N.B. teen's prison files to be released

Corrections Canada has dropped its bid to keep the personal files of a teenage inmate who killed herself under wraps.

Ashley Smith of Moncton, N.B., choked herself with a piece of cloth in October 2007 while guards, under orders not to intervene, looked on. She was 19.

The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, a non-profit advocacy group for federally sentenced women, had applied for the documents on Smith's behalf before she died in prison in Kitchener, Ont.

In April, Federal Court Justice Michael Kelen ordered the Correctional Service to hand over the nearly 300 pages of records about Smith, including numerous assessments, her transfer and violent-incident records, criminal charge sheet and documents about her "maximum" security risk classification.

He said Corrections Canada had breached the Privacy Act in not giving Smith her records. Smith's death and the subsequent RCMP investigation into the conduct of prison staff were not valid reasons to withhold the documents from the Elizabeth Fry Societies, the judge said.

Smith had complained of poor treatment by the Correctional Service, alleging an assault, lack of psychiatric care and frequent transfers among prisons and treatment facilities across Canada.

Death was 'entirely preventable'

Smith was only 13 when she was charged with minor offences and entered the youth correctional system. Over the next six years, she went from problem to problem and institution to institution.

Prison ombudsman Howard Sapers found she was moved 17 times in just 11 months. In a 2009 report, the correctional investigator criticized the prison service for failing to give Smith proper care and protection and pressed it to make changes to prevent similar tragedies.

Sapers said Smith's death was the "entirely preventable" result of a series of systemic failures.

Despite her years in the youth correctional system and her history of violence and self-harm, Smith never received a comprehensive psychological assessment in federal custody, Sapers found.

Elizabeth Fry executive director Kim Pate said she wants to see Smith's 291-page file to glean any lessons.

The prison service originally announced it would appeal Kelen's decision on the documents but quietly abandoned the challenge later.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, the cabinet member responsible for corrections, declined to comment Monday on the reasons for dropping the bid, citing a lawsuit by Smith's family that is still before the courts.

Smith's records are to be disclosed to the Elizabeth Fry Societies by Sept. 17.

A federal court order issued Monday makes it clear the files will include material from the last few months of Smith's life as well as earlier records.

"In many respects, getting this last piece of information is important because without it you couldn't paint the full picture," said lawyer Kris Klein, who represented the advocacy group in court. "You only had an incomplete picture of what had happened to her."

The Privacy Act allows individuals to request information about them held by federal agencies, including the Correctional Service.

Privacy requests are supposed to be answered within 30 days, but the service took a 30-day extension. It missed that deadline, and the request had gone unanswered when Smith died — 123 days after her initial application.  

The Correctional Service told the court such delays "happen all the time."