34-year-old Inuk man dies in jail while serving a life sentence for the 2002 murder of 13-year-old Jennifer Nagligniq in Iqaluit
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding inmate Mark Jeffrey’s death in 2015 began Monday in Toronto.
Jeffrey, a 34-year-old Inuk man from Iqaluit, died on June 29 while in custody at the Beaver Creek Institution, a medium-security federal prison in Gravenhurst, Ont., Run by the Correctional Service of Canada.
Dr. Steven Bodley leads the investigation, while Ashley Jacobs and Kate Forget serve as legal co-counsel. Jacobs and Forget are attorneys for the Indigenous Justice Division of the Ontario Ministry of Attorney General, established in 2015 as “a means to address the problem of Ontario’s legal system failure to serve indigenous communities,” Jacobs said.
Jeffrey was found hanging in his cell after spending 74 days in segregation. He was serving a life sentence for the 2002 murder of 13-year-old Jennifer Nagligniq in Iqaluit.
Jeffrey was placed in solitary confinement on April 17 after buying and taking prescription drugs from another inmate.
“Mr Jeffrey’s death tells us that we need to think about whether the Canadian legal system meets the unique circumstances of the Inuit in this country and whether we can do better,” Forget said in his opening statement.
Detective Carrie Ludlow first took the witness stand and testified that she was around 6 p.m. 15.40 on 29 June conducted a routine security patrol of the institution. When she arrived in front of Jeffrey’s cell, she saw that the window to his cell was covered with paper from inside.
“It’s not uncommon for an inmate to have their window covered, especially … [when] they use the bathroom, “Ludlow said, adding that she thought she” heard an answer “when she first knocked on the door. She then indicated to another officer that the window was covered before continuing to carry out further cell checks. .
When she returned to Jeffrey’s cell but could not get an answer from him, the cell door was opened and Ludlow discovered Jeffrey with a loop, made of what another witness said was a bedclothes, around his neck, hung from the window frame on it. other side. side of its cell.
Detective Ivan Misevic testified that he went into the cell and pulled Jeffrey down.
“That was when I grabbed him under his knees and lifted him up. I was able to pull the loop down and I started compressions. He was still hot, ”said Misevic, who then began assisting with CPR along with paramedics responding on the spot.
“His eyes closed when I started the compressions. I remember thinking that we might get him in time, but he did not breathe, ”he said.
After trying to revive him, doctors declared Jeffrey dead at 6 p.m. 16:08, said the forensic pathologist’s adviser.
Misevic testified that Jeffrey worked as a unit cleaner in Beaver Creek and “kept to himself” for the most part.
“He was pretty quiet,” Misevic said, adding that he and Jeffrey sometimes talked about hockey.
He said that as a cleaning assistant, Jeffrey would have had access to extra linens. The makeshift ligature discovered in his cell appeared to be made of bedding tied together, Misevic said.
Both Ludlow and Misevic testified that they felt that nothing more could have been done that day to change the outcome of Jeffrey’s death.
Christine Blasko is a registered nurse at Corrections Services Canada who administered CPR on Jeffrey and used an automatic external defibrillator in an attempt to revive him.
When Blasko was asked what could be done to prevent deaths like Jeffrey’s in the future, Blasko testified that a “major” policy change has been the removal of segregation units at the institution.
“[We] not anymore [have] separation within corrections, [but have] created another unit, what they call a ‘structural intervention unit’, which offers more programming and more access to offenders who need to be accommodated in units other than the general population, ”Blasko explained.
The equation survey is expected to last eight days and will call 18 witnesses, including experts in mental health and specialized native services. Representatives from Corrections Services Canada, Aboriginal Legal Services and Tungasuvvingat Inuit also act as advisors.
The jury must establish the facts of the case and may, in its final judgment, make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future. A simple majority, not a unanimous one, is required to make a decision. The jury will not make any conclusion on legal liability in the case.
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