Don Jail slaying 'could have been avoided'
The mother of a man beaten to death in Toronto's Don Jail says she is still looking for answers about why her mentally ill son was killed on the weekend.
Jeff Munro, 32, was kicked and punched to death in the cells of the jail on Saturday night, Toronto police said.
Munro's mother, Christine Munro, said his death "should have never happened and could have been avoided."
"He should never have been there," she told CBC's Mark Kelley.
Jeff Munro was homeless and had a history of mental illness and drug use. After he was arrested on Nov. 3 for allegedly violating the terms of his probation, a judge sent him to the Don Jail.
Christine Munro said her son had got into minor scrapes with the law before. She said police knew him, and they should have taken him to Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, where he had been before.
She said the centre usually called her every time her son was taken there. But the Don Jail did not call her.
"Under the circumstances that I really and truly feel that the Don Jail itself has failed me because they haven't even acknowledged it, or given me a call and I expected much more," she said.
"They didn't care. They did not care. He was just another person who was mentally ill — just one more not to worry about."
Charges don't help
Three men each face one count of first-degree murder in Munro's death: Troy Victor Campbell, 24, Osman Sarikay, 22, and Kevin Andre Veiro, 21.
But those charges have not given her any closure, she said.
"Someone is responsible for this. Someone has to be held accountable. And I don't know where to go from here," she said. "But there has to be some answers."
Jail staff found Munro with "obvious signs of trauma to his face," according to a police statement.
The cell area of the jail is not monitored by cameras because of privacy concerns but Christine Munro said she didn't know "why there wouldn't be cameras there 24/7."
An advocate for those in trouble with the law said overcrowding was a factor in Munro's death. When the Don Jail was built in the middle of the 19th century, it was designed to accommodate about 200 inmates.
Today it routinely houses close to 600 prisoners.
"If you're going to continue to having overcrowded prisons with little to no programming or services, you are going to see sad cases like we saw with Mr. Munro," said Greg Rogers, executive director of the John Howard Society.