Death Behind Bars

Offenders are more likely to die or be violently attacked in a psychiatric prison than any other federal institution – by a long shot.

The people in these specialized facilities – in B.C., Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec – are the most vulnerable and problematic in a prison system already overflowing with mental illness.

And numbers obtained by Global News through an access to information request indicate they’re disproportionately subject to violence and death in the institutions supposedly designed to care for them best.

Saskatoon’s Regional Psychiatric Centre boasts more assaults and deaths than any other federal prison, even before you take population into account. The treatment centre attached to now-shuttered Kingston Penitentiary is close behind, as is a treatment centre in Abbotsford, B.C.  (more...)

Death Behind Bars