THUNDER BAY – Consideration should be given to building a replacement to the 90-year-old district jail, agreed lawyers representing the families of two inmates who died in the facility and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
That was the first suggested joint recommendation made Tuesday afternoon to the five-member jury of the coroner’s inquest examining the deaths of Ronald Fagan and Jacy Pierre, who both died from methadone overdoses while in custody at the Thunder Bay District Jail.
Fagan was found dead in his cell on the morning of Sept. 27, 2007 and Pierre died one month later on Oct. 27, 2007.
The evidentiary portion of the inquest, which was overseen by presiding coroner Dr. Michael Wilson, concluded after proceeding for six days and hearing from 35 witnesses.
Lawyer Emily Hill, who is representing the Fagan and Pierre families, said despite the emotional nature of the past week, the families are satisfied with learning about what happened.
“I think the families are relieved to have had the opportunity to hear the evidence. It gives them information they’ve never had, all this time, about the circumstances of these deaths,” she said. “It’s raised a lot of important concerns they’ve known and the community has known for a long time.”
The 16 suggested recommendations, crafted by coroner’s counsel Dan Mitchell, Hill and Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services lawyer Norm Feaver, also included increasing staffing levels at the facility and taking steps to combat contraband entering the jail.
A suggested recommendation was also for the jury to urge for all the recommendations in the coroner’s inquest into the death of Robert Clause in Hamilton also be implemented.
“We had to recognize this was not just a problem in 2007 in the Thunder Bay District Jail. This is a problem across Ontario and there have been a number of inquests before and after that have looked at the issue of deaths of inmates with a number of recommendations made before,” Hill said.
“It was important to not start from scratch and that’s why we went back and looked at some of the other inquests that occurred, what good recommendations were made and what’s happened because these are only recommendations. We need to call on the government to follow up with these recommendations and put the energy and good work that has been done in this inquest into action to make change.”
The jury is tasked with answering the five questions of who died, when they died, where they died, the medical cause of death and by what means the death occurred to reach a verdict. They also have the option of developing recommendations designed to prevent future similar deaths.
The inquest has been adjourned until the jury returns with their verdict. They will reconvene Wednesday morning.
