Inquest report details Stony Mountain inmate suicides

Carol Sanders
09/6/2018 7:00 PM

The staggering challenge of imprisoning people with mental illness was laid bare in a provincial inquest report on the suicide deaths of two Stony Mountain Institution inmates.

Devon Sampson, who died Nov. 23, 2013 at age 34, was suicidal and schizophrenic when he hanged himself in his cell with a shoelace.

Dwayne Mervin Flett, who died on April 15, 2015, had the cognitive ability of a five year old, was suicidal and schizophrenic and taken advantage of by other inmates when he hanged himself in his cell with a bed sheet.

Under the Fatalities Inquiry Act, a mandatory inquest was held to determine the circumstances relating to the deaths of Sampson and Flett, and whether they died "as a result of a violent act, undue means or negligence or in an unexpected or unexplained manner or suddenly of unknown cause; or that a person died as a result of an act or omission of a peace officer in the course of duty."