I am haunted by Ashley Smith’s ordeal once she fell into the clutches of Mr. Toew’s Ministry of Safety, and its branch called Correctional Services. According to the Ministry’s own mission statements the Department is committed to “safe and humane custody and supervision…to ensure the system assists with rehabilitation….”
I think Ms. Smith would be very surprised to know this. For in the accounts of the 17 incarcerations she endured to different institutions across Canada, I can find no instance of sympathy, no smiles, no encouragement, no caring, no nurturing, no assigned medical care that she could stay with or rely on, no therapy, and god forgive me, might someone among all these religious devotees, not have loved her? Indeed, the only reference to “therapy” I find in her case is her periods of confinement in something called a Therapeutic Quiet Unit, which I take to be Harpertalk for Solitary Confinement. The videos released recently clearly reveal sadism in her gaolers and show a level of hostile relish in their threats and behaviour. They want submission. They show no signs of empathy or sympathy or gentle persuasion.
As a Clinical Family Therapist, I am horrified at the treatment of this adolescent, with her history of mental disturbance, who became an adult on turning 18 in custody. She could find no one in Canada to treat her as a person that anyone should care about. How did we get to this Statehood, or state of affairs? Doesn’t the advertising and folk lore celebrate how community based, how caring we are? I cannot find out how Ms. Smith fell foul of the law, how she could not find appropriate treatment, or how she was treated to some kind of medieval inquisition because she was angry, lonely, frightened, or neglected and abused by the “safe and humane” custody she was captured by, confined by, hooded by, duct taped by, or strapped down by. The only thing she seems to have missed was being tasered. Even that surprises me.
Mr. Toews, the “Honourable” Minister, confuses crime with evil. He will not concede this prisoner might have been a victim. Not a good sign for sensible government. What was Ms. Smith’s crime? Look, if you can get interested enough I refer you to the report called “A Preventable Death” by Howard Sapers, Correctional Investigator of Canada issued on June 20th., 2008. This year of 2012 sees the opening of the Inquest into Ashley Smith’s death on the floor of her cell while her captors apparently watched her die. I dearly hope this will reveal all. We cannot afford another whitewash. I confess I have mixed feelings about Ashley’s dying. I grieve for her lost life, lost in every sense, but I am glad she does not have to endure more torture and suffering for simply being an inconvenience to the penal system. They did not “correct” her, they simply made her life unendurable. To tell you the truth I admire her courage, because in a way she defeated them and it seems they could not break her or make her a zombie, which I really think was their goal.
