Ashley Smith : Out of Control (2010) - the fifth estate

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[Music] [Music] Prison is about submission and compliance this is no place for teenage defiance the Fifth Estate has obtained this video shot by prison staff we received it with guards faces obscured and voices altered they've blasted her cell with pepper spray it's just another day in the life of inmate Ashley Smith [Music] tonight we go behind the walls right into the cell to see what the jailers do not want you to know I'm Hana Gartner this is the fifth estate we have obtained a prison videotape that we are making public for the first time and I caution you the images are disturbing in the language is raw but it exposes just how kids with mental health and behavioral problems are treated behind bars in this country this is the desperate journey of inmate Ashley Smith a troubled young girl who cried out for help and never got it she may be unusual but her story is not unique and it begins not as you might predict but in a nice neat home with parents who really care she had one home visit which was for a day and then she was released twice but it only lasts around 24 hours this is her room this is not this is an Ashley grown-up room this is what she would have had coming home we've got 400 dolls someone said oh she wasn't a girly girly girl to play with dolls so this is her doll collection a mother shrine to the sweet playful girl she adopted when Ashley was only five days old the child she wants to remember and looking around this room there is not one clue to how everything went so terribly wrong yep well since you okay yes you come up here I come in and dust and clean a bit go look my favorite spot Ashley's photograph doesn't give any hints either not the face of a tough street kid and she wasn't one as a little girl growing up in Moncton New Brunswick but then Ashley began to change her father herb remembers when the trouble started trouble started well what'd she get oh I'd say about 14 13 14 years old by grade 8 Ashley was failing and she was regularly getting expelled for being defiant disrespectful and disruptive she was breaking the rules she walked out she wasn't going to class yes and it made it hard at home to in what way well when she come home and the mother had asked her how come she came home and she would say well I got kicked out for no reason at all and it's always somebody else's home it seems the only thing Ashley was good at was being bad she committed so many minor offenses that she was in and out of youth court more than a dozen times so what was going on what was going with Ashley with Ashley she was just I would say on the verge of being out of control we hired a child psychologist like we did what we thought we were we did what we thought we were supposed to do Ashley had been diagnosed with learning disabilities but there had been no real follow-up and that psychologist Coralie hired did not identify mental illness just behavioral issues impulsivity not understanding consequences and all that came to a head the day she had the run-in with the mailman apparently there was somebody in the neighborhood saying the welfare checks weren't coming in and she said oh they're not well all speed him up her where's that effect there were kids there were other kids with her there were she wasn't there alone so they threw cattle crabapples at him and of course you're assaulting your public employee I mean you just so that's what gutters are the first step on the road to incarceration crabapples crabapples already on probation for trespassing and causing a disturbance at the mall ashley was sentenced to a juvenile detention center in Miramichi the two-hour drive from home the New Brunswick youth center describes itself as a safe and secure environment for you age 12 to 17 this is a youth center primarily and so the the focus was therapeutic New Brunswick Ombudsman and child advocate Donald Rashad what we're seeing more and more and both in the adult system and in the Youth Center is a growing number of kids who are manifesting mental health problems behavior disorders we're using our prison system as a de-facto mental health facility first day ever at the Youth Center when you first walk in they strip-search you okay so she was like 14 13 14 first day there and they're telling her take her clothes off Jessica Fair was in the cell next to Ashley's she was doing time for running away from a group home and was a little more streetwise than Ashley obviously she got scared did they explain anything to her and she refused to do it so from the second that she got in there that she got tackled and thrown in the hole TQ TQ yeah it's supposed to be therapeutic quiet time therapy it's not very therapeutic though you're in a cell for like five days like they can shut off one day what 60 no time they opened her cell door for the first couple weeks she'd attack them cuz she didn't know what to expect she's just a baby in there jessica says apart from anger management and drug addiction counseling there were no programs and few activities but there was one aspect of life in the youth center they became very familiar with security procedures they'll tell you the procedure can heal up your bunk your face against the wall I was behind your back come in look cuff yeah I get footage shackles on you you leave yourself they say they're always supposed to keep you in for I think four hours there's a lot of times boomer ends left in it all night long what confuses me on the one hand you say it's a therapeutic environment where what the youngest kid is 12 years old and where in the end it really is just a jail in fact they would call segregation therapeutic quiet which which I really I became quite upset over the use of that term because I think it's a softening of very hard reality and and and doublespeak Ashley just called it the hole it's where she and her friend Jessica were spending 23 hours a day how did the two of you make time pass annoying the guards annoying the guards this was the kick yeah why was she provoking everybody so much she just she was in there so long and it was quite entertaining to get them going as people that she didn't like that was working and stuff just to make him crazy drive just to give him a hard time yeah yeah look if she thought she was in there for a stupid reason and if it didn't make sense to her then she was gonna make their their shift hell she was even in solitary guards had trouble controlling Ashley she managed to accumulate eight hundred documented incidents from covering her cell window with feces - simply refusing to hand over a hairbrush [Music] three warnings they're up again three times kneel on the bottom bunk and when Ashley didn't get her way she up the ante and pretend to strangle herself so Ashley with wrap something around her neck cuz in TQ you have a camera on you 24/7 right so the people would obviously see it and they'd come down and see what's probably what this is a really dangerous game yeah but she so I was laugh about it because she said they're stupid cuz they could clearly see it hanging down like I was never tight she always told me that she didn't want to die and she's a laugh that they thought she was suicidal for correctional officers this was no joke in this footage obtained by the Fifth Estate a guard decides Ashley's repeated attempts to choke herself call for a tactical response I feel this is very virus all Smith she said she's not talking discontinued so I think we're going to go to the next step [Music] in order to immobilize Ashley guards strapped her into a cocoon like device they call the rack [Music] this is Ashley's first time in the rap but it won't be her last [Music] so No [Music] they're forced to lie in our story continues when we return actually was tasered twice in the space of one month repeatedly that was the response to her behaviors after almost three years in solitary confinement at the New Brunswick youth center eighteen-year-old Ashley Smith has been moved to an adult prison alone and despondent she writes in her diary if I die then I will never have to worry about upsetting my mom again during a Christmas visit with Ashley Coralie was horrified to see the scars on her daughter's arms Ashley was cutting herself I don't understand how you can be segregated and still be scurrying and damaging yourself as bad as you were and nobody saying well you know this is getting worse this is not getting better you and I know it's a cry for help they didn't treat it just so whatever Ashley's psychological problems this New Brunswick prison video shows the treatment she got yes she's in her cell naked but the guards believe she has hidden a shoelace and intends to choke herself [Music] armed with Tasers guards fire or warning shot no one Ashley was tasered twice in the space of one month repeatedly that was the response to her behaviors New Brunswick's Ombudsman investigated how youth with behavioral problems are treated in custody in Bernardo Rashad's opinion prison made Ashley worse I think someone should have clued in that this girl required much more professional help knowing knew how to handle Ashley because knowing you what was wrong with her in all the time she was at the youth center she never had a comprehensive mental health assessment all they could do for Ashley was restrain her and give her more prison time a one-month sentence had stretched into more than three years and it was taking a toll on Ashley's mental health but her life was about to change the decision had been made to move her to a federal penitentiary why did the superintendent of the New Brunswick Youth Center apply to have Ashley transferred to the adult prisoner he didn't have to do that without question they were at wit's end the I think really felt that she might be able to get more help in the federal system than they did he think she would get more help in the federal system or did he just want her out of his air well without a doubt he wanted her out of his hair I mean she was she monopolized a lot of his resources and before she was transferred they allowed me to win the cell with her and she was just devastated she was just shaking crying she was devastated but Coralie was still hopeful Canada's Correctional Service is after all the largest employer of psychologists in the country they claim access to the world's most renowned experts this is a healing environment is what Coralie was told they promise to take care of her all along all along will take care of her we'll take care of her we'll look after her of the three women's penitentiaries Ashley would do time in Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener Ontario is the biggest built with female inmates in mind it has a more homey look and offers a mental health program tailored especially to women it's the kind of help Ashley could have used but the warden locked her in segregation the minute she got here Corrections Canada cancelled our interview with grand Valley's current warden they sent senior advisor Dan Erickson to talk to us on the condition we do not ask about Ashley Smith segregation isn't punitive one thing about Corrections it's all about human relations and human relationships how we do that helps individuals so that people can be helped to recover from some of the problems that they may that they may have theirs for segregation cells in this unit and we'll just take a look at one of the cells that we have opened right now so this is a segregation cell with a closable window and a food slot so this would be a typical segregation cell in most institutions except it usually would probably would be square you'll be visited by a nurse every day you'll be visited by a correctional manager or a probe role officer or psychologist and the other times you'll be either watching TV or reading or doing other activities she didn't have anything to do in herself she had indicated that she had been out without a mattress often that she'd been denied at times even toilet paper when she was menstruating she'd been denied access to adequate you know hygiene products heme pate is the head of the Elizabeth Fry Society a national organization advocating for women in prison the first time I met with her was just through the mail spot so what did what did this cell look like what did she have in there well she had nothing both times I saw she had nothing in herself this is how Ashley would spend the next year of her life in various federal prisons across this country well she would sleep on the floor are usually that's what she'd report she was using her security gown to try and wrap tightly around her and other women said she was saying she was picking the tiles off the floor in the hopes that they'd replace it with carpet so she can sleep so she's 1819 years old she's in segregation locked into a cell 23 hours out of every 24 Howard ciphers is convinced isolating inmates with mental disorders is unsafe and inhumane he's the federally appointed correctional investigator why would you think that that in Canada that the best our correctional service could offer a mentally ill young woman was an isolation cell if you are already acting out if you're already into self-injury if you have suicidal ideation that isolation is not the place for you to be that is where she served her entire sentence defiant as ever and just like in the New Brunswick youth center this all had to be documented and videotaped Canada's Correctional Service fought to prevent us from showing you these tape we have to get a court order to make this public I never did see the videotape I can't speak for that but what I can tell you is that on numerous occasions and it's well documented that these officers went in and save this woman's life Ontario guards union president Jason Gordon ah so they allowed her a television set what did she do she basically took everything you know the pieces from that television set used them as weapons she would suitcase glass what does that mean she would she would put glass in her body cavities glass yes glass in her hair and in any one of her body cavities and she would use that against correctional officers when they when they came in the cell she also used the glass to cut strips from her prison gown Ashley was strangling herself often several times a day sometimes Ashley Smith would would would fake dying so she would just lay on the floor and then of course there would come a point in time they would have to go in because she was unresponsive so that so they would go in the cell and at that point she might jump right up and assault them with a piece of glass or or try to hit them or whatever so it was it was a very very difficult situation to be in there was nothing in there 12 weeks of training that prepared guards for an inmate like Ashley Smith the sad truth is is that in our experience we've seen those things happen with other inmates so why the Correctional Service continues to do the same thing and expect different results it confounds me of course on this a Shannon Smith it's August 31st is 9:05 p.m. every time this happened it had to be written up as a use-of-force report great has been used actually generated a hundred and fifty of them at Grand Valley she set a prison record every time that there was one of these security incidents there would be a posting made in a daily report a daily situation report which is circulated broadly throughout the senior management at the Correctional Service and who does all gets that well so ever you well as I say it's the this the management to the Correctional Services all the way to Ottawa all the way to all the way to the top when you issue those use of force reports it should trigger the correctional investigator knowing about it national headquarters at Correctional Services knowing about it and should trigger someone saying what is going on here Canada's Correctional Service was concerned about the number of use of force reports coming out of Grand Valley didn't make them look good they decided to do something about it we have learned the warden ordered staff to alter documents to downplay minimize the guards use of force and the Fifth Estate has obtained the management plan for inmate a Smith in at the warden instructs guards to avoid Ashley completely to ignore her even if she is choking herself CSC was worried about their public image they were saying oh geez you know too many use of force incidents here so what CSC decided to do was we're gonna give direction down the line you know tell those members not to intervene until she stops breathing eventually our members were being told look at if you go in that cell and you go and use force to to take the ligature off her neck you're going to be disciplined you could be fired if the if the direction was don't go in while she's breathing that's what going when she's dead well we're left asking ourselves the same question why are why is the direction coming down the line not to go in and preserve her life Ashley Smith was a time bomb waiting to go off [Music] Ashley's story continues when we come back I thought I actually was coming home I never thought Ashley was gonna die in prison once her daughter was sent to the federal prison system Coralie Smith couldn't keep track of her Corrections Canada transferred Ashley 17 times between nine institutions in less than a year last time I visited Ashley at Nova her eyes were off I thought she was on drugs she told me later she had lost sight in one eye she looked like an aged woman her hair was falling out in the 11 months that she was in the federal system she lost 90 pounds Ashley was strangling herself so often the veins in her face had burst while she did see a psychologist every day she was never fully assess or meaningfully treated she wasn't in one place long enough Ashley's father wants to know where was that psychological care Corrections Canada promised they were supposed to give her therapy and they were supposed to send her to a psychiatrist which I don't think they did they didn't do that they just out of sight out of mind leave her there and that's it correctional investigator Howard sabers points out that failure to provide care is against the law so is keeping someone in segregation indefinitely there's laws about the mandatory review of placement and segregation which is the the most austere form of confinement in Canada those laws around segregation around mental health care around transfer were not respected so in Ashley Smith's case those laws were broken yes Corrections Canada was supposed to review Ashley's file after she spent 60 days in segregation well they got around that law with the bureaucratic sleight of hand they just moved her to another segregation cell in another institution that way the 60-day clock started all over again she was moved from one segregation cell to another to another to another and they justified it how their own operational requirements they felt that they had exhausted themselves at a particular place but they were giving themselves respite so they offloaded her to somebody else well they certainly moved her and moved her frequently and they did not move her according to the policy requirements for for transfers one of the few visitors actually was allowed was prison advocate Kim and pate she wanted someone to talk to she wanted something to do she wanted to go home she kept acting out she kept pushing them pushing their buttons she was the architect and sounds of her own misfortune in some way well that's certainly the image that the corrections would want us to believe so I'm not suggesting that Ashley or anybody else in those situations is easy to deal with but they're in the system that is well resourced to meet to address those needs and if they can't then there are mechanisms that they could get her into a mental hospital did actually want to die do you think when I saw Ashley I don't think she wanted to die I know that she was using the tying the ligatures around her neck to just pass out to sleep she was using it sometimes because she knew staff would go in to see her then and I can't imagine craving human contact enough but I would do something that I know is going to result in a violent intervention saw Ashley I asked a number of people to intervene right up to the regional and national level and to my knowledge nobody did they just shuffled Ashley from one prison to another monitoring her every move a prison camera will also be recording and on the day she dies knowing that you're watching somebody in the last minutes of their life is very difficult thing to do in the correctional staff on-site at that time of course they didn't know that they didn't know that they were dealing with somebody in the last moments of their life it was horrible but I think I saw it three times it's there I can see it right now it's there is that why you don't sleep at night yeah my things huh you know but I don't dream about it I don't have nightmares about Ashley I don't have nightmares about Ashley I have day mirrors yeah it's fixed there forever totally wants the videotape of her daughter's final moments made public Corrections has fought her at every turn but a judge has allowed the fifth the state to view it and tell you what's on it Grand Valley institution October 19 2007 a guard radios for help is my belief that there's not a single person that expected including Ashley that expected Ashley Smith to die that moment because she expected people to come in and they didn't and they thought it would be just another day at work you can hear guards call Ashley's name through the door she doesn't respond but guards don't go into her cell the order had come down [Music] [Music] okay all right the protocol was very clear Jason Godin Ontario president of the guards union insists they had no choice our members were not to enter Ashley Smith cell until she stopped breathing there was a tremendous amount of direction given a verbal direction to all the members from all levels of Management you're not going to go in the cell until she stops breathing and if you go in that cell you could suffer the repercussions a disciplinary investigation you could lose your job [Applause] suddenly stop reading it go ahead 12 minutes later Ashley is still not moving they're talking about you know making sure that certain people are present that certain policies are being followed that camera is running it's not running at one point they do go in to the cell then they and what do they do when they're in the cell very little and they went in and they come out and they went in and they come out and nobody approached her I mean this girl's down on the floor what human beings do that by the time guards cut the ligature and realize Ashley is unconscious it's too late these were seven guards who fought between 25 and 30 minutes watched a 19 year old girl kill herself those are those officers took a choice and lose my job have somebody die in front of me they didn't want to stand outside the cell and watch her die either their livelihood was threatened I find myself in an immense difficulty understanding it would you have gone in what I've got in I've asked myself that question could I put myself in their shoes and what would I do for me knowing that somebody's life is at risk and they're just on the other side of a door I think I would do everything in my power to get through that door after serving three years 11 months and 15 days inmate Ashley Smith is pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m. who gave that order Hana who gave the order don't intervene if she's still breathing I miss you your mother said hello herb has been coming to his daughter's grave every day for two years ever since Ashley killed herself in federal custody in front of seven guards who did nothing to stop her thinking about your loss after Ashley's death grand Valley's deputy warden and warden lost their jobs a manager and three guards were also fired and charged with criminal negligence causing death union spokesman Jason Godin believes his guards took the fall for higher-ups were these guys scapegoated absolutely they were escape code advisers by senior management in Correctional Services I used the term they were thrown to the dogs they were thrown to the wolves there was a cover-up this union has made that very clear since the very beginning there's been a cover-up we blame solely the administration we blame the federal sentence women's sector we blame Corrections Canada there was daily Direction given right from the highest levels of management all the way to the frontline staff and we're not talking once or twice we're talking every day repeatedly you're not to go in the cell this is your orders who gave that order Hanna those are the questions we can't bring Ashley back but those are the questions who gave the order to keep that child we're talking about a child in the youth center segregated that length of time who gave the order don't intervene if she's still breathing that's what no one wants to talk about charges against the guards were dropped they got their jobs back now none of them wants to come on camera for Canada's Correctional Service the case is closed the Ashley Smith case is a sad and tragic one in fact she probably never should have ended up in a prison but it is a classic model of the failure of our health care system and then our correction system to adequately care for the mentally ill in society Peter van loan the minister responsible for Canada's prison system is satisfied Ashley's case was thoroughly investigated and appropriate action taken people were disciplined but people are very low on the ladder we're not wardens as well we're suspended and disciplined and dismissed right up to the top of the institution so but where is the top who it's not fair to say that discipline was only at the bottom it was throughout the institution so people paid consequences for misconduct from that site did the person say don't go into her cell while she's I'm not gonna comment on any specifics it might play into a lawsuit though well clearly I wasn't in the prison at the time I wasn't Minister at the time so no but your best to talk to Corrections Canada about those kinds of details Corrections Canada refused any interviews about Ashley Smith's incarceration or her death since Ashley died 17 more inmates have committed suicide in federal custody prison investigator Howard safer's predicts if Corrections Canada refuses to significant improvements more prisoners will die we don't have a sign over our prisons that says abandon all hope all ye who enter right it's called a Correctional Service for a reason people are sent to prison as a punishment imposed by the court the prison is not supposed to add pain to that punishment Canada should know this is what's happening to our young people there's young people in jail for minor infractions for mental conditions not being treated and held four five six seven eight years do people really know about that I don't think so [Music] it'd never be right for Ashley they took her life Ashley didn't take her life they did Ashley was driven because the girl that left here was not suicidal she was not scared she was not gay she was not trying to choke herself out where did she get it but they told her that's not what she was taught at home [Music] through the whole system they fail they all failed [Music]

Info

Channel: The Fifth Estate

Views: 1,115,237

Rating: 4.4845557 out of 5

Keywords: Ashley Smith, Grand Valley Institution, Kitchener, Ontario, suicide, the fifth estate, CBC News, CBC, Hana Gartner

Id: yryXNq00_c0

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 41min 22sec (2482 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 05 2016

Reddit Comments

More info:

The Ashley Smith inquest : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Smith_inquest

The Ashley Smith inquest was an Ontario coroner's inquest into the death of Ashley Smith, a teenager who died by self-inflicted strangulation on 19 October 2007 while under suicide watch in custody at the Grand Valley Institution for Women. Despite guards watching her on video monitors, Smith was able to strangle herself with a strip of cloth, and it was 45 minutes before guards or supervisors entered her cell and confirmed her death

👍︎︎ 4889 👤︎︎ u/Gonad-Brained-Gimp 📅︎︎ Feb 24 2018 🗫︎ replies

I’m from Moncton and went to High School with Ashely before she was transferred. I was 1 year ahead of her at Moncton High School.

Girl was fucked up. Like, really fucked up. She used to scream down the hallways for no reason. She was an extreme bully. To get away from her you just literally had to ignore her. You couldn’t walk away she would follow you, grab your hair, jerk your head back and shake. So you’d have to just sit there until she tired of you. She had absolutely no classroom decorum. Like if she wanted to get out of her desk and lay on the floor, she would. If she wanted to leave she would. I remember her so vividly because of this, even though she transferred later that same year. I was also someone she used to bully. She used to “trap” people against the walls and show her fresh self inflicted cuts on her forearms. If you didn’t react the way she wanted she’d berate you.

As an adult though, looking back at this story is horrific. Whatever issues Ashely had, she was a child under the state’s protection. The state had a duty to keep her safe and woefully failed at that. Whatever excuse the administration had, they failed at their most important mandate: ensuring the safety of all staff and detainees of the facility.

👍︎︎ 1991 👤︎︎ u/Paper__ 📅︎︎ Feb 25 2018 🗫︎ replies

This title paints the guards as the ones ultimately responsible for her death when this is far from the truth. Guards were threatened to be formally disciplined or even criminally charged if they entered Ashley Smith’s cell without explicit permission given from the administrative staff. Guards eventually ignored this order and entered the cell to try and save Ashley’s life by cutting cloth strips from her neck and performing CPR. These guards were eventually fired anyway. Source (Some images are graphic and NSFL)

👍︎︎ 10780 👤︎︎ u/the_tza 📅︎︎ Feb 24 2018 🗫︎ replies

Why did you completely editorialize the title?

👍︎︎ 207 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Feb 25 2018 🗫︎ replies

My hometown is where she hanged herself.

Even though this story is incredibly upsetting and disgusting on behalf of Canada’s laws. I will say I’m not impressed with the title of this, because there was a lot more issues than just the crabapple incident.

👍︎︎ 1377 👤︎︎ u/MissRitzy 📅︎︎ Feb 24 2018 🗫︎ replies

I can't imagine being in a position to have to decide whether this is a real attempt or is she doing it to attack with improvised weapons like she had several times prior.

👍︎︎ 172 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Feb 25 2018 🗫︎ replies

What a sad story, I know one of the criticisms is that she was isolated.... but I think it makes sense, if she was constantly trying to attack guards, would it really be fair to give her a roommate? It would be a horrific scenario.

While prison clearly wasn't the right place for her, I don't know if a mental health facility could've handled her either.... I mean ultimately, it really looks like they would have to pretty much isolate her in a room by herself there as well. I hope an answer is found for situations like this.

👍︎︎ 100 👤︎︎ u/Rick_James_Lich11 📅︎︎ Feb 25 2018 🗫︎ replies

The timeline: http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/blog/the-life-and-death-of-ashley-smith

👍︎︎ 673 👤︎︎ u/swirleyswirls 📅︎︎ Feb 24 2018 🗫︎ replies

Honest question: How should we treat people who have violent tendencies as a result of mental illness? My own brother is one of these people and thankfully has not done anything too horrible yet other than sucker punch somebody in the face as a teenager and threaten people but I feel like it’s only a matter of time.

👍︎︎ 157 👤︎︎ u/LAST_NIGHT_WAS_WEIRD 📅︎︎ Feb 25 2018 🗫︎ replies