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On Wednesday, a jury in Prince Albert took four hours to come up with four recommendations to prevent prison suicides.
The recommendations were specifically related to actions that could have prevented the death of Andy Allan Brassard, but are applicable to all penitentiary inmates. He committed suicide in his segregation cell at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary more than three years ago – he was 26 years old at the time.
Over the course of two days this week, the coroner’s inquest jury heard testimony about how Brassard had been suicidal before his admission into the federal institution in August of 2012. He was to serve a three-and-a-half year sentence for aggravated assault against his commonlaw partner.
They heard about Brassard’s mental health – including the medication he was on, the penitentiary’s protocol for identifying suicide risks, and the grim details of his death.
The jury, which was composed of three aboriginal people and three non-aboriginal people, spent much of Wednesday behind closed doors, working to identify practices that contributed to Brassard’s death, and to make recommendations. The recommendations are meant to ensure preventable deaths of that nature do not happen again.
They returned in the afternoon with four recommendations.
First, the jury wants the penitentiary to provide more frequent check-ins with inmates they know to have been suicidal – which Brassard had been when he was admitted. They also want more consistent mental health checks with inmates.
They advised the coroner’s inquest that the penitentiary should ensure all cables and cords within cells are shorter than 18 inches.
The third recommendation states that any staff members who come into contact with inmates should have suicide awareness training before they get past the prison gates.
The final and most urgent call to action is that the penitentiary fills all vacant mental health positions as soon as possible.
During the inquest, the jurors heard that the facility is always running with a deficit of psychologists, and the fluctuating number of psychologists that already work there, have an incredibly high work load.
Coroner Brent Gough ended the inquest by thanking Brassard’s former commonlaw partner even though she wasn’t present at that time. He said she’d told him she wanted to be there for an “element of closure that’s important.” The two had a child together.