health care.
“Nova Scotia Health is responsible for ensuring that people admitted to facilities are evaluated by health-care professionals,” he said, adding that inmates “receive the health care they need if they exhibit suicidal thoughts or behaviour.”
Adams said she will consider the recommendations of a review committee, chaired by the province’s medical examiner, to see if further measures are needed.
However, family members and advocates for deceased inmates say the deaths have been investigated behind closed doors, and the public is being given almost no details about the circumstances of what happened in each case. For example, when the Justice Department announced Young’s death, it said only, “He died of his injuries,” not whether his death was caused by negligence, suicide, violence or untreated health problems.
In contrast, mandatory inquests in Ontario are held when an inmate’s death is not due to natural causes. In neighbouring New Brunswick, the chief coroner can order public inquests into prison deaths when they are deemed to be in the “public interest.”
Young said people should know the circumstances of his son’s death to understand what improvements are needed in the corrections system. He said Christopher was not dangerous but had turned to petty thefts after becoming addicted to opioids following a workplace accident at the Irving Shipyard at age 19.
He wants his son to be sent to long-term addiction treatment facilities instead of being locked up in prisons. “If I were a rich man, he would be in a two- or three-year treatment program,” the father said.
“He could have come back. He had a lot of support from me,” said Young, who had purchased equipment to open a pressure washing business and was helping him explore other employment options.
Some relatives of other dead inmates have also gone public with their discontent, demanding urgent improvements in prisoner care.
The mother of Sarah Denny, a 36-year-old Mi’kmaq woman from the Eskasoni First Nation who died in hospital on March 26, 2023, has said her daughter died due to complications from pneumonia after being moved from Burnside.
At a recent panel discussion hosted by the East Coast Prison Justice Society in Halifax, Kathy Denny said her daughter’s lungs, kidneys and heart were affected by the infection when she entered Burnside — but the severity of the risk wasn’t understood quickly enough. The province has declined to comment on the case.
She is calling for the establishment of a “Sarah Denny check”, under which health issues are discussed upon admission. “A basic check of temperature, weight, blood pressure, simple things … that could have saved Sarah,” she said.
The brother of Peter Paul, a 27-year-old Mi’kmaq man who took his own life at the Cape Breton Correctional Facility in Sydney, N.S., in January 2023, said Gilbert Paul said in an interview that his brother had cuts on his hands from earlier self-harm attempts, but said he learned in follow-up meetings that when he was admitted to the jail, he wasn’t evaluated by a doctor because it was late at night and none was available.
“(Suicides) shouldn’t happen,” he said. “In my view, we should be able to prevent deaths in prison.”
Dr. Matthew Bowes, the province’s chief medical examiner, said in a recent interview that a committee that reviews deaths in custody is investigating the Paul case and it will probably take “months” to release a report. He said the committee also plans to investigate the Sarah Denny case. He said no committee has yet been formed for other cases, including Young’s.
“I really want to make concrete recommendations and hope the public will judge us based on the product we put out,” he said, adding that provincial rules prohibit the release of case summaries.
