Something Truly Depressing

When I espied this post yesterday, I was hoping to find something else, that, perhaps an editor had made a clumsy attempt to create an alluring headline.

But it wasn't.

Instructed to curtail crushing red tape, guards watched girl die in her cell

Court transcripts obtained by The Globe reveal staff instructed not to stop frequent self-asphyxiation attempts if 19-year-old was still breathing

WTF?

As Ashley Smith slowly choked herself to death at dawn in her Kitchener, Ont., prison cell, seven guards looked on because they were instructed not to intervene if the troubled federal inmate was still breathing.

Court transcripts about Ms. Smith's 2007 death, obtained by The Globe and Mail, show that prison managers were trying to curtail the reviews and paperwork triggered each time guards entered her cell to stop her frequent attempts at self-asphyxiation.

A manager testified she was pressured to reclassify incident reports so that they wouldn't be filed as “use-of-force” interventions, which require more red tape.

Jesus!!!

"So they curtail the reviews and paperwork ..."

My God, how could they be that calleous?

As you read the article, you have to wonder why this young girl was in a Federal prison, for such a light offense.

She needed medical and/or psychiatric help, not be warehoused away in a, clearly, badly run prison system.

This happened up in Canada, but someone should look into if any of the prison workers and officials are related to those scumbag judges in Pennsylvania.